In an effort to not sway the conversation in any particular direction. I’m going to simply display the verses that to my knowledge (and a couple brief google searches) are used in making the case for and against abortion. In the context of when life begins…

Scripture typically used to make a case Against Abortion…

Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Psalm 22:10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Jeremiah 1:4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Luke 1:39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And now for the verses that are used to make a case that “life” does not necessarily begin at conception but rather at birth.

Exodus 21:22 “If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

Ecclesiastes 6:3 A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. 5 Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man- 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

Job 10:18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?
I wish I had died before any eye saw me.

19 If only I had never come into being,
or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!

I will leave my thoughts on the verses to the comments section to give everyone a fair opportunity to converse. If your reading this via email or rss I suggest you hop over and join the discussion.

I’ve been extremely hesitant to bring this issue up here for a number of reasons. One, I think discussion on this topic has been dominated by men and I don’t want to simply add my noise thus drowning out the women whose voices are so important on this issue. Two, I’m not sure of my abilities to steer the conversation in a direction that keeps us away from the partisan political lines and fosters real geniune dialog. But, better to have tried and failed then to be silent and not screw this whole thing up (or something like that).

Here is what I’m proposing for the purpose of this discussion. We are going to take this in three parts. And will address each on a different day.

1. Monday- The post and conversation will stipulate that life begins at birth.
2. Wednesday- The post and conversation will stipulate that life begins at conception (fertilized egg)
3. Thursday- The conversation will discuss when life begins (using the Christian scriptures as a reference and authority).

My hope is that this format will help us address some of the issues around the topic without getting into an emotional debate regarding when life begins (until Thursday). So, on with the discussion.

Much of my thoughts on the topic are up in the air, still shifting, not quite solid. But I do have a few I’m pretty sure about, and they mostly relate to the topic from my role as a male.

• I think men, on the whole, need to shut-up and yield the floor to women on the issue of abortion. For far too long women have had to fight for their rights, to vote, to their bodies, against discrimination and for fair pay. And though they have won many rights in theory, men continue to hog the conversation, even when it comes to issues centered around women and their bodies. It’s time for men to step aside and trust and support the women in their lives to make the right decision.
• And in the mean time, we need to seek to make women’s rights and fair protection a reality. We can start by fervently addressing domestic abuse and sexual assault which are vastly under-reported because of the stigma and shame and blaming the victim that occurs. We can make changes in our businesses and encourage others in our circles of influence, that support paid maternity leave and equal pay, that doesn’t discriminate against mothers who keep their children as a priority. We should make sure church and office policies support nursing mothers.

I think that might be enough for discussion. Remember keep in mind that regardless of your current opinion on when life begins, we are stipulating for the purpose of constructive dialog on this post that life begins at birth (not at conception).

As true as much of what you say here may be, I’d invite you to compare life for yourself, the descendants of slaves or native peoples, or anyone else here in this country to the plight you or they would have if your lives were lived as a citizen of, say, any country in Central or South America, or Asia, or India, or Africa, or a Muslim country in the Middle East. –Aaron

Let me be honest and start by saying that I deeply appreciate when Aaron takes the time to comment on my blog. He is challenging, always kind, and continually leaves me pondering my beliefs and reflecting on my position and values.
The comment above is one Aaron left on a post I wrote about the fourth of July. It was a letter to the editor, esteeming the sacrifices of a range of people who helped make this country great, but did not receive equal freedom on the day whose anniversary we celebrate each July 4th. The letter was a response to a politicians opinion piece esteeming the sacrifice of the soldiers who fought in a the numerous wars our country has been through. Here is how I began my piece.

I want to first of all thank Congressman Mark Kennedy for his article concerning this country’s “Independence Day.” There is certainly room for celebration and many of the historical facts he pointed out are worth noting and esteeming. Unfortunately I fear Congressman Kennedy missed out on the whole picture of the American Experiment and I feel the need to complete, or at least add to his summary.
It is true our Experiment has succeeded because of sacrifice, but whose sacrifice?

Aaron’s critique is that I am often negative and always pessimistic about this country, The United States, and seem to do little to recognize the good in it. Honestly, I think Aaron might be right about that. I’ll let you be the judge, but I am open to admitting that I might be critical to a fault of this country.
However, I do not feel I should stop raising my voice in solidarity with those who are mistreated, overlooked, or oppressed in this country. Just because our plight is better, relatively speaking, then some other countries on this globe, does not make it right.

This might seem harsh, but this is what I felt and what deeply disturbed me when reading the comment above. It’s a simple, and seems at first, fair argument, that even the citizens who have it ‘bad’ here are much better off then those anywhere else. It’s similar to the “Each your beans, there are children starving in China” argument. However, here is what is disturbing to me.

The same argument could have been used in the Jim Crow south: “Blacks in the segregated south are better off then when they were slaves, they should stop complaining and just be happy with how good they have it now.”
It could be used on the Native Peoples: “They should be happy we left them any land at all.”
or Jewish people: “At least your not living in Germany.”

Comparing the oppression of one person or group to those worse then them is not justification for that group to stop fighting for their freedom and justice.

