May God bless us in every decision and choice with the divine wisdom of creation that leans forward into life.
One of the most divisive issues within the Body of Christ is that of politics, and within politics, the issues surrounding abortion and the care and treatment of the poor and needy. Religious conservatives and liberals often seem to establish a dividing line between these two issues.
Religious conservatives are often adamantly, and sometimes tragically, campaigning and protesting on behalf of the Pro Life movement even to the point of irrationally taking life themselves. Simultaneously, religious liberals often being among the biggest advocates for programs to support the poor and needy can seem dismissive of any responsibility to help a pregnant teen with the resources to give birth to her child.
What is most frustrating is that all of this is such an arbitrary division of religious ethic that we must deem it more about politics than faith. It is a division with more than enough sin evident on all sides and that is exactly what we would expect of a people who are saints and sinners.
Often to be Pro Life seems to be more Pro Birth than Pro Life. Far too often those who are Pro Life seem identified with a politic that makes few provisions to secure the health and welfare of a child once it is born. It is, frequently, a politic that embraces a sense of moral satisfaction in eliminating all legal forms of abortion, increasingly by including no exceptions, not even for rape or the health of the mother. I have regularly heard this view often excuse itself from the responsibility of providing for the child once born by promoting statements demanding personal accountability. To the opposite extreme there are liberal factions within the church that appear to give little or no expression of concern for the unborn but insist on a maximal amount of aid to the child living in poverty (Proverbs 22, James 2 and many, many others). They fervently defend the right of individual choice seemingly believing there are no consequences in choosing to terminate a pregnancy. Each side seems to wash its hands of a portion of being Christ to the least of these (Matt 25).
How can either group believe that they are fully embracing a Christ like attitude towards life and towards their neighbor?
In other words, there is plenty of sin within the saints, left and right, as they politicize themselves around this issue. What each and all must recognize and embrace is that there are consequences all along the way with every human action. Consequences in the choice of personal relationships, consequences with the decision to engage in sex and in unprotected sex, consequences related to the use and choice of birth control, consequences with being pregnant, with choosing to carry a child to term or to terminate a pregnancy, consequences with denying safe, legal abortions and forcing those struggling with terminating a pregnancy to resort to back alley conditions with or without medical professionals, consequences in placing a child up for adoption or in raising it oneself in less than ideal financial conditions, consequences in cutting budgets for health care for children in poverty, cutting funds to W.I.C. and cutting support programs for women and children with inadequate resources, consequences in closing school meal programs, consequences in eliminating educational options and increasing the likelihood of another life trapped in poverty, consequences EVERYWHERE, and EVERY step of the way; consequences not just for mother and child and father, and grandparents and communities, consequences in crime and other social ills. There are consequences for everyone. There are consequences for you and for me. Those consequences can produce death at any step or any decision along the way, not just in the purging of a womb and not just in whether a child in poverty makes it to the emergency room or lives in conditions inadequate for abundant life.
I, myself, am pro choice with fear and trembling. I am only Pro Choice because I cannot imagine dictating to another person of conscience what they will or must do when faced with the scope of those life choices and the consequences of every additional choice along the journey of their life nor can I imagine imprisoning them for what to me is already an unimaginable choice when it is made in the honest struggle of conscience.
In being Pro Choice, however, I am not excused as a Christian from doing everything I can to help that pregnant young woman or that mother of four already living in poverty have as many resources, financial and personal, as needed to bring a pregnancy to full term and the successful birth of a child. A child who I am, also, obligated, personally, to personally help support with the resources for becoming a thriving fellow saint who, also, embraces the consequences of each decision that affects every other decision made in Christ. I embrace the decision that costs me everything, the decision that costs me my life and gives me the life Christ has purchased for me. I embrace the decision to follow Christ. At the same time, unlike Christ I am a finite human being with finite resources and that makes it all horribly complicated and difficult and tied up in my struggle against sin. I am saint and sinner.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that grace was costly because it takes away all our sinful ways of seeing and living and calls us to living as Christ. And so, I become an enigma like the pacifist Bonhoeffer plotting the assassination of Hitler and I go forward working to make sure every child is wanted, and that every child has the best opportunity to be born AND live AND grow in health and abundance and yet still believe so firmly in God's grace that I can leave to others the consequences of their decisions knowing God's grace is sufficient even for the unborn because God has known me and them even before we were formed in the womb. God's grace is not an excuse for sloppiness in our decisions and choices but it is sufficient in all things.
