Core Beliefs and The If-Thens of Life 7/15/21
Core Beliefs and Starlings on a Wire
"In the course of figuring out where I fell on the issue of anti-abortion, pro-life, pro-choice, etc, the only thing I can come up with that I can say with no exceptions is that "Life is precious". Life is, and always will be, precious, and needs to be nurtured and protected by all in positions of authority, at all times, in all the facets it presents itself. It is not a voice speaking from within a roiling threatening cloud hiding the mountain top, or the Bible or other sacred texts that brought me to that conclusion. It was Carl Sagan penning, "The Pale Blue Dot". In penning The Pale Blue Dot, Sagan managed to find the word picture to break through the culture filters, the class filters the I-Other filters that I was so unaware of, yet so meticulously maintained.
Sagan, who was an atheist, fully grasped the implications of the Earth, a mere mote of dust, spinning it's way through an inky black vacuum, whose temperature approach's almost absolute zero, where distance is so great as to make interstellar travel forever theoretical. It was Sagan's writings that showed me the true definition and implications of living a life that holds "all life precious."
For me, the greatest threat to humankind is to view Life as anything less than precious. In doing so, the floodgates open to viewing other humans and by extension, all other forms of life as "less than", hence expendable without remorse. It is my opinion much of Christianity has fallen into this trap. We profess to claim him as our savior, the maker of all that is, was, or ever will exist. The maker of all humankind in all it's shapes, cultures, and colors, and all in his image, so He says. The maker of the earth, and the sun, and the other planets too. He tells us that he "breathed" them into existence, leaving us with an eternal puzzle as to exactly what that means...and yet...
And yet, he, explicitly tells us His is The Way, His is the Truth, His Light is for Illumination for all mankind, we choose to claim all the above, while simultaneously treating other humans, other forms of life, the oceans and the land masses as common. Common, to be used as we see fit, to be used until worn out, burned up or burned out. Only to be replaced with another. For if all is common, is it not interchangeable? What's the difference between a cane cutter and his son and his son's son? Nothing. The sex worker and the inflatable doll? Use it, abuse it, and throw it way. What is the pristine river but an underutilized sewer? What is a vast, vast forest of 2-3,000 year old trees, nothing but on-sale lawn furniture, with free shipping if you buy right now? And what of the vast treasures the oceans contain? Free for the taking as God's own words charge us to "subdue the earth".
I was soo naive, I had my head so buried in the sand. It's the ol' peace-love-n harmony hippy in me, the eternal wishful thinker. If we hand out enough flowers and free granola, the world will come around...
So let's look at this;
Given; Life is precious.
So we cast our vote strictly on that single issue... Anti-abortion, that is Pro-life, discussion ended.
But is it?
A catholic nun, whom I deeply respect said, and I quote;
"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."
Sis. Joan Chittister
So, do we also support programs and advocate for programs that see the birthed child needs are met—food, housing, safe home environment, medical needs, that programs are funded that go the extra mile if need be to see the child is educated? That certainly sounds like the Christian thing to do, doesn't it? For those of us who don't like running our tithes through govt programs, our churches (which aren't taxed), have a plethora of programs to help meet these needs. Support your local charities, as the saying goes.
Given; Life is Precious.
So how do we Christians see all this race stuff if we see life as precious?
We need to be careful here, or at least I do, I'm white as a slice of Wonder Bread, and I live in a county that is Wonder Bread white. If I'm honest, for as much as I know, I know nothing about what is like to be a Black man in my neighborhood, my town, county or church, I truly am an ignorant old fart on this issue. I don't really have a clue what it is like to be Black, to be a Black father, to be a Black employee seeking to better myself, to be Black and a believer that Christ himself was a believer that all life was precious. I really have no idea how a Black man role models for his children. I am now aware there are many issues that differ in this dept. One of the first ones I became aware of is when I tell you I had "the talk" with my son, you know I was talking about the sex talk. If a Black father mentions he had "the talk" with his adolescent son he may very well mean he told him how not to get shot when he is pulled over by the police. There's a world of difference between my world of worrying my son will come home a father, and a Black man's world where his biggest fear is his son will come home in a body bag. As a father that bothers me, as a Christian that really bothers me. I mean seriously, what would my white Wonder Bread neighborhood have to be like for me to feel it necessary to discuss with my teenage kid how not to get shot by the Milford police? I want to add "The Black father talk" cuts across all socioeconomic levels within the Black community. The wealthy and blessed Black father, as well as the poor and destitute one, feel it necessary to have this talk.
As I stated earlier, for me, a non-negotiable pillar of my beliefs is that, all life is precious. If you state something as given that clearly violates that law (not theory) there is something flawed in your homework. I hold myself to the same standard, at least I'm trying to. When it comes to race issues I'm running into more and more inconsistencies between my profession of the preciousness of life and my apathy to the question of whether Black Lives Really Matter or not. Somethings gotta change.
(More later)
Amen!
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