(10/1 - after further review I regret not qualifying evangelical Christians with a some or a lots. To encompass ALL evangelical Christians with this post is a mistake. You can read more explanation in the comments.)
In a world where evangelical Christians are so very close to getting some legislation that will lend support to the legal enforcement of commandment #6 (it’s the murder one).
In a world where evangelical Christians are SO NOISILY in need of a constitutional amendment to define marriage which will help support legal enforcement of…ummm…which commandment is being used to in defense of that one?
In a world where these two things are linked from a Sunday morning church pulpit less than a mile from my home by the simple explanation that gay people are orchestrating an effort to make same sex marriage legal so that they can “sweep in and take the babies” that are no longer going to be aborted.
"We have to steal these babies from the hand of this dragon." - says the man from the pulpit as he describes adoption.
Our congress, comprised of representatives defined as much by evangelical Christianity as anything else, has approved President Bush’s detainee bill. A bill that denies habeas corpus to foreign nationals designated as terrorist suspects. Not only that, the House has approved President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping programs.
We’re told it’s Those Other people we’re wiretapping. We’re told it’s Those Other people we’re detaining. We’re told that it is good for America that we’re wire tapping and detaining them in a figurative and literal “over there” so that we don’t have to do it over here. I concede; it is good for much of America that we’re doing it over there to those other people.
What I want to know is which commandment is the greatest, the one about not killing? What about the one regarding stealing? Then there's the one about idols? That’s way up there on the list, right?
And then there’s that pesky guy who, when asked that very question, would say something crazy like “love those neighbors ‘over there’ as you’d love yourself.” And another time he’d say “do to Those Other’s as you would have Those Other’s do to you.” A guy who talks like that, well, he wouldn’t last long in this world, would he.
I can’t wait to hear the religious right go off on congress for passing those two bills. They’re going to go ballistic when they learn that congress, run by our representatives, has passed a couple bills that go directly against the greatest commandment.
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Readers: please be alert and let me know when this starts to happen. It’s only a few days to Election Day, religious leaders in my state are trying to use congress to outlaw abortions, and I’m having steal difficulty hearing these through the babies noise.
10 comments:
Is it so hard to believe that evil people would use religion and babies to control millions, no, BILLIONS of dollars? It worked last time and there's little reason to believe it won't work this time.
Just thinking about it hurts my spirit.
wow, what church/denomination is that? Do you go there!!!???
I've noticed that sometimes it's easy for me to demonize a particular group of people because I feel the need to blame someone. Do you?
brilliant post! I have been so horrified (terrorized?) by the current administrations march toward the Dark Side that I have had trouble constructing a so much as a coherent sentence about it, thanks for posting this, it's good to know I am not alone in feeling this way.
Yumanbing hands me something to think about all day long...and I'm finally home where I can address it.
I think he's right, demonizing is easy and feels helpful even when it's not. I'm not sure of the blame part of his question so I need more help there.
After I thought about it long enough I discovered that there were shades of that in what I've written here.
So, I regret that I encompassed all evangelical Christianity in my first two paragraphs. I should have said "some evangelical Christian's" or "lots of evangelical Christian's".
I have lived and learned.
Thanks YumanBing.
I've always wondered who would be taking care of those unaborted babies since their parents did want them. But now I know, It's the GAYS. Well good for them. A child is better in a loving gay family than an abusive and neglective straight family. I still disagree with taking away a choice, but I am all for personal responsibilty. Perhaps some of those Christians would LOVE to take care of some unwanted babies they are trying to protect ?
eayste:
In fact the speaker was encouraging the congregation to begin to think about adoption...no doubt in ways they hadn't thought of it before.
Who was the speaker?
The big question…who said those words about stealing babies?
Today I contacted the organization the guy was speaking on behalf of. I sent them a link to this page and invited him to respond. I’ll wait a week. If they don’t respond I’ll e-mail the pastor of the church and give him an opportunity to respond. If he doesn’t, well…I’m strongly suggesting that the point of the post is about the greatest commandment, not so much about churches, pastors and what their guest speakers say. (Oops, Blue left a CLUE!)
And how is it that the anonymous commenters are the ones that want to know? Perhaps they need to know if I’m lying…or perhaps they need to approve or disapprove of the church or the speaker.
Please realize dear anonymous commenters…while to you I have a face and a name (or with a little research I do), to me you are a mysterious entity. You could be my best friend, my work neighbor or even the guy who actually said those words…so honestly, nothing personal here. It can’t be. I don’t know who you are, and you never share anything personal.
The best part of the mystery is, I’m pretty sure one of the commenters once suggested I “find a bible believing church and learn the truth” and the other once made some fair but wrong assumptions and expressed concern that I’m listening to Rob Bell and perhaps I'd be better served by a review of "...Dobson and Colson and see if their views on this issue are more in line with the ultimate Truth Book.” (anon: did you read my response in the comments to that one? I’m not sure you even went back to see how I responded.)
Wouldn’t it be funny if I had followed suggestion #1, randomly picked from a list of churches within a mile of my home and gone and heard those words? That would be so poetic but...it didn’t happen that way.
eayste said:
"I still disagree with taking away a choice, but I am all for personal responsibilty. Perhaps some of those Christians would LOVE to take care of some unwanted babies they are trying to protect ?"
I agree, choice is a good thing, but it matters what it is that is chosen.
I also agree that Christians should be doing a better job of loving widows, orphans and other 'undesirables' (I think that pesky guy that MinusCar mentioned had something to say about that). However, the fact that there are (maybe) no Christians willing or able to take in unaborted and unwanted babies is a red herring. It has no bearing on the morality of abortion itself.
Respectfully,
cm
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