viva life

In the next few days the Congress of the United States will vote on a new Supreme Court Justice. The biggest issue surrounding the Court is the issue of abortion. In that context I submit this blog:

One day a good while back I was sitting at a desk in the offices of the church where I was working, and one of the secretaries was just staring at me with a concerned look on her face. I asked her what was wrong, and with the nervous laugh a mother gives when finding out her son is doing something wrong, she replied, “I just cannot get over the fact that you are a democrat!”

I get that a lot, especially coming from deep conservative stock in Texas. Good-intentioned people will look at me with hidden disappointment, as though my soul is in danger, or maybe they are wondering if they can trust any claims I make about God.

Of course, it all comes down to one main issue: abortion.

I was talking to a friend one day about a book I was reading by a very liberal Christian who lives in San Francisco (the title is Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamont… pick it up if you have the chance). The book is filled with beautiful stories of repentance, redemption, healing and the very real struggles of faith. But all my friend could come back to was, “Yeah, but I don’t know where she stands on abortion,” as though none of the truths of faith she had realized mattered if this one issue could not be defined in black and white. Another time while having dinner with friends, someone overheard me say I voted on the Democratic ticket in the last election and they called out from the other side of the room, “Oh, so you believe in abortion?”

I once asked a professor how one could be a Christian and a liberal at the same time. He responded, “Easy… by being faithful to the Word of God.” I have realized that to truly follow what Jesus said the Kingdom looks like I will in some ways seem very liberal, and in other ways seem too conservative.

And right now I think that is most true in this issue dubbed the “sanctity of life.” Christians have loved to spout that phrase when talking about abortion or vegetative states. But where I come from in Texas, where abortion is almost considered an unforgivable sin, the death penalty is looked at as a God given mandate (Texas executes more people than all other states combined).

With the stroke of a pen, the Supreme Court allowed for the end of the creation of life. But what bothers me is not that the Religious Right takes a stand against abortion, but that they defend life while at the same time allowing for its destruction in other ways.

In my searching to find all I am looking for, I have thought a lot about this one. I have talked with theologians and ministers. I have read books and articles. I have spent hours talking to many people. And I have searched the Scriptures.

This is what I’ve found:

Just as abortion is an attack on the sanctity of life, so also is the death penalty, war, torture of prisoners, allowing genocide and not taking care of the poor and diseased. Jesus spoke of the most important work of the Kingdom being that of taking care of widows and orphans. The Scripture is loaded with verses on taking care of the poor and feeding the hungry. The last being first. And on and on.

If Christ said that when we visit those in prison or love our enemies we are actually visiting Him in prison and loving Him, then are we not executing Him with a needle and killing Him with a bomb… all the while saying we are doing it in His name? If Christ said that “as we do unto the least of these” we do unto Him, does that not mean that when we torture someone we are actually torturing Him in the name of the idol of national security?

When we read in the book of Genesis that God created man in his image, we have to carefully read what the text says. The word ADAM in Hebrew is not the specific name of a person, but actually means “humanity.” So when the Scripture says, “Let us create man in our image” it is not speaking of the creation of a man named Adam. It is the voice of the Holy Trinity saying, “Let us create humanity…”

And when humanity sinned and fell away from God, the story of salvation began… a story that culminated in the Cross of Christ: A means of death that leads to life, not just in the afterlife, but for life now… a life where we who call ourselves the Body of Christ to a hurting and dying world see ALL of life, no matter what, as made in the image of God and always possible for salvation.

To kill for whatever reason is to pass a judgment reserved only for the Almighty, to rob an opportunity for salvation, to become a monster to defeat a monster, and to destroy one made in the image of God.

Many will counter with Bible verses from the Old Testament which speak of “an eye of an eye” and what seems like other Scriptural approvals of the death penalty and war. But Scripture must always be read in the greater context of God’s story of salvation. And while a form of death penalty and war may have been appropriate for a certain period of time in that history, our story began in Eden… and we live on this side of the Cross, which is a redemption of God’s creation intent.

Christians around these parts feel that they are in a battle for the sanctity of life. Only when we open our eyes to all that is in Life will we ever make any advances against the forces of sin and death.