One of the most divisive issues within the Body of Christ is that of politics, and within politics, the issues surrounding abortion and the care and treatment of the poor and needy. Religious conservatives and liberals often seem to establish a dividing line between these two issues.
Religious conservatives are often adamantly, and sometimes tragically, campaigning and protesting on behalf of the Pro Life movement even to the point of irrationally taking life themselves. Simultaneously, religious liberals often being among the biggest advocates for programs to support the poor and needy can seem dismissive of any responsibility to help a pregnant teen with the resources to give birth to her child.
What is most frustrating is that all of this is such an arbitrary division of religious ethic that we must deem it more about politics than faith. It is a division with more than enough sin evident on all sides and that is exactly what we would expect of a people who are saints and sinners.
Often to be Pro Life seems to be more Pro Birth than Pro Life. Far too often those who are Pro Life seem identified with a politic that makes few provisions to secure the health and welfare of a child once it is born. It is, frequently, a politic that embraces a sense of moral satisfaction in eliminating all legal forms of abortion, increasingly by including no exceptions, not even for rape or the health of the mother. I have regularly heard this view often excuse itself from the responsibility of providing for the child once born by promoting statements demanding personal accountability. To the opposite extreme there are liberal factions within the church that appear to give little or no expression of concern for the unborn but insist on a maximal amount of aid to the child living in poverty (Proverbs 22, James 2 and many, many others). They fervently defend the right of individual choice seemingly believing there are no consequences in choosing to terminate a pregnancy. Each side seems to wash its hands of a portion of being Christ to the least of these (Matt 25).
How can either group believe that they are fully embracing a Christ like attitude towards life and towards their neighbor?
In other words, there is plenty of sin within the saints, left and right, as they politicize themselves around this issue. What each and all must recognize and embrace is that there are consequences all along the way with every human action. Consequences in the choice of personal relationships, consequences with the decision to engage in sex and in unprotected sex, consequences related to the use and choice of birth control, consequences with being pregnant, with choosing to carry a child to term or to terminate a pregnancy, consequences with denying safe, legal abortions and forcing those struggling with terminating a pregnancy to resort to back alley conditions with or without medical professionals, consequences in placing a child up for adoption or in raising it oneself in less than ideal financial conditions, consequences in cutting budgets for health care for children in poverty, cutting funds to W.I.C. and cutting support programs for women and children with inadequate resources, consequences in closing school meal programs, consequences in eliminating educational options and increasing the likelihood of another life trapped in poverty, consequences EVERYWHERE, and EVERY step of the way; consequences not just for mother and child and father, and grandparents and communities, consequences in crime and other social ills. There are consequences for everyone. There are consequences for you and for me. Those consequences can produce death at any step or any decision along the way, not just in the purging of a womb and not just in whether a child in poverty makes it to the emergency room or lives in conditions inadequate for abundant life.
I, myself, am pro choice with fear and trembling. I am only Pro Choice because I cannot imagine dictating to another person of conscience what they will or must do when faced with the scope of those life choices and the consequences of every additional choice along the journey of their life nor can I imagine imprisoning them for what to me is already an unimaginable choice when it is made in the honest struggle of conscience.
In being Pro Choice, however, I am not excused as a Christian from doing everything I can to help that pregnant young woman or that mother of four already living in poverty have as many resources, financial and personal, as needed to bring a pregnancy to full term and the successful birth of a child. A child who I am, also, obligated, personally, to personally help support with the resources for becoming a thriving fellow saint who, also, embraces the consequences of each decision that affects every other decision made in Christ. I embrace the decision that costs me everything, the decision that costs me my life and gives me the life Christ has purchased for me. I embrace the decision to follow Christ. At the same time, unlike Christ I am a finite human being with finite resources and that makes it all horribly complicated and difficult and tied up in my struggle against sin. I am saint and sinner.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that grace was costly because it takes away all our sinful ways of seeing and living and calls us to living as Christ. And so, I become an enigma like the pacifist Bonhoeffer plotting the assassination of Hitler and I go forward working to make sure every child is wanted, and that every child has the best opportunity to be born AND live AND grow in health and abundance and yet still believe so firmly in God's grace that I can leave to others the consequences of their decisions knowing God's grace is sufficient even for the unborn because God has known me and them even before we were formed in the womb. God's grace is not an excuse for sloppiness in our decisions and choices but it is sufficient in all things.
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