And I mean really, really pro-life... pro-life from conception to natural death, a pacifist
(or at least really close to it), and anti capital punishment. There.
I've said it. Is everybody
sufficiently offended?
Psalm
49:7-8, "No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom
for them - the ransom for a life is costly, no
payment is ever enough" (NIV).
Life is costly. Life is precious. Life is an enormous risk. Always.
I get it that there are unspeakable
tragedies that occur which cause people from every side of every situation to
question whether life is the best choice, perhaps even whether life is the most
compassionate choice. We could get into
all kinds of greater good arguments. The
biggest problem with greater good arguments is that we will always come to a
point where we are choosing which lives matter most. We don't get to choose that, and it's not
because of some cliché that leads to God
choosing which lives matter most.
All lives matter most. All of them. All of us. Together.
As a community. We have been
created imago Dei (in the image of God).
Any "greater good" that results in the loss of life is not greater. I mean, seriously, greater than what?
The loss of more life? The loss of more important lives?
No. We have to stop thinking like
this.
But what do we do about lives that have
been devalued?
Even as I wrote the paragraph above, I
started to worry, will people think I am self identifying with the "all
lives matter" hashtag people? You
know, the people who were offended by the "black lives matter"
hashtag? Because I do not identify with
bigots. Just sayin'. In thinking about this, though, it seems that
we have pushed the envelope of bigotry so far that the concept of all life
being important has become, in itself, a sarcastic way to look as if we care about
all life while actually screaming that our own lives are most important.
How about the lives of the elderly? I have recently seen many posts regarding how
unethical it is to continue to resuscitate the dying and to keep them
breathing, artificially, in a vegetative state, because we can't let go. Is that really pro-life, is it really
pro-all-life, or is it us, screaming, that our own comfort is most important?
What about the nineteen year old girl who
is raped and pregnant and kicked out of her home and terrified. When we shame her and declare that she
deserves to live on the street, with nothing, are we creating a pro-life
environment? Do we actually care about
the life of the unborn child? What about
the life of the already born child who cannot meet her own basic needs let
alone the needs of another person? When
we have no empathy and shout words from across the street (or halfway across
the world), are we not screaming that our own privileged lives are more important?
When we're willing to kill people because
of their religious beliefs or because they happen to live down the street from someone
whose religious beliefs are different than our own, making them an unfortunate,
accidental casualty; when we do this and cover it by calling it our responsibility, are we not screaming
that our Christian, American lives are more important?
Even when people seemingly bring death on
themselves by committing atrocious acts against others, do we somehow think
that killing them will right the wrong, bring justice, heal the wounds? It won't, but are we not screaming that our
need for blood is more important than their need for redemption? That our more righteous lives, and our
vengeance, are more important?
Oh friends... We need to stop screaming and start loving...
start looking beyond... start letting go... start giving... start listening...
How did we ever get to the point where the "Christian"
answer is hate and death? God, forgive
us. Help us fix this.
L.
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