I sat down at lunch with some Shimerian friends of mine and we began to talk as we always do. I can't begin to say what brought up the discussion, but we began talking about contraceptives and abortion. This being almost a non-issue since we all agreed on where we stood about these things, we began talking about the absurdity of anti-choice. Let me be clear that I hate abortion, I would just as soon eliminate it from the universe, but unfortunately I don't think legislating against it will do us any good. History has shown us that when you take something away from people who are accustomed to having something, they're only going to go against the laws in order to have it anyway (Prohibition Act of 1920, illegalization of Marijuana). The real solution to abortion is to be a people who lovingly come alongside women who are contemplating abortion, who have just had an abortion, and also women who don't know what to think. Love is key, and frankly, is the most absent virtue among Christians. I would go so far as to say manipulation and politics-based-on-ignorance are the two most common things you'll find in the Church. That's a pretty sad state of affairs, my friends. I can't understand why messages from the pulpit are all about G-d's love for the sinner who may yet come to know Perfect Love, but what do Christians do when things don't go the way they think they should? They whine and moan about it to politicians instead of crying out to G-d for a Kingdom-minded solution.
Regardless, this blog entry is not about my dissatisfaction with the Church. It's a pretty safe bet that if there's an issue the Church is upset about, I'm upset at the Church for the way they're handling it.
What really struck me was that our conversation turned to how the rationale is that pregnancy is the natural consequence of having sex without using contraceptives. That's pretty much a no-brainer, I have yet to see any scientific data that proves the Natural Family Planning Method works (trying to guestimate when your partner is least fertile as the ideal time to have sex). We started talking about the narrative that goes a little something like this, "You have sex, you need to take responsibility for your actions". The implication being that if you get pregnant you're responsibility is to the unborn child. There's a much more sinister implication that the child is a punishment for having sex.
As someone who looks forward to one day being a father, I think anyone who use a child as a punishment is seriously messed up in the head. I don't care how important personal responsibility is to you. A child is a child, a gift from G-d, and under no circumstances should we ever use these little human beings as punishments. To those who would insist on this misguided idea of responsibility, I have to ask, "Just what the hell is wrong with you?" It's bad enough that you think sex has to be punished (another evil implication by the rationale of anti-choice doctrine), but then to use children- who you are supposedly trying to protect, as a weapon of punishment (and ultimately it's backdoor slut-shaming) is morally wrong and despicable.
It's time to stop playing the games of worldly politics and reactionary rhetoric, we must fall to our knees and ask G-d for solutions to these problems, with Love as our first response. It's hard, Love is not an easy thing to do especially when we've been doing the contrary for so many years. I'm just as equally guilty of this. Even now, I struggle to practice Love towards people who upset me with their backwards thinking. It's time to withdraw from the political debate and start a revolution of Love and compassion.
O Lord, how long, Lord?
James
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