Legislating Life October 6, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : Life , trackbackI was lying in bed a few minutes ago & thinking about this upcoming election & our government. Oddly enough I found myself contemplating abortion. Now would be a good time to state two things. First of, mom, I?m not trying to tell you something. Second, for everyone, I?m quite possibly going to offend you at some point here, but I ask only one thing of you before you delete your bookmark. That one thing is that you finish reading (& perhaps even pay attention) to the rest of my post. If you are unwilling or unable to do that then I refer you here where you can find plenty of sites that are less troublesome.
Now where were we? Ah yes, abortion. While I was lying in bed I realized that I believed that abortion should be legal. I?ll wait a second for you to process that?. Ready? Then let us go back to the beginning?.
I?m pro-life and that is unlikely to ever change, however the idea of making a law to back this view has never really intuitively clicked with me. However, now I think I can explain why. As an editorial comment, there was more to this argument in the original hand-written draft of this, and if anyone would like I can try to explain it sometime via some analog means, however the time difference between when I originally wrote it & now are such that I find myself unable to convey it well in a way that won?t make some people immediately tune me out(something about writing late at night when you?ve been pulled in too many directions recently, complex abstract concepts are hard to nail down in any clean fashion), which would be bad since I?ve not hit the important parts of my reasoning. It is safe to say that few laws (and an anti-abortion law would be included here) are 100% enforceable, which is to say every person who breaks it will be caught & dealt with accordingly. So I tried to consider this from the perspective of a young woman who has recently discovered that she is pregnant (not easy considering how little I apparently know of women). I find myself facing this quite probably alone & am probably trying to keep it a secret. I don?t think I have the money or the ability to provide for a child by myself and I?ve no help to deal with this. But I also live in a society that has outlawed abortions. Afraid to say anything, I decide to risk an abortion & manage to not get caught (and the garage-based abortion ?clinic? doesn?t kill me either). I am the only one who knows but often time one person knowing is too many & a pain that I can?t discuss eats at me.
I suppose laws are nice, they let you view the world in black & white, good and evil, us and them. You know who they are? sinners. We stay away from them. Sound familiar? If you ever went to Sunday school as a child, it should. That makes us the Pharisees that Jesus spoke out against, not exactly a good thing. What if Christians worked at abortion clinics? Again, I?ll wait for you to process that?. What if the energy spent fighting a thing on a national level were poured into getting to know a person and be there for them when times weren?t quite so rosy, when quite frankly, they screw up.
Now I write this as a hypocrite (please tell me you didn?t just discard everything I?ve said). I talk & talk about what Christians should be doing, while amidst the shambles of my self-destructive life. I sit here as someone who knows the truth and has deliberately turned away from it. I?ve probably not said a real prayer in several weeks, and perhaps not for weeks before that one. Certainly since that time I?ve done things specifically because I knew they were wrong, but I wanted to thumb my nose at God (and writing all this is unfortunately not likely to change that fact). So is it logic dictating that making the symptoms of a disease illegal won?t cure it? Or perhaps despite my intentions to the contrary, God isn?t quite so willing to turn his back on me. Perhaps there is some bigger picture I?m too numb to see that makes outlawing abortion make sense. I don?t know but as I scratched at my whiskery chin tonight, this is what I?ve found myself to believe.
Comments»
what no comments yet? still pondering. I guess thats probably a good thing
I think the ones to comment need to be the ones who have lost a child before they have gotten to meet him or her. I am glad it was never an option in my life as I would have missed out on learning about love. I remember a time when I thought that there was no way I could have another child because how could I possible share this love that I have for the one who is here now. As for hanging with Jesus - he’ll be there when you are ready with welcome arms.