The truth is
the Christian Right most certainly does
want to punish women that have abortions. They are murderers, in some ways even
more guilty than the doctors who perform the abortions. The dodgy answers I've
seen over the past couple of days are pretty surprising. Exercises in sophistry,
they mock both the civil law and the moral foundation upon which is stands.
Now, I can
say that and mean it and yet at the same time also acknowledge that a pagan
society (of which all societies and nations apart from the Church are) will
always be guilty of such sins. It's not something we're going to 'fix' in This
Age. Our job is denounce their sin and to proclaim the truth of the Gospel. The
world will find this offensive and because we reject their Babel project they
will call us evildoers. Our goals in such proclamations are not political.
We're not here to take over the reins of Babylon nor do we call upon Babylon to
right our wrongs or somehow help us in building the Kingdom.
Some versions
of Babylon will be more moral than others but in the end they all degenerate
into Bestial powers.
It's not
politically expedient to focus on women seeking abortions. This is viewed as an
attack on women. The Anti-Abortion/Pro-Life faction has tried to seize the
political narrative by supposedly caring about women's health. This is part of
the lie in their big push to introduce stricter standards in abortion clinics.
These people didn't care about 'standards', it is simply a back-door way to
undermine the law and destroy it through other means. Those same women (often
minorities) who keep their babies are then subjected to castigation and attack
as they are unable to make ends meet and more often than not end up on
government subsidies and trapped in poverty. This does not excuse abortion but
it demonstrates the Pro-Life movement does not really care about the mothers or
the children who soon after become social and political enemies or at the very
least are viewed as social liabilities. Their concerns for the unborn are
political and rooted in controlling the national narrative.
To the
Pro-Life movement the end justifies the means but they should be careful. Such
manipulations of law undermine its character, subjectivise it and when the
tables are turned you can expect the same to fall on you.
I have no
interest in going after women who have abortions and locking them up in jail
but the Christian Right has always been clear this is also their goal. When
women try to perform home abortions and either injure or kill the baby they are
often charged with endangerment, murder or attempted murder. And this was
certainly approved, or at least it was in the past. If abortion is to be viewed
as a crime, then women who seek it are at the very least complicit or
accessories.
I don't
think there's a lot of honesty here. Instead the goal is to defeat Trump and if
a little dishonesty and lack of transparency helps to bring him down the people
that were once the so-called 'Moral Majority' are more than happy to do it.
Once again,
politics corrupts the testimony of the Church and gives occasion for the Lord's
enemies to blaspheme.
If Cruz had
any integrity, he would stand up and proclaim the Dominionism that he seems to
quietly hold, the same that his father so plainly teaches and would stand with
Trump in affirming the statement.
But
integrity is a quality lacking in any candidate for president. You simply
cannot climb to that level while maintaining it. They are serpents and vipers
to be sure. The fact that so many Christians are lining up behind Cruz or Trump
because of the supposed fact that 'he tells it like it is' or due to some kind
of perceived 'integrity' is both humorous and tragic.
For the reasons you specified in your fifth paragraph, I've always been suspicious of the Pro-Life movement and whether there's an ulterior motive to their activism.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's rooted in what you refer to as "controlling the national narrative" or, more simply, control. I think you're onto something here but the idea needs to be fleshed out a bit more.
On a related note, didn't you say in one of your older posts that if the issue of an unplanned pregnancy emerges in even a conservative Reformed congregation, the elders will quietly advise the pregnant girl or woman to get an abortion for the sake of saving face? If I recall correctly you bore witness to something like this happening personally. Correct me if I'm wrong.
A.P.
I'm not sure if I said it was a Reformed congregation. I'd have to think about that but I know certainly of Evangelical instances, personally and secondhand. There are quite a few attestations to this in the literature as well. I don't know how it common it is but it does happen and I think prior to the political aspect which came to the fore in the 1980s it was a bit more common. I don't know think there's a formal study or anything but there a lot of people that have testified to this.
ReplyDeleteObviously I'm totally against abortion as is every Christian. I just don't think the Pro-Life and Right wing are concerned as much about abortion as they are about its political value. And every time an election comes around if you back Evangelicals into a corner over Right wing candidates they will always pull out the abortion trump card. Basically that one issue has to steer your political decision. The deaths caused by Right wing policies are disqualified from consideration because they are legitimated or in most cases denied.
I agree with much of what you are saying. I am very interested in what you believe is the proper way for a Christian to react to abortion.
ReplyDeleteLandtiller,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what you mean by react.
Abortion is sin and murder. We can't equivocate on that point.
The question is... are we to try and take over the government and force lost people to reckon with this issue (and a host of others) on our terms? And then if they don't, since we hold the reins of government, should we inflict violence on them through the police and courts?
I would say absolutely not and for a host of reasons that extend far beyond this particular question.
I think we need to be loud and clear about what abortion is but then continue to witness through Word and deed... showing love and kindness to the orphan and widow, to the downtrodden. And yet primarily our focus is Word-based and witness-based.
In a sense I'm saying, let the dead bury their dead. I know that sounds cold but at the end of the day we're not going to eradicate the curse. We can 'reach out' and do what we can to save lives but if we divorce those efforts from the political struggle it takes on a very different hue. Rather than trying to punish the heathen, shut down their businesses, wrest people away from them to score points... and then throw them aside if they're poor and destitute. Rather, we can work to bring goodness and the love of God in a selfless way rather than a self-interested way.
I don't know if that helps are not or if I'm making sense to you.