Abortion is Mean?
I was pretty hesitant to write this article, because I'm convinced the blog world has no place for journaling and confessions. The blog world shouldn't be a place of relationship, its instead a place of ideas and we share our ideas in an impersonal and disconnected way, and we talk about them as though its of extreme importance, but we all know that real life happens when we are looking at each other.
All that to say I'm going to be fairly confessional for a moment. My family has been in some measure of disarray for a bit because my Aunt found out that she was pregnant with a child who had down syndrome. More so, my Aunt was at risk in the pregnancy, and thus they were forced to choose between risking the death of my aunt, leaving my baby cousin and Uncle alone, or having an abortion. The other day they had an abortion. The little boy died 5 months before he entered a very hard a cruel place, much less comforting then the womb of my Aunt.
After I found out the news I walked down a path at school and saw a girl wearing a sweatshirt that said "Abortion is mean." I had a sudden urge to tackle her into the bushes, or to say, "You don't know people's stories. The last thing someone who is having an abortion needs is some self-righteous evangelical telling them they are mean." But I walked on in a melancholy and nodded hello to her. I'm sure she means well.
Suddenly it occured to me- when we get to touch and smell real suffering, ours or someone else's, all catagories break down. Suddenly, the distinction between pro-life and pro-choice, no longer matter. Ethics breaks down, theology breaks down, politics breaks down, and we are left with a cruel realization that this world is messed up, and we have no choice but to just hold on for dear life, love the best we can, and hope that we find the pearly gates to be filled with a good measure of grace.
posted by Daniel Leonard @ 9:39 AM
2 Comments:
Mr. Leonard,
I certainly understand your emotional reaction to the pious advertising of the Eastern student.
I hope, however, that you avoid the temptation to surrender to a more-pious nihilism. There are times when we all feel like throwing up our hands and screaming "the world is fucked," but I don't see why we should stay there.
In terms of abortion, you are right to say theoretical debates never capture the reality of the situation, but I don't think that means we shouldn't have those debates - or that they don't matter.
Consider abortion, it is one thing to say that abortion is necessary when you have to weigh the life of a mother against the life of a child. It is quite another when the choice is between measuring the "choice" of the mother against the life of a child. (This, after all, is the foundation of Roe v. Wade, which found a right to abortion not to save mothers, but to protect the "privacy" of women)
It matters, I think, whether or not you have a presuption for the life of a child or not. So I have to respectfully disagree with you that the fact that we aren't all-wise exempts us from the business of theology, politics, and ethics.
Menno,
You are probably right. But you need to understand I'm reacting to the girl who wore an "abortion is mean" sweatshirt and who I felt like tossing into the bushes. Sure theology probably matters, as does ethics, politics, and a whole other realm of ideas. But ideas need to hit the ground, and when they do they should be under the understanding that they are an attempt to understand how to love better and how to bring the righteousness (mishpat) of God to the earth.
My point has to do more with the oversimplification of how we deal with suffering. We need to allow ourselves to say "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" After all, Jesus said it.
So to wave a sign in front of my aunt is to disgrace the community of God. Its self-righteous nothingness, and if I have to be nihilistic to avoid that then so be it.
When you see three young amish girls get shot, there is nothing to say but "this world is fucked." And I'll say it again and again until I die. Certainly there is also beauty, and glimpses of the kingdom of God, but until the fulfillment of that kingdom- the world is ultimately fucked up. And as I look at Iraq, Darfur, the violence of Philadelphia, the death of three Amish girls, or the abortion my Aunt had, I have no catagory to place this all in except the catagory of "Holy shit I don't know what to do with all this suffering."
The debate matters, but it should never replace love, grace, and an admittance to the tremendous paradoxes and ambiguities that consume our world. I appreciate your comments.
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