The Church, Abortion and “Law and Order”
Oct 28
I don’t watch television much. Usually because I like movies. Most movies have closure after watching it for 1.5 to 2 hours, and often they don’t have make a bunch of sequels. In regular television it can take months for characters to develop (depending on the audiences reception) and many shows have themes that run for years. For instance if you watch “Lost” you best watch the first season before the second. Or I was a “Heroes” fan the first season but missed about half of the second season and I am so far lost now, that none of the characters seem to be the same at all.
However I do watch Law and Order and even though there some character development the plot of each episode is usually separate from the episode before, it makes it easier to follow and even when new Assistant D.A’s or cops come, it does leave you with such a whopping hole that you have to rent the previous seasons to follow it. So if you watched it in 05 you can watch it in 09 and not feel lost. However, this is not about which shows to watch per se.
In the last Law and Order (the original not the spinoffs) they tackled the issue of abortion. An abortion doctor was murdered by a “fanatic” (you can read the plot here) and now a lawyer is using the “protection of a life” defense to get him off. I don’t want to spoil it or not but let me tell you it was a very passionate episode, even though I know it was acting it really stirred something up in me. I began to ask am I thinking about this issue in a way that reflects the mind of Christ.
What is the mind of Christ on this issue? I don’t know. What would Jesus do, comes into play here like never before. As a Christian this little human is a life. I believe in life at conception, conceptually, theologically and even practically. None of those are my issues. My issue is how to respond to a government that allows abortion on demand.
I put the picture above for a reason. Many people make the argument that slavery and abortion are one in the same. Both have grossly misinterpreted what human life is and what right to life means. I am pretty convinced that this is true. Much like Africans who were considered subhuman by the government to give other humans the green light to perpetrate and perpetuate some of the most grievous atrocities the unborn have now been attached to this label to allow the same mistreatment. The tenure of the mistreatment is irrelevant (slavery for 100 years or murder in 30 minutes) the mistreatment is still the same.
So that moves me into my current dilemma. Since I have been given freedoms in this country, how should I respond? I know one way definitely is to support clinics who give their sweat, blood and tears to prevent these deaths, through ultrasounds, literature, adoption assistance and prenatal care. That is a no-brainier. But there is another freedom and option and that is the right to vote and help candidates that share my conviction and that is where I get tripped up. Do I support a candidate like Obama and other men who support pro-choice but who have convictions that I might share? Do I support a Bush who shares convictions I have on issues of pro-life but are way off on other issues? Am I obligated to support local, region and state politicians who are pro-life? Or should I stay away from this at all and pursue the kingdom.
The choice is hard because the scriptures don’t give me answer. I know I am not to depend upon this worlds systems to fix the world ills; however, what about slavery and the abolition of it? Men and women risked their lives to get the government to overturn its position on Africans and life and I am very grateful to them for their sacrifice, should I now take the freedoms they died for and squander them because I don’t want to get involved in politics?
Do I owe it to the unborn to fight on my knees, with my dollars and with my ballot? And I ain’t bringing in the issue of the health and safety of the mother or the welfare of the child (this is tough, would a child never want to be born if they had the mental faculties to make that decision, is it even their right to make that choice as they are owned by God). I am praying for direction on this very issue, its a tough one, many Christians believe it is our duty to protest outside of clinics, to vote for politicians who are “anti-abortion” (pro-life for me includes our enemies and criminal) and to storm Capital Hill every year to end Roe vs. Wade. Whats your thoughts?
BLD
I do wonder, though, as to whether or not the issue of being profiled was something that was a FAR LESSER issue than having it as it was where a white cop could harrass a black man’s wife and that man could only sit there/watch due to fear that the cop would harm him since the law was not on his side. Personally, I’m kind of glad I can go into stores where I was not allowed before….and if they get mad, my mindset is “What THEN??!! Say something…Please!!”—as folks can stare. At least they cannot keep you from buying the clothes…though they can raise issue when it comes to certain clothing being for “whites” only like what happened with Tommy Hilfigure in the 90′s—as a whole lot of blacks went on strike/refused to buy his clothes (good as they were) because he said they were primarily for white people.
Lesser good verses greater goods, I suppose….
Shalom, L
Cool. Would have written it shorter (as I was trying best to)–but it’s the best I could do in explaining where I was coming from. Pray it makes sense, Bruh.