I taught my children the
Word of God, and that they should think for themselves. Although it
was a surprise, it was perfectly in character for my daughter to slap
a Gary Johnson sticker on the back of her car in 2012. Since Gary
announced his candidacy recently, I expect to see another one on her
second car. If my younger daughter had a car, she'd probably put
something like, "When you speak, I always here 'Punch me in the
face,' but it's usually subtext." She's wordy like that, and
hates politics.
Why do some people assume
that because Person A supports Option A, that it automatically puts
Person A into Catagory C? All my life, this kind of muddled thinking
has frustrated me. Since the 1980s, which was the last time any idiot
shot an abortionist, someone has tried to tell me how stupid I was to
support the Pro-Life cause. The person(s) telling me this just
assumed that I was going to go out and shoot an abortion doctor
because I happen to confess Jesus as Lord in my life.
First of all, labels are
lazy shortcuts that let people get angry without thinking.
Second, every person has to
determine in his or her own heart and mind whether to believe
anything. Smart people avoid blanket statements.
Third, very few people,
even among Christians, actually know what the Bible says about most
subjects. Even if they can quote something, most forsake context and
the most basic principles of research.
Fourth, it behooves the
Christian to study and to follow those who have worked even more
diligently to unlock what God said. God did not give His Word in
English, so we each need to learn Aramaic and study Classical Greek
to find out what God really said.
Abortion is a complicated
subject, but the loudest people reduce it to slogans and support
politicians who agree with the slogans. Slogans circumvent thinking.
That's why I hate labels. Forget labels and think about the words
themselves. Everyone should be pro-life, because we all have a right
to live. We should all be pro-choice, even if the choices of others
disagree with the choices we ourselves would make. (For instance,
while I agree with many Libertarian ideals, I will not be voting for
Gary Johnson.)
Just because I am pro-life
does not mean that I disagree with the death penalty, as more than
one commenter has touted. Some people have proven their inability to
judge between right and wrong. The Bible trumpets forgiveness, but
also supports the death penalty in certain cases. Just because I am
pro-choice doesn't mean that I agree with getting an abortion.
Abortion is heart-breaking, and the costs verses the benefits should
be weighed very carefully. This is an individual decision, not a
legislative one.
Do you know what a
"spontanious abortion" is? It is, or it used to be, a
medical term for a miscarriage. A spontanious abortion occurs when a
woman's own body detects that a fetus is not viable. This happened to
me four times. I wanted those children, but my body refused. The
Bible says that children are blessings. Some people just don't want
to be blessed. Those are their choices. They don't have to be
blessed. We'll all be much happier if we just let people make their
own choices and deal with their own consequences instead of trying to
make 'moral' laws. Legislatively forcing morality may in itself be
immoral. That also goes for the environmental issues that some view
as moral, but that's another story.