I don’t know if you’ve ever went to your boss and asked for a raise, or worse, tried to address or file a grievance because of mistreatment of some kind, but imagine if your boss said:

“Look, I’m sorry for you, really I am. But, Things aren’t going to change around here, your just going to have to get over it and be happy with where you are. Look at all the grunts working below you, they’re making minimum wage and don’t have it half as good as you! Quit complaining.”

If you were like me you’d be hurt, offended, or disturbed.

I believe we live in a great country. It is a place where I not only have the opportunity to speak my mind with little risk of being harmed (not all on this planet, or in this country have that freedom), but it is also a place where I can speak challenging words with the hope that they might bring about some change. If I didn’t have hope in the people and powers of this nation, I wouldn’t be spending my time speaking out about those areas that are lacking. I do hope that those in power will write celebratory words that congratulate the achievements of this country, but that they would do it holistically, recognizing the sacrifices of all the people involved that have made this country great. Until that happens though, I will continue to raise my voice.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
-MLK

(p.s. “We were better off in Egypt!” was the complaint of the Israelities to Moses as they wandered the desert eating manna, having just escaped slavery in Egypt. As the story goes, they where definitely not better off, eventually making it to the promise land as free people. I used this as the title, because I’m aware that I don’t know the end of the story here and I might look back and find my complaint as ridiculous as the Israelities.)
photo credit

(photo credit [photo not of me])
Here’s my basic premise: The person whose only interaction with people of a different cultural/ethnic group is in a serving/charity capacity is likely to form stereotypes about that group based on that limited and extremely isolated interaction.

I myself went to a fairly large, suburban, predominately white church during my formative high school years. I went on three “missions” trips while attending there to: Mexico, South Dakota and D.C. On each trip we worked with a different ethnic group: Hispanics in Mexico, Native Peoples in South Dakota, and African-American’s in D.C. Now, Madison, where I grew up, is fairly diverse, so I had the good fortune of those not being my only interactions with other races, but they were some of the most significant interactions I had had with anyone of Hispanic or Native origin.

When I went to College I met and discovered a large number of other students had had similar “missions” trip experience. Some had even gone to countries in Africa and Asia. However, my more shocking discovery was the number of students who had come from far more ethnically homogenous (read: mostly White) cities, towns and neighborhoods then even I did. In addition, it seemed that in those homogenous neighborhoods, the rare interaction with a person of a different ethnicity typically involved that person in a serving capacity. Even our college campus, Wheaton College, was an example of this. The number of students and facility from multi-cultural backgrounds had been growing, but a large amount of white students primary interaction with different ethnicities was the cafeteria workers.

Now, couple those brief interactions with the limited portrayal of ethnic minorities in the media (again, often overly portrayed in historically oppressed or currently oppressed roles), and then we send them on “mission” trips. This might sound harsh, but I think the feeling behind many of those trips is the chance to “go help those poor unfortunate people.” The combination of all of these interactions creates, I believe, a strong stereotype of other cultures, and not only are they stereotypes, but the are dangers in that the person doesn’t seem them as stereotypes, but as fact, since they have by and large proved true in their interactions.

This is just one of the reason I think so much structural racism still exist in our country. It’s why efforts like affirmative action are necessary and why many voices are still needed to speak up against unjustice and prejudice, yes even racist, treatment.

Here are a few stories of creativity I’ve read recently…

1. With all the foreclosures there are a lot of neighborhoods with houses with rather unpleasant plywood covering the doors and windows. An artist in Chicago took advantage of the opportunity and began offering his boarding contract services with a twist. Basically he puts boards on windows, but he paints the boards to look like windows and doors, rather then just boring plywood. He’s done it to a few houses in my part of the city and is hoping to get a big city contract. I’d sure like to see more art in the neighborhood. –Star Tribune
2. There’s this guy Steve Lambert, who is pretty awesome. He runs the Anti-Advertising Agency. They are responsible for stuff like PeopleProducts123, and this video (which I’ve shown before)
   
   There’s a great interview with Steve in Gelf mag.
3. And the last one is this pastor from Detroit named Harvey Carey. He spoke at Sanctuary Covenant recently and he mentioned one of their creative activities. The men of the church go camping every summer. They get their tents and lanterns and they set up in front of the drug houses in the neighborhood. They hangout, cook s’mores and basically keep any business from happening. And when they drug dealers move out to a new location, the church camp out moves with them. He said they’ve shut down 15 drug houses that way in the past few years.

We need more creative stories.

My wife had this brilliant thought the other day (this occurs most days, the really brilliance is when my brain stays focused long enough to remember it): “If the government is just giving away money with this Economic Stimulus package thing, then why not at least give it to the people it was once promised to.” Brilliant.

Okay, so I know it’s a little late for the suggestion, but it’s worth dreaming about. The government is giving $600 to every person who made over $3000 and filed their taxes this year. Now, I don’t think it would right years of slavery and oppression, but it seems like it would be a small gesture in the right direction.

I believe the Economic Stimulus is a $168 billion bill, and at the 2005 census there were 40 million Black and Native People’s living in the USA. If you just split the money that way you’d have $4200 per person, and that included children.

It’s a shame that the term, “40 Acres and a Mule“, instead of being a honest attempt to right the terrible injustices of our history, is just one more indication of how the people of this country have been oppressed and mistreated. It was another unkept promise, one of many from the past and just another of the many to this day. I know this one might spark some controversy too, but I had to throw it out there.