Abortion & Slavery

"I personally think slavery is wrong, but I can't tell others what to do."

"When it comes to slavery the government has no right to legislate morality."

"Slavery is a difficult issue. We want to inform people so they can make the best decision possible for themselves."

"While it's critical to promote policies that help prevent slave-taking and make slavery less necessary, we also fight to protect the right to safe, legal slave-ownership."*

With the substitution of "slavery" for "abortion" these comments look completely absurd to our eyes. However, many people used reasoning similar to this in debating the abolition of slavery.

Ramifications of Abolition

Slavery
Slavery was slow to be abolished partly because so many people would be negatively affected by it: the landowners, the economy, some said the slaves themselves would be lost without their owners to take care of them and provide civilization and a
livelihood.

Abortion
The pro-choice camp often cites the motto "every child a wanted child" and desires to continue abortions partly because there would be too many negative ramifications if abortion did not exist: not every child would be wanted by its birthmother, there would be a rise in abandoned babies, more babies would further impoverish already poor families, more babies would create more of an economic burden for America, there may be overpopulation, etc.

The Badness

Slavery:

---bad for the Africans who betrayed one another, capturing enemies and turning them over as slaves. This promoted their own eventual subjugation to European and African captors and eventually all of Sub-saharan Africa was parceled out among European nations as colonies.

---dehumanizing for the actual African slave. This is obvious, but think about the protracted ramifications of trauma and horror and how slaves saw other humans treated, how they might have then treated one another. There was widespread destruction of families by splitting them apart and selling off members of families. The most basic unit of mother and child which is physiologically essential and sacred was often destroyed. The next most basic family unit of mother and father and child was even less revered.

---dehumanizing for the slave traders who seared their consciences and indulged in base, animalistic behavior: subjugation, torture, domination.

---bad for America both economically and morally.

economically: to base so much growth and wealth on a system that relied heavily on slavery of it's well-being is foolishly putting your eggs in one basket and a shameful basket at that.

morally: to dehumanize workers (or African humans, in general) on the basis of race, origin, perceived intelligence and overall worth (a slave was officially 3/5 of a person) abased Africans and inflated the pseudo-magnanimous role of the Americans or Europeans as The Great White Protector/Savior/Civilizer to the poor backwards savages of Africa. In reality blacks and whites stand humbly together condemned before a Holy God, yet pardoned in Christ.

Abortion:

---bad for the baby. This could be a "duh" sort of thing, but some argue it is best to abort to avoid the pain and difficulty of a life of poverty, hardship, etc., however the child's hypothetical life is simply that: hypothetical, not pre-determined by demographics.

---bad for the mother physically and morally.

physically: damaging both during the abortion when mistakes are made leading to injury or death of the mother. Also there is increased risk of future miscarriage and infertility as well as a possible link between breast cancer and abortion.

morally: seared conscience to downplay the seriousness of the abortion and reinforce that the mother made the right decision. More often there is debilitating guilt, increased rates of depression, etc.

---bad for the abortion provider. The doctor providing the abortion must also sear his/her conscience to a certain degree to do his/her work well. There is also a professional violation of the Hippocratic Oath see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
---bad for America. We as a society accept this practice and it dehumanizes us because we are not functioning with as high of a character as we could (even considering our fallenness) because we are not protecting, promoting, nurturing, and caring for the young and the weak--both unborn AND born. America also suffers economically and racially.

economically: as this nation ages the support base for senior is dwindling and a heavy burden falls on a smaller population. There have been more than 40 million abortions in America in the last 35 years. Millions of aborted babies would have yielded millions of productive workers therefore strengthening the economic base of this country.

racially: America is 74% white and 26% non-white. The abortion rate (in 1994) among whites was 60% and blacks 34.7% and other races 4.8%. The rate of abortion among non-whites is disporportionatly higher than among whites. Abortion providers regularly service lower-income minority groups, groups that in the past have been targeted for extinction by eugenics. Abortion partially accomplishes that goal. African-American and other minority populations would be larger had they not been aborted, which would provide larger minority bases and perhaps increased status and influence. Weeding out "undesirable" races could be replaced by honoring and respecting race.

Party Politics

It's interesting to see which political parties picked up the banner for the abolition of slavery versus the abolition of abortion. For this next section I'll refer to progressives ("liberals") and conservatives.

Slavery

The progressives of the 18th and 19th century took up the cause of abolition, many Christians among them leading the charge. The conservatives didn't want things to change too fast or sometimes not at all.

Abortion

This issue has been taken by the conservatives. The Democratic Party (overall progressive) has changed included reproductive choice as a party platform issue, yet there are many democrats who are pro-life and have group called "Democrats for Life".

Progressives (in both parties) say they:

1. Want to reduce overall abortions.

2. Reduce the circumstances that lead to abortion.

3. Want to make abortion safe and legal for anyone who wants it.

Once again, if you substitute "slavery" for "abortion" it sounds absurd.

