One of the longest and most divisive arguments in our society is the argument over abortion. I believe that the reason for this is that both sides are being dishonest.
To begin with we must recognize that when a couple has an unwanted pregnancy…….there is no happy ending. Somebody is going to get hurt badly……the mother……or the child. The father escapes relatively unscathed. This is not fair…….but it is the reality………it is the truth.
There are only two outcomes to an unwanted pregnancy and both are bad. EITHER the mother has to endure 9 months of pregnancy, followed by labor and delivery, followed by the trauma of adoption or 18 years of raising a son or daughter……..OR…….the child is killed by being dismembered…… without the benefit of any form of pain relief.
By any rational analysis, both of these outcomes are horrible.
These are the facts……..so why is the argument dishonest?
The argument is dishonest because each side advocates a position that causes harm to somebody…….and each side ignores the harm that they advocate. Each side refuses to accept responsibility for the pain that they cause. In short, we cannot have an honest conversation about abortion until each side recognizes and takes ownership of the harm that they advocate.
The pro life side must take ownership of the harm that their position causes the mother……..and, to a lesser extent, the father.
The pro choice side must take ownership of the harm that they advocate doing to the baby.
This will be painful but it will finally lead to a conversation that is at least honest. It will not, however, lead to a happy ending for the couple with the unwanted pregnancy.
The only “happy ending” is to prevent the unwanted pregnancy in the first place. We have had effective birth control for decades. Science and chemistry have not solved the problem.
So what is the solution?
The best solution has also been around for a long time…… centuries as a matter of fact. We need to eliminate “recreational sex”. This is the solution that God gave us in Exodus. This is the solution recommended in the “owners manual” ………the Bible.
“You shall not commit adultery”
God, NIV
Like the rest of the Bible, this rule is not there to wreck our fun. It’s there for our protection……….from ourselves.
Obeying this one rule would solve the bulk of the abortion problem……..and end our dishonest debate.
Or……
We could just keep on yelling at each other for another 50 years or so.
We could force women to endure unwanted pregnancies.
We could continue dismembering 3000 children a day.
Facebook has become a big part of life. I check it daily and occasionally post things on it. My posts are usually aimed at getting something done…….in a word, many of them are ads. But, my posts are also the face that I show to the world. In a way, Facebook is how I tell the world who I am.
But, Facebook can also tell ME who I am………and even more important…….. Who I am becoming.
I know 2 people who post a lot on Facebook. One posts a lot about missing dogs and dogs that need homes. The face that she chooses to show to the world is one of love and care for animals at risk. FYIW……. her posts haven’t motivated me to rescue a mutt…….but, her heart is in a good place.The other posts a series of attacks on a well known politician with bad hair. They range from funny, to misleading, to vicious. The face that she chooses to show the world is one of hate. FWIW, I haven’t changed my politics because of her posts.
The first lesson is this. Neither of these sets of posts has changed me. Facebook isn’t nearly as effective in that regard as we like to think. It does, however, open a window into the heart of the person making the post. The fact is that, more than anything else, your Facebook page tells the world a lot about you. It tells the world a lot about me. In fact, this may be it’s greatest value.
Facebook can tell YOU a lot about YOU. It can tell ME a lot about ME.
So……… here is my challenge. Open Facebook, find the page that contains only YOUR posts, and read the last 20 or so things that you have posted……the last 20 or so things that you have chosen to tell the world about you.
What do those posts say about you? What can you learn about yourself from your Facebook posts? Are you a lover…….or a hater?
I want you to be happy……and I believe that the surest path to happiness in life is to love and care for others. Do your Facebook posts show love and care for others? Are you happy?
That is, after all is said and done, what God wants for you.
If you are a Christian you know that everything will be OK……. in the end. This is a promise……..straight from God.
So…….. if everything isn’t OK in your life………if everything isn’t ok in your world……….then this isn’t the end.
This is all about trust and patience. We tend to ask God for something and expect him to give it to us right now. We forget that God operates on a different time frame, sometimes an eternal time frame.
One of my sons was paralysed in a motorcycle accident. He was “learning how to walk again” and was outside a restaurant on crutches. A young, well intentioned, Christian offered to heal him. This kid said a brief prayer then said “Throw down your crutches and walk!” My son couldn’t. The kid, in so many words, said “It’s your fault because your faith is inadequate.” This is, at best, misguided theology. The kid expected God to follow the kid’s instructions right here and right now. FWIW……My son now walks……. and he has since given me an adorable granddaughter. God answered that kid’s prayer……..and then some. The kid threw my son…… and God …….under the bus because the kid insisted that God follow the kid’s orders……… right now. The kid demanded that God operate on the kid’s schedule.
