There are too many pro-choice people who desperately want to lump abortion in
with all the other “social issues," and the last thing we want to do is help them propagate that lie.
Let me break it down...
Certain acts- i.e. rape, abortion, murder- are attacks AGAINST
another human being; an innocent bystander. Other behaviors, while you may
label them as “sins”- gluttony, pre-marital sex, materialism, homosexuality-
are conscious choices made by consenting individuals. While we may not agree with them, society as a whole has decided the government does not need to protect us from them. Abortion is the one exception that's been put into the "social issue" category when obviously it does not belong there.
When we finally begin to differentiate between cases where we need government "protection" and those where we merely have a personal or religious "preference" we can see homosexuality and abortion are
not even in the same ballpark. One is clearly a social issue while the other is matter of life and death.
Here, let’s try something. For just a second take God out of the
equation.
I’ll assume half of you just “x-ed” out of this page, but for
those of you still with us, we must accept not everyone in America lives their
life according to the Bible or has any interest in even attempting to do so. Our
country is now largely secular, and while you might find that
disturbing, if we truly want to change the culture, we must acknowledge our
audience. Furthermore, if we truly want to change the laws, we must respect the
separation of church and state. (Don't waste time commenting about how that was meant to protect the church, I get it, but that's hardly how it's being applied today.)
When you view both abortion and homosexuality without the Bible as a filter you will see they are largely different. Without religion it’s
somewhat difficult to find fault in homosexuality (feel free to tell me
how wrong I am in the comments as I'm sure you will), but abortion on the other had is very easy to argue from a secular perspective, because science.
So, just like we would never compare divorce to slavery, we
should not allow abortion to be lumped in with acts that are not about violent assaults on innocent
human beings.
Abortion must no longer be categorized as a “social issue,” when it is
clearly an attack on the most basic of constitutional human rights- the right to life.
I've never seen abortion and homosexuality as related...and I'm a devoted Catholic, lol. I'm guessing it's the older pro-life advocates who are trying to connect the two? I could be wrong, but usually that stuff is with the older folks, if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that bugs me is when Christians (usually fundies and some other Protestants) claim that "all sins are the same", even though each sin committed effects different people and is done for different reasons. Yes, they are all acts that separate us from God, but that's where the similarities usually end; they do different things to cause that separation and each has their own reason for being a sin in the first place.
If it makes no sense for a child lying about eating the last cookie to be compared to the rape of a woman, then it should make no sense for the dismemberment of a child to be compared to a human getting down with another of the same sex.
"Fundies" is a really offensive term, fyi. You shouldn't use bigoted terms like that.
DeleteI have to say there is science that can show homosexuality as being absurd. The concepts of survival of the fittest and micro-evolution, both widely accepted scientific principles that explain why some creatures survive and others are eliminated, states that the point of sex is procreation. There is absolutely no biological drive to have sex if you're not going to produce a baby as a direct result, therefore, it makes zero biological sense to a. say someone is born gay and b. to engage in a homosexual relationship. The other scientific principle that excludes it from being a likely part of the micro-evolution of mankind is that there is zero evidence that animals engage in such behavior. That makes it a choice and one that goes against science and religion. Of course I think that to call this a free nation, we have to afford people the right to make that choice and to each their own.
ReplyDelete"There is absolutely no biological drive to have sex if you're not going to produce a baby as a direct result."
DeleteUmmm, my husband's had a vasectomy, so I have to say I completely disagree with that. Also, you might want to check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals
I'm talking biologically not emotionally or mentally. Your husband's body probably has no real awareness that sperm is not getting anywhere. As for the article, first wikipedia is not what I'd call a reliable source and secondly most of what it stated is speculation and there are plenty of other ideas as to why what looks sexual to us isn't to animals. The article itself even states that the scientific community isn't willing to accept his ideas in general. Still things like that are just theory and really fringe science at that.
