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Puritan Board Freshman
Last night I was having a beer at a local bar and grill. I met a friend of mine there who is a fellow believer who has struggled some with sin in her life. We were already talking about spiritual matters (kind of taboo in a pub, but there was almost no one there except we two and the bartenders) and then the subject of abortion came up. Why not, we were already on very sensitive ground, so we went for that too. She maintained that she had carried to term every child that she had ever conceived (but in a nice, non self puffing way) because she felt that abortion was wrong. She confessed that here own mother was fifteen years old when she carried her and she felt obligated to do the same. I thought for a long while before I answered. I told her I felt the same way about the unborn, but that we had to be careful about our attitudes. If someone elects to abort a child, the church often turns around and tells them they have committed a sin so heinous that it cannot be forgiven, or at least implying that. If that woman comes to believe that and gives up on Christ altogether because she doesn't believe she can be accepted anymore, then we as a church have just committed murder. To her credit, my friend agreed with that assessment and I think everyone within hearing range of us agreed too. This is a difficult subject, but there is so much built up animosity out there over this topic that I felt compelled to address it. I have committed sexual sin in my past so for all I know I might have an aborted pregnancy to account for when it comes time for me to be judged. I was fortunate enough to be accepted back in my church. In all frankness the fact that I was a male probably had a lot to do with it, but that is a topic for another post. Yes we preach against this, yes we protest at abortion clinics (IN A NON JUDGEMENTAL WAY) but we MUST extend both our arms of comfort to young people who have committed this sin. Do we work to have the laws on this issue change? I don't know of a tougher issue confronting the church right now. I would like to see the practice stopped, but I watched with both eyes while the Republican party used this issue to co-opt the white evangelicals and turn what was a movement of compassion and rescue into a mouthpiece for moralizing and covert racism. This is what happens when the church resorts to secular powers in an attempt to enforce behavior that can only really be brought out by a transforming act of the Holy Spirit. The issue of church/state relations is also one I have addressed elsewhere so I won't go any further down that rabbit hole here. Let me just finish what I have to say here by quoting the apostle Paul "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.