501 Clothman On Abortion, Part 3
I opened the envelope from Mary with excited hands; I had never received a letter from a girl before. Instantly, my hands transformed from excited to trembling. No, NO, NOOO! Mary was pregnant and I was the father. “It happened several weeks ago at the senior party,” she said.
I couldn’t remember half of my senior party because I had passed-out from over drinking (I was an alcoholic in my younger years). I recall making out with Mary, a junior whom I barely knew, but that’s all I remember. I awoke with a hang-over the next day assuming that I was still a virgin
I was 17, barely shaving, leaving for the Air Force in a month and now father of a baby with a 16 year old girl who was basically a stranger to me. I had lost my virginity and couldn’t even remember it. My life was blown to smithereens and I was seriously reconsidering my opposition of abortion.
After three sleepless, foodless days my buddy, the only person on earth whom I told said he had a solution to my predicament. “I wrote the letter.”
“What?!”
“I wrote the letter,” he said unable to make eye-contact. “I didn’t think you’d believe it. I feel horrible; this was supposed to be a joke.” I didn’t know if I should kill him or kiss him. The relief was so enormous that I choose the later. Terrible and shocking as it was, this real-life experience taught me to approach abortion the same way we do traffic lights.
A green light means “Go.” A red light means “Stop.” Simple. Green lights are a clear yes and red lights are a dogmatic no; yet both laws exist within the higher purposes of safety, order and civility.
Therefore, traffic light laws cannot be as rigid as a frozen turkey. For example, you should blatantly ignore a green light if a child suddenly runs out into the middle of the intersection. Similarly, emergency vehicles cautiously disregard red lights all the time. Red and green lights cannot simply be black and white. We must follow the higher principles of traffic laws: justice, mercy and love.
Legalists struggle mightily with this concept; wanting only dogmatic rules. Pro-lifers often declare that all abortion is murder, red! There is little or no grace for the specific situations of the pregnancy. Pro-choicers assert that the woman must choose what happens with her body, green!. Never mind that several others (the baby, the father, the parents, etc.) desperately need inclusion in that choice.
It is easier to follow the letter of the law – it doesn’t require the time, tears and compassion of the spirit of the law. But Jesus harshly opposed such legalism. That’s why he gave only one command to follow. “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I love you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples” (John 15:34-35).
Jesus would never align himself with the political right or left. His challenge to pro-lifers and pro-choicers would be that they drop their legalism and learn to truly love one another. He would teach them to go beyond red and green to ask, “What is the most loving, just and merciful alternative for all those involved.” Then he would send them out together to serve those who in crisis pregnancies.
Let’s melt our anger into mercy and beat our politics into compassion. Let us abandon the abortion battle lines and form a new army of justice. Then we will see love triumph and abortions reduced.
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