SO Right-On-Target, Dan.
Who knew that Augustine disagreed…., and that several opinions about “soul joining body” existed.
Absolutely…Alienating the one who has (many) abortions…or one or two, does not solve any problem; it only enables the mind set of phariseeism…
The issue is to HELP; NOT condemn..
When will Christians understand that?
I’m sort of shocked to say it, but this is a solid take. (Shocked because any take on abortion, especially any Christian take, is likely to hit a few land mines – the issue is so fraught.)
I appreciate your summary of the debate history, back to a pre-Christian time, as well as your point that that reasonable people can disagree about the formation of the soul. I’m also grateful to hear you just come out and say that in our society, abortion is legal; that is the fact. Most of all, I appreciate your compassion for the people on your team.
About your conclusion – that you wish abortion never happened, but you want to be compassionate toward women in that situation – I want to note, that’s also what most abortion advocates are fighting for. This point of view doesn’t get a lot of air time as a “pro-choice” thing because, I think, abortion advocates are so busy trying to hold the line on other issues (like making sure it remains accessible), but I do sometimes come across passionate pro-choice folks saying, “Yeah, I wish abortion never happened.” Which is why many of them are fighting in lots of other ways to reduce the number of abortions! (They’re pro-access; but just like pro-life folks, they want fewer instances of abortion – so they’re working on better sex ed for young adults, access to birth control, and trying to dismantle rape culture.) Fewer abortions = everybody wins. I bring this up because I think a lot of pro-life folks don’t actually know that fewer abortions is also a pro-choice stance!
SO Right-On-Target, Dan.
Who knew that Augustine disagreed…., and that several opinions about “soul joining body” existed.
Absolutely…Alienating the one who has (many) abortions…or one or two, does not solve any problem; it only enables the mind set of phariseeism…
The issue is to HELP; NOT condemn..
When will Christians understand that?
I’m sort of shocked to say it, but this is a solid take. (Shocked because any take on abortion, especially any Christian take, is likely to hit a few land mines – the issue is so fraught.)
I appreciate your summary of the debate history, back to a pre-Christian time, as well as your point that that reasonable people can disagree about the formation of the soul. I’m also grateful to hear you just come out and say that in our society, abortion is legal; that is the fact. Most of all, I appreciate your compassion for the people on your team.
About your conclusion – that you wish abortion never happened, but you want to be compassionate toward women in that situation – I want to note, that’s also what most abortion advocates are fighting for. This point of view doesn’t get a lot of air time as a “pro-choice” thing because, I think, abortion advocates are so busy trying to hold the line on other issues (like making sure it remains accessible), but I do sometimes come across passionate pro-choice folks saying, “Yeah, I wish abortion never happened.” Which is why many of them are fighting in lots of other ways to reduce the number of abortions! (They’re pro-access; but just like pro-life folks, they want fewer instances of abortion – so they’re working on better sex ed for young adults, access to birth control, and trying to dismantle rape culture.) Fewer abortions = everybody wins. I bring this up because I think a lot of pro-life folks don’t actually know that fewer abortions is also a pro-choice stance!
Brave man, Dan.
Good job.