Governmental Involvement

Slavery

For the abolitionists government involvement was necessary and welcome in order to protect slaves even at the cost of financial ruin of the slave owner, plantation, or the overall economy.

Abortion

Progressives employ governmental involvement to protect a woman's reproductive rights even at the cost of the destruction of a person's life.

Why was it okay to stick up for the voiceless 3/5 of a person with abolition, but it's invasive and a violation of civil rights to defend the voiceless, tiny, "less than a person" embryo/fetus. Weren't those abolitionists just forcing their morality on everybody else? What gave them the right to do that?


* Taken directly from NARAL Pro-Choice America: While it's critical to promote policies that help prevent unintended pregnancies and make abortion less necessary, NARAL Pro-Choice America also fights to protect the right to safe, legal abortion.

my dreams

a few new ideas and below that, some old ideas.
* a book club: meets 3 or 4 times a year and the group could be more outreach focused and more comfortable for inviting non-christians or it could be more believer-focused.

* a movie club: same as above, except you watch movies and talk about them or watch movies, write a "review", then get together to talk about them.

* a study of feasts: study the feasts of the old testament and how those feasts pre-figure fulfillment in christ. include or conclude with a seder service on maundy thursday of easter week. seder is the passover supper.

*busking for burma: we go out on a streetcorner somewhere, set up shop with our instruments and play music to raise money and awareness for burma or a specific mission field. it seems like a great combination of music, potential evangelism and social justice.

these ideas are from the liveoak planning council--please see https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4114670011479311658&postID=7873655403111241947 for this and others' comments--there are some great ideas.

*reaching various populations of austin: singles, gays/lesbians, students, moms and kids

*having an ethnically, generationally and socio-economically diverse body of believers in liveoak

*refreshing and renewing believers in the church

*supporting times of transition (which often are times of attrition at liveoak) such as going from the student to the work world, singleness to marriage OR marriage to singleness (in the case of divorce, widowing)

*film ideas:
-Gay and lesbian international film fest entry: a middle-aged gay ballet dancer struggling through empty revelry and enticed by glimpses of real joy.

-a film on the life of john paton, missionary to south pacific islanders—a great quote about him:
Almost every one thought it very strange and very foolish for two young men to give their lives for the salvation of people so cruel and uncivilized as the natives of the South Pacific Islands. One old gentleman said, "The cannibals! you will be eaten by the cannibals!"
Mr. Paton said, "Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is: soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; and I confess to you, that if I can live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." The old gentleman had nothing more to say.

*following the church calendar (a la michele’s comment)—I’d love to have an easter morning re-enactment/sunrise service.

*single’s ministry—that’s pretty general, but the moms have MOPS and playgroup, so I think something, even if it’s periodic (i.e., monthly/quarterly) would be a great time of fellowship among singles.

*pastor chats—different groups in the church getting some chat time with the pastors (i.e., students/families/singles/kids) informal, moderately sized group, just for people to get some “face time” with the pastors (or just one pastor) and for the pastors to hear how people are doing directly.

*book of the month—a discussion of a book of the bible….or other groups (fiction/non-fiction, etc.)

*film discussion group—discussing films at a variety of levels, what does it say about life? God?

*servant evangelism/compassion ideas: oh my goodness, the possibilities are endless.

Free carwashes, lemonade giveaways, windshield cleaning at gas stations, fresh flowers for hospitals/nursing homes/hospices, freshman care packages, food pantry, Austin food bank, blankets for the homeless, angel tree stuff at Christmas, soup kitchens, and on, and on….

*habitat for humanity

*liveoak/longhorn life involvement and visibility (t-shirts, etc.) in area events such as AIDS walk, walk for life, stand down (day for the homeless), etc.

*pub/café chats: discussion groups periodically meeting in public places to talk about theology/life/etc. –hey the protestant reformation really caught on from people talking about it pubs!

*vacation bible school

*youth group

*a missions map—since we’re a “sending” church we could have a map up with info about who we’ve sent where, what they’re doing, info about the country and how to pray

*PRAYER: I think we (or at least *I*) need very much to focus on prayer—some ideas:
Praying for unsaved parents/siblings/spouses
Praying for the world, country by country (see Operation World, a book for praying through all the countries)
Praying through current events

*missions focus: we could have a month, for example, focused on world missions where each week we highlight a different country or different types of mission work that goes on around the world. It seems logical enough to start with stuff that liveoak is/has been most directly involved in: the laffertys (Amsterdam), Shelley adler (Poland), ben bringardner (italy), nelson/renee/rebecca evans (zambia), ellen (Burkina faso/bible translation), etc.

*international student ministry—adopt a student, the pals program….

*mission UT or mission Austin--in town mission trips

*mission trips to mexico--several groups regularly make weekend building trips to mexico

*camping trips--time for renewal, relaxation, re-creation, fun, ahhh!