Friday, May 04, 2007
Babies...
I have never been for unfettered access to abortion; however, in my younger years, I did hold it was reasonable under special circumstances. As I aged, I grew to change that opinion, and while I understand the common conservative political creedo of, "except in cases of rape and incest" my heart wants not even those. Now some dozen years into a childless marriage the reality of abortion can reduce me an emotional mixture of utter dismay and total rage.
The Point wrote of two stories. One was Chuck Colson comparing and contrasting two "family" stories and the other the German infanticide story. I am not sure I have a point in this post, it is mostly catharsis.
I am struck by how very primal the urge to child rearing is. My wife and I's discoveries and subsequent decisions are many years in the past, and yet the emotional impact of those events and decisions are nearly as fresh and powerful as if the events were today. Despite the fact that we are of grandparently age (something that factored heavily in our decision making process) the longing and drive to reproduce and parent is an everpresent reality for us. Narry a week goes by that we do not have at least a brief discussion in which we reconsider and reaffirm where we have been and what we have done.
People who willingly and violently set aside that most primal of urges have lost touch with their essential humanity. I do not know how else to think of it. Set aside all arguments "when life begins" and pain and all the rest - abortion, or worse infanticide, is an act that denies the most fundamental substance of who we are created to be. It is niether selfishness or selflessness, it is some sort of attempt to be other than we are.
When I consider my own pain in all of this, the rage that I feel at the "idea" of abortion turns to pity. People that do so are so lost, so departed, so deeply fallen into the depths of a sinful state, that I fear for them like I fear for no other sinner. They are damaged in a fashion that I know no earthly power can repair.
Political efforts to end abortion cannot correct this essential reality - that does not mean they are not an important impediment to the slide into such depravation - but it does mean they are not the final answer. I am increasingly convinced we need to append our political efforts with ministry efforts, not just to those that are considering abortion, but to those that have had them. Theirs is a special and unique burden.
Related Tags: abortion, infanticide, sin, politics, ministry
The Point wrote of two stories. One was Chuck Colson comparing and contrasting two "family" stories and the other the German infanticide story. I am not sure I have a point in this post, it is mostly catharsis.
I am struck by how very primal the urge to child rearing is. My wife and I's discoveries and subsequent decisions are many years in the past, and yet the emotional impact of those events and decisions are nearly as fresh and powerful as if the events were today. Despite the fact that we are of grandparently age (something that factored heavily in our decision making process) the longing and drive to reproduce and parent is an everpresent reality for us. Narry a week goes by that we do not have at least a brief discussion in which we reconsider and reaffirm where we have been and what we have done.
People who willingly and violently set aside that most primal of urges have lost touch with their essential humanity. I do not know how else to think of it. Set aside all arguments "when life begins" and pain and all the rest - abortion, or worse infanticide, is an act that denies the most fundamental substance of who we are created to be. It is niether selfishness or selflessness, it is some sort of attempt to be other than we are.
When I consider my own pain in all of this, the rage that I feel at the "idea" of abortion turns to pity. People that do so are so lost, so departed, so deeply fallen into the depths of a sinful state, that I fear for them like I fear for no other sinner. They are damaged in a fashion that I know no earthly power can repair.
Political efforts to end abortion cannot correct this essential reality - that does not mean they are not an important impediment to the slide into such depravation - but it does mean they are not the final answer. I am increasingly convinced we need to append our political efforts with ministry efforts, not just to those that are considering abortion, but to those that have had them. Theirs is a special and unique burden.
Related Tags: abortion, infanticide, sin, politics, ministry
