The Abortion Debate

[FlySwatter]

Pertinent article on the topic

Religious Fanaticism: Abortion

The Fanatics of Tangier by Eugène Delacroix I taught ethics classes in a university setting for over 30 years and I’m well versed in the philosophical literature surrounding abortion. And, as…

reasonandmeaning.com

 

[FlySwatter]

Another interesting article:

The Truth About Christianity And Abortion

For hundreds of years Christians weren’t concerned about abortion. What changed?

www.huffpost.com

"If abortion continues to be the number one priority for so many Christians at the expense of the issues the Bible does instruct on, are those who make it their only priority not giving the issue an almost idolatrous seat? I’m not saying abortion cannot be an important issue to a Christian, but there is no scriptural or historical backing for it to be the number one issue, at the expense of the “least of these” who are suffering now. There are over 3,000 scriptures directly pertaining to helping the poor, showing love, character, giving, social justice, and asking the governing authorities to show justice and fairness. The Christian church in America cannot continue to prioritize one issue that is not directly addressed in the history of Christian teachings and in scripture, yet make secondary or of non-importance the social justice topics addressed in the entire Word, from Genesis to Revelation.

There is no “pro-life” label in the Bible, but there is one instance in which Jesus did label believers. It is in Matthew 25, in a parable called the Sheep and the Goats, in which he labels those who did or did not help the sick, the poor, care about those in prison and care for the stranger (he does not specify that they be “documented”). He made clear His priorities, and I urge you, fellow believers, to get about His business and not be used by politicians who have succeeded for decades, until now, to attempt to mold our Christian culture into a voting machine by pushing your buttons. They are using the unborn and even the tragic circumstances surrounding abortion to do it, and that is the real disgrace. Will you be a sheep or a goat?"

 

[FlySwatter]

and another:

Welcome to medieval times, Texas-style

New abortion law is just religion doing what it does best: oppressing women.

chicago.suntimes.com

"The Texas law criminalizes abortion after six weeks — before most women are even aware they’re pregnant — and imposes a Byzantine system to enforce itself, using not the state that created the law to police it but deputizing third parties, whether religious fanatics, freelance profiteers or self-appointed members of the Texas Taliban who can sue not only abortion providers but anyone aiding the process or even “intending” to aid it: boyfriends bankrolling the procedure, Uber drivers taking women to clinics, counselors providing an address.

Anyone except — and this gives away the game — the women themselves, who aren’t punished for their supposed crime.

Why exclude them? Why aren’t the women having abortions responsible? Let’s discuss.

All religions are cruel, in their original forms, offering some version of a man in the sky demanding unconscionable barbarities. “What Lord? Slay my young son, Isaac, just because you say so, to prove that I’ll do anything you tell me? Why sure!”

Christianity offers a novel spin on this, taking Jesus’ suffering on the cross and using his biblical pain as a springboard to rationalize actual atrocities committed against a wide variety of real people: Jews, Indigenous tribes, non-believers.

And women.

When you puff away the fog of obscuring BS, the endless frenzy over abortion in the United States is the Passion of the Christ writ small: the notional sufferings of imaginary babies on their tiny intrauterine crosses, seized as pretext to inflict true harm on half the population.

Not to single out Christianity. Women get the shaft in every fundamentalist faith on earth: female circumcision in Africa, the brutal restrictions in parts of the Muslim world, Hindu honor immolations. Orthodox Jews say a prayer of thanks for not being born a woman, and it’s hard to argue. Men rule because God insists we do. It isn’t our fault. Just following the Big Guy’s orders.

Banning abortion, at its heart, is a religious edict denying agency to women. They aren’t responsible for their own abortions. How could they be? Women aren’t responsible for anything except to bear the children conceived within their wombs, even as the result of rape or incest, two practices winked at in the Bible.

The timing of this would look trite in fiction. Right now, Red States are agitated over government attempts to curb raging COVID-19. They’re in the streets protesting mask mandates and vaccines. Demanding control over their own bodies, shrieking about their right to choose ... except of course for women regarding abortion. There, no control, no choice. Men will choose for women, bless their silly little heads, deciding they can’t, not after a month and a half — that particular time limit based on some fictive heartbeat as notional as the babies themselves. Sorry honeys, don’t blame men. Blame God. And babies.

Some will accuse me of mocking religion, and I’m not. I’m mocking the uses religion is put to. As I’ve said before, religion is a tool, like a hammer. You can build a house. You can hit someone in the head. The hammer’s the same.

Religion is supposed to be voluntary and tarnishes when you try to use your faith to try to control others. If I scan Judaism and then seize upon some line in Deuteronomy to demand that you eat only Muenster cheese, to the exclusion of all other cheeses, you’d laugh at me. That’s ridiculous. Yet you’ll turn around and take your own faith, gilded with a veneer of non-science over the supposed feelings of peanut-sized fetuses, and demand that half the population obey your rules. That logic would never be applied to a man, who can have a vasectomy without sparking lawsuits on behalf of the children who now will never be sired. It hardly seems fair, but that ship sailed long ago. Welcome to the Middle Ages, Texas-style. Everything old is new again."

 

[FlySwatter]

Again, I said I am open to punishment ideas. You?

Open to ideas . . . but presumably you DO think that some form of punishment should be meted out to women yes?

Odd how your Cultural Marxism reveals itself again. Are women equally capable of evil as men are? Are you able to answer a question without returning a question? The implication of your question is that BECAUSE women should not be punished, there might as well be open season on killing babies!

It's so odd you ask me this question since there is already on the books the crime of murder with associated punishment.

As has been pointed out to you by another poster, abortion is not murder. It's wrong of you to claim it is and I know some other forums that would give you infractions or bans for such speech. Personally I believe it's akin to hate speech.

Abortion Is Not Murder

Conservatives are ignoring the facts when it comes to the abortion debate.

www.harpersbazaar.com

 

[Jim B]

"Abortion is murder" is nothing but political propaganda, created to generate hatred and division. There is no reasonable discussion possible when such a phrase is used to condemn others.

 

[FlySwatter]

Interested to know what new member @brendagray thinks about the abortion debate. Seems to take a well balanced view on many things rather than the fanatical absolutist position of some others.