A Pew Research poll released last week shows that most Americans, and more disturbingly most Christians, don't understand the fundamental questions at the heart of abortion. Sixty-six percent of American and 6 our of 10 Christians prefer compromise and a "middle ground."
There is no middle ground when the question is whether a human being is being killed. How many human beings should the compromise allow to die? What middle ground do Christians suggest we settle on? It's an either or question: a baby dies or doesn't die. There is nothing in the middle.
Should we compromise on the question of how many children we should allow to be sexually molested? Should we find middle ground on how many abused children we'll put up with? Of course not.
It comes back to the same issue: What is the unborn? And if she is a human being, doesn't the right to life belong to her?
If the unborn is not a human being, then why have any restrictions? Compromise doesn't make sense on either side of this debate
These poll answers are not short-term, tactical moves to save some lives until we can save more. These are final answers. Compromise isn't an answer for the unborn.
It's pathetic that a majority of Christians could contemplate that there is a middle position on abortion. Will pastors who fear controversial issues look at this number and resolve to preach and teach on this issue when 60% of the people sitting in their pews think there's some number of dead unborn babies we can tolerate? How can Christians, who should believe in the divine image every human bears, condone "middle ground." They have no idea what is at stake.
Most of the people I work with are professing Christians and when I have the opportunity I engage them on topics like abortion and ESCR. I am apalled by the misinformation, misunderstanding, and just plain ignorance I encounter regarding these issues. I am learning that my ministry is to educate, not confront, these fellow believers.
Posted by: Fran Szarejko | August 11, 2006 at 03:20 PM
I agree that not only is abortion flat out wrong and a sin, but many are quite uneducated or ignorant about it.
What's worse, the logical economic long-term impact is even now starting to rear it's head in early stages.
It's quite astonishing that our government had elected to give pay out taxpayer funds to a utilitarian organization (planned parenthood) in order to help kill and delinquish our future taxpayer base.
Posted by: Sean | August 12, 2006 at 09:43 AM
I agree that education must come first. Abortion is always a hot topic, but it is been a long time since people revisited what it really is and what the relevant issues are. When you can get a dialogue going it is surprising how much information you can convey.
I was talking to a pro-choice friend and mentioned to him all the good things that crisis pregancy centers do (I started volunteering at CareNet a few years ago). His response was, "I had no idea." He was very receptive to hearing a different viewpoint.
Posted by: Neil | August 12, 2006 at 01:29 PM
Oh gosh, you guys are so judgemental...What about a women's right to choose? Why, what's a body to do when pregnancy is just inconvenient? Isn't this just arrogant intolerance?
I don't understand why anyone would defend abortion. What has been sold a 'right' is a license to kill and has helped an entire society devalue people in general as a result.
Posted by: John | August 12, 2006 at 01:46 PM
"Should we compromise on the question of how many children we should allow to be sexually molested? Should we find middle ground on how many abused children we'll put up with? Of course not."
Although I agree with your position on abortion, I don't think the example you have offered is entirely sound. Because in truth, we are all willing to tolerate small amount of child abuse in the community. Leaving aside the criminal behavior of abortion clinics in not reporting such things, we are all willing to put up with (and hence tolerate) some child abuse because the cost of preventing it entirely is one we are not willing to shoulder.
After all, all child abuse could be ended if we monitored parents 24/7 and subjected all kids to regular medical examinations to check for child abuse. Any instances of it would be stopped almost immediately.
But we don't do this because it engenders a greater evil in a lot of ways than the evil it prevents.
We don't have much tolerance for child abuse and we do stamp it out when we discover it, but on the whole, we as western cultures are not really willing to be as proactive as we could in defeating child abuse.
Anyway, just offering my 2c
Jason
Posted by: Jason | August 13, 2006 at 03:11 PM