A husband and wife missionary team worked their entire lives in a small village in Africa. They retired and were flying back to the States………. coach. It turned out that the ambassador to the country had also retired and was on the same plane……. first class.
They landed and everybody in coach was told to wait while the ambassador deplaned. There was a red carpet, a 21 gun salute, speeches, and then a big limo took the ambassador away.
The exhausted missionaries headed for baggage claim. The wife said, “Why do they throw a big party when the ambassador comes home and after a lifetime of serving God, we come home and we get nothing?”
The husband replied “Because we’re not home yet.”
If you get discouraged…… if things are falling apart in your world…….if you think things aren’t fair…. if your prayer hasn’t been answered……..just remember……. you aren’t home yet.
Just remember…….. things will be OK……….. in the end.
Whether you are liberal or conservative…….. today’s post is going to annoy you. You may even refuse to accept parts of it…. So please bear with me.
The great intractable arguments of our age usually drag on because either the two sides are talking about different things…….or because both sides are wrong.
With GW……… both sides are wrong. Since you are probably on one side or the other…….. You too are wrong.
Conservatives are wrong because they argue that it is not happening. Well, it is. The glaciers are melting, the weather is getting warmer, we have a 100 year flood every 10 years, etc. Conservatives say that this is temporary….. statistical noise…….. that things will ultimately cool back down. I’ll concede that they are right if and when the planet cools back down. But, I’ll bet a six pack that I will never see it in my lifetime.
Liberals are wrong because they propose a laundry list of expensive, “big government” solutions that are futile…… All to be paid for by some, as yet to be named, “rich guy”. There is no serious proposal on the table that will fix GW by cooling the planet down to 1950 temperatures. The most comprehensive “fix” that has been proposed, the Paris Accord has, as it’s goal, merely slowing GW down. And even that is failing. In essence, liberals say we should spend enormous sums of money on various projects so that we might delay the consequences of GW…… the flooding of Miami for example…….by a few decades. And all of their plans ignore the fact that the population of the earth will double…… again…….in my grandchildren’s lifetimes. Do you really believe that we can double the number of people running air conditioners and eating hamburgers and cut our carbon emissions?
Theoretically, if you give enough monkeys enough paper, enough typewriters, and enough time……… they will type the Bible.
Theoretically, there are fixes that might reverse……might “cure” GW.
Completely outlaw burning fossil fuels and eating meat worldwide, today.
A 30 year ban on having children followed by a strict one child per family limit worldwide until the population of the earth drops to 4 billion.
Outlaw cutting trees and require every human to plant and nurture 100 trees.
If we did those kinds of things, we might fix GW……. in about a century. But, of course we won’t. And even if the US did, China, India, Brazil, and the developing world will not. In essence, we are asking the developing world to throw itself under the bus by not doing exactly those things that America has been doing for the last 200 years.
In a word………. practically speaking…….attempting to “cure” global warming is futile.
Here is the sad truth.
We have overpopulated and then poisoned the planet. We are not going to fix it. Southern California and the great plains will revert to desert. Much of Florida will flood. Drought and hurricanes will become more severe and more frequent. We will face water shortages and food shortages. In addition to refugees fleeing Central America, we will have refugees fleeing southern California, Florida, Arizona, Kansas, and Nebraska. It is not a question of “if these things will happen”, but rather of “when”. Will they happen to me, to my children, or to my grandchildren?
Enough.
Our current debate on GW is a bit like a man who has jumped off of a 100 story building and is plummeting to the sidewalk. He passes the 75th floor and a Republican sticks his head out of the window and says, “nothing to worry about………it’s a temporary statistical hiccough……. keep doing what you’re doing…. It’ll be Ok.”. He passes the 65th floor and a Democrat sticks his head out of the window and says, “flap your arms……..it’ll slow you down.”. And yet the sidewalk is still racing up to meet him.
Pretty depressing………… So why does this mess belong in a Christian blog?
It has to do with hope…… hope for me, for my children, and for my grandchildren. If I am a secular humanist, I have to tell my children that my generation, and my parent’s generation, have poisoned the planet, it’s going to get ugly for them and then they will die and that’s it. Tough luck for you. As a Christian, I will tell them that yes, we have poisoned the planet and it’s going to get ugly for them…….but then, after they die, they will go to a place that hasn’t been poisoned…….a place where all of the bad things in this world have been dealt with…….a place of love, joy, and peace. And Jesus will be there waiting for them. I’ll be waiting for them too.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
