Saturday, September 15, 2007

god is pro-choice


Watching the news tonight - there's a story about a Planned Parenthood opening in my city. It's a large state-of-the-art facility that provides services to women and families. And yes, in some cases, abortions.

Of course the story turns to the protesters. Protesters who walk up and down the sidewalks - circling the building seven times (a Biblical reference, of course). Some wearing t-shirts, lots carrying signs, and a few carrying crosses. The vast majority of protesters - Christians. Wearing Jesus shirts, carrying crosses, reciting prayers and creeds...

"Abortion is homicide."
"Life begins at conception."

Nothing that anyone reading this hasn't heard before.

The protesters have succeeded, thus far, in hindering the opening of the facility - a facility that rightfully and legally applied to the city, and been granted, the approval to build the structure and occupy it. Now, due to these protesters, the city has put the opening of the facility on hold pending more investigation of whether or not paperwork was filed correctly.

Planned Parenthood - the organization that strikes fear and anger in the hearts of Christians everywhere. Yet Planned Parenthood is not, and has never been, synonymous with abortion. The organization provides services including STD testing, sexual health resources and education, pregnancy testing, pap smears, birth control and yes, abortions.

I know the facts - I know that Planned Parenthood facilities perform approximately 17% of the total US abortions performed each year. And I also know there are approximately 1.2 million abortions in this country each year.

A point of contention for me is that I do not believe that all abortions are evil and wrong. I have to leave room for extreme health circumstances. But I firmly believe that abortion is not a form of birth control. And it shouldn't be treated that way.

So, all of that said. I'm just simply infuriated by "Christians" who protest these clinics. To them I wish I could convey how some of the rest of the world feel when we see these ridiculous protests that benefit no one. They don't save lives. Protests haven't resulted in any marked difference in the number of abortions performed in our country. And protests haven't resulted in a difference in the number Planned Parenthood performs.

There is no measurable result of your holier-than-thou protests. There is no measurable result coming from your marching, your chanting and your arrogant and ignorant dissent.

These people really do practice what is a huge turnoff to me: ala carte Christianity. They pick and choose which portions of The Bible they use to condemn and judge others. In one breath, they chose to become Christians - to follow God, to surrender their lives. But the very next breath condemns choices that others make - using that same free will.

You see, I believe, very firmly God is pro-choice.

That's right - I'll say it again - GOD IS PRO CHOICE.

And how can I believe this?

Get two post its - label one YES and the other NO. Then think about a decision you have to make.

If God didn't want us to have a choice - the only post-it that would be out - when you're looking at any decision would be just the YES or just the NO. No choice. You are only given the option God wants you to have.

We have free-will We are GRANTED free-will.. And you, Mr./Mrs. Protester, can't have it both ways. You can't believe and profess that God has granted man free-will and be anything other than pro-choice.

[if you'd like to argue free will - here's my thoughts: Throughout the Bible, God continuously instructs mankind to make righteous decisions through free-will. Yet these protesters misinterpret a few verses to arrive at the false idea that mankind does not have free will to do good or make righteous decisions. If you need a few reminders on God's giving man free will, check out Deuteronomy 30:11-19, John 14:15; John 15:7; Romans 2:10; 1 Cor 9:24; 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 2:21 and 1 John 5:1.]

If God were not pro-choice - then there'd be no options. God has the ability to completely take away the ability to take away a choice. He has the actual ability to remove one of those post its. And as humans, we are in no position to do or think or say otherwise.

Either God granted man free-will or not. You can't have it both ways. Either God grants free-will and allows there to be a choice, or not.

Why not set aside your signs and your t-shirts and stop your chanting and get involved with the women who have one of the 1.2 million abortions each year? Why? Because you won't get news coverage for that. You don't get cool matching t-shirts that say "Choose relationships." You don't get to make signs, carry them around and be seen. You don't get to end your day getting high fives from 20 other people who stood next to you.

No, instead you'd have to make a difference in someone's life, one on one. You'd have to set aside your warped and tunneled view of what and who belongs next to you on Sunday morning - or who you choose to spend time with instead of you ladies circle or church softball team. You'd actually have to do something measurable for a real-life-person.

But instead, you choose to carry your signs, march and complain about how unfair it is that the rest of the world has choices.

I find that disturbingly ironic.

And simply because you, Mr./Mrs.Protester believe it's in your hands to pick and choose which portions of grace you pass onto others, God gets to freely choose. And so do I.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, God has given us free will, but he gave it to us with the expectation that by using our free will, we will show whether we love God and want to continue in relationship with Him or whether we love evil and would prefer not to have a relationship with God. We make the choice as to whether we will go to heaven or hell--do we love God, or do we love something else more than God. And God tells us which way to choose when it comes to life:
[Deu 30:19-20] I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.

Anonymous said...

How can Anonymous speak to what God's expectations are? I'm always amazed by how the bible verse quoters always seem to also "know" just exactly what God meant, expects, thinks, etc. Wow!! And stupid me walks around every day just trying to figure out stupid stuff like why people who profess to love and follow God so ardently seem far more interested in self righteous judgement and hypocritical hatefulness than any type of care and concern for others. Why they are so apparently unable to even consider that not all issues are black and white; people not simply good or evil. Life and relationships always seem much more complex than that to me. (Possibly because I actually think about them, and then actually try to imagine myself in other people's shoes.) Why they have no doubts regarding their "moral superiority". Unfortunately, having experienced this amazing kind of Christian love and concern in various hurtful and disturbing ways throughout childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, I was only too happy to give up religion for good. If these lovely folks are really representative of God's love and concern for us, then thanks, but I'd rather go to hell.

Anonymous said...

Even if you take religion out of the picture, abortion just seems like a stupid thing to do. I have a friend who I got into a conversation with. She was explaining all the reason on why she thinks abortions are right. One of her reason was that abortions are right because she was born first, she has the option whether or not her child is aborted. I looked over at an old man sitting on a bench and laughed. I responded saying, "So it would be perfectly ok for that old man to walk right over to you and kill you just because he was born first?" Then she stared at me dumbly. Seriously, think about it, we are killing babies because they make our life harder? Sounds a little self-centered. We are simply killing off our future just for our own pleasure. Sounds like a great idea, right? And for Mr. Anonymous 2... this choice is black and white. Are you really going to murder the most innocent creature on this Earth or are you going to man-up and take on some responsibility? You don't need to follow religion to know abortion is dumb.

bigb said...

The choice IS black and white.

Either you choose evil/death=hell
or love of God/life=heaven.

THERE is no in-between/gray area.

You are right in that the protesters should be educating and not just marching.