Fundamentalists of various sorts - Protestant and Roman Catholic - who oppose abortion continue to stumble over the most effective means for lowering abortion statistics - contraception.
As was heard from Paul Ryan on the Roman side of things, and from various and sundry pro-birth folks who are mostly on the Protestant/evangelical side of things, contraception is itself an evil, a contradiction of god's plan and purpose for women and their wombs!
Which leads me to the conclusion: the various voices that oppose both abortion and contraception are simply pro-birth - no matter what, no matter where - a pregnant woman must carry to term her child, and if that child should, in some way or other, threaten the mother's life, as we recently saw in Ireland, too bad!
"Mama, you have to die, here and now. Your life is of no further value. It's the life of the fetus, the child, and the birth-process, that now trumps any claims you might have to life. Sorry about that. Well, actually, we're not sorry. You should have kept your legs crossed! Shame on you. Such a slut you are!"
The fundamentalist dilemma - what to do?
Everyone knows that laws prohibiting abortion will simply drive it underground, and, of course, the wealthy will always have access to it, for they can pay their way around any and all laws. Or, if they choose for little Susie to have a child, they have the means to pay for it, what with nannies and various care-givers ... or give the child up for adoption through an expensive attorney who will quietly make all the arrangements for another family of means to have a child.
There is simple solution: contraception.
But we've seen a growing of number of Protestants join their Roman Catholics sisters and brothers in opposing contraception.
I, for one, have never understood this.
That's like saying, "If you get an appendicitis, don't remove it ... suffer through it. It's god's will for you."
This kind of thinking makes a fetish out of the body, especially the female body, as if the body itself, and its many functions, is sacred and out of bounds. Which is about as silly as saying, "I need to defecate, so I'll do it here and now, because this is what my body wants." This is how dogs behave, and cows and chickens. They are their body, and what their body wants determines their behavior. That's just fine for dogs and cows and chickens, but it's not what human behavior is all about, as human behavior is morally driven, not physically driven. Driven by thought and consideration for the larger picture and what compassion and love might mean. No guarantees, of course, that humans will make the right decision, but surrendering the responsibility of making decisions is an act that diminishes our humanity and only makes matters worse.
The fundamentalists have given over to the body, at least when it comes to conception and birth, absolute determination. Whatever happens physically is now the final reality to which we must now bow down, in some kind of a strange fertility cult.
They're in a tough place, and they know it. They have no escape from their own pro-birth logic, and now with Obama's re-election, their prayers have failed to win their god's favor, or, the devil has somehow triumphed over their god, or, their god is submitting this nation to judgment by giving the devil free reign.
They are truly stuck in a strange and sad world.
*Christian Century, Nov. 14, 2012, p.8
No comments:
Post a Comment