DeleteI don't want to argue with you... but I think you should probably check your "facts"... http://www.news-medical.net/news/2006/10/23/20718.aspx
DeleteThank you for saying this! It is so refreshing to hear a Christian say this--either they're "conservative on the social issues" or "it isn't their place to judge a gay person or a woman who has an abortion". But there's no comparison between choices made between consenting adults and choices made against nonconsenting prenatal humans, regardless of where you stand on homosexuality.
ReplyDeleteI'm a pro-lifer who happens to be bisexual, and my best friend is a pro-lifer who is gay, so it's depressing to hear people conflate the issues for obvious reasons. But the other reason is that it can sometimes feel like the hearts of my fellow pro-lifers aren't really in it. Do you understand that this is a horrifying human rights violation, I want to ask, or do you just think that God has 'a rule' against it? Do you care about the thousands of lives lost every day, or is this your way of making sure people live up to your ideas of chastity?
(This is not at all to say that people who seek abortions are horrible people on whom blame completely rests. I fully acknowledge that abortion is the end result of a massively misogynistic society that fails to respect or support the choices and biological functions of women.)
Completely agree! I am a straight pro-life Christian woman but honestly the gay thing is just "you worry about you" to me. My stance against abortion has very little to do with my religion. I grew up in a agnostic family and I have always known abortion is wrong, my agnostic parents know abortion is wrong. It's murder, you can make excuses and 'limits' and whatever but it's killing a human being for the convenience of another. Wrong, no religion needed to know that.
DeleteLOVE this. I'm a gay man, I was very active in the fight to keep abortion out of Ireland. I can tell you that the gay community are, by and large, very open to the anti-abortion message. What keeps a lot of us out of the movement is that more often than not, the large pro-life groups tend to have a position on issues like marriage equality and gay adoption. This makes me so sad, if the pro-life movement could embrace the gays the battle would be almost won.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it! Good read. Now if only people would listen.
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you for writing this because, while I don't agree with you, I've been struggling recently with why, exactly, I disagree. Someone close to me (straight, Christian and staunchly pro-Life, as am I: full disclosure) asked me some time ago why the two are connected in the minds of so many Christians. I didn't have a direct answer that didn't, of course, involve the Bible at some point. But you seem a little quick to discount the Bible. Also, you seem to concede that we've lost certain societal battles with an "Oh well, things will never change so let's just deal with things the way they are" nonchalance. I think many of us are not ready to make such concessions just yet; indeed, i would argue that such a mindset has hurt the pro-life battle, in favor of which I admire your ability to argue so passionately and eloquently. The only other thing I would say (at this point; may chime in with other thoughts when i can gather them), is that i don't think issues of morality can be separated quite so easily. Sin is, in fact, sin. And all sin, while perhaps not physically, affects society in one way or another. And while I don't wanna start an AIDS debate, there are physical consequences (that's science, not religion) even if one wants to ignore God's injunctions against certain sexual behaviors. I would argue that a truly Godly, Christian and loving opposition to "gayness", is one that has, at bottom, a concern for the "violence" that such behavior does to one's body and soul. In any case, I've found little or no writing on the combining of these two issue. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteI see no conflict in being pro-life and pro-gay: in fact, if there is a genetic component to homosexuality, the two may very well go together. I wonder how long this would cease to be a "social issue" if such a link were found.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I have respect for religious people who don't agree with homosexuality as long as they don't operate on the general premise that the government of Iran does. The vast majority of them don't, but many of those with more libertarian views on the subject seem to think name calling is an appropriate way to deal with dissenting opinions. News flash: it isn't.
There are free speech issues at hand with both issues that very much go together. There are a lot of activists out there that don't believe that anyone who possesses an un PC view of either issue should be allowed to express that opinion. I have seen pro-life activists express support for jailing sidewalk protesters if they don't like their methods, and I've seen gay rights activists express support for outlawing "hate speech" that includes quoting from the Bible. Obviously this is wrong.
The two issues aren't necessarily linked in my mind, but that doesn't mean I don't respect those for whom they do go together.