Abortion again, sort of

I briefly mentioned abortion last week in the post on libertarians being the worst.

At the time it occurred to me that I should treat abortion separately, because it is coming up a lot this year. The term "baby-killers" is being thrown around pretty indiscriminately.

However, I also wrote a pretty good post about abortion four years ago (interesting timing; I wonder what could have inspired it), and I think it was a good post that covered the subject pretty well. I don't need to re-write it. 

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2016/10/about-abortion.html 

I am going to convey a recent experience, though, and then go over a recent thought that may be related, if not directly.

Recently someone I know but am not friends with was vociferously responding to a mutual friend's post on abortion. There was a really good discussion going on, with people saying very intelligent things, and sharing personal experiences. There was a lot of compassion and respect, except for this one increasingly angry and insulting person.

It was telling how quickly she devolved into just wanting punishment for the women who got pregnant, and not for the men who participated; they can't get pregnant, so it is the woman's fault. 

There is a level at which I mentally know that "pro-life" is more about controlling women than preventing abortions, if for no other reason than that they never care that fewer abortions happen under Democrats. However, it was still disconcerting to see it be so open and from a woman.

Interestingly, that particular woman did get pregnant out of wedlock and kept the child, so I thought maybe she was mad she hadn't gotten her medal yet. Except, if the law changes and there is no choice, why should she get a medal? Then I thought perhaps it was jealousy that she got stuck with her kid, as their relationship is currently a little rocky. These are mean speculations, but they are also a response to her; how could she show so little regard for the things people - good people, many of whom she knew - were sharing? I mean, she isn't that bright, but that shouldn't make being a hate-filled harpy a given.

Of course, the other thing that is interesting about that is that doctrinally members should support choice and not want to control others. That is Satan's plan. (Theoretically, libertarians should support choice too, but again, they are the worst.)

So, let's head over to that other thought. 

Over the years, through church we have known a lot of wonderful families where a lot of the children don't go to church anymore. We think the parents were good, everything looked like it should be fine, but then somehow that faith isn't there. 

We can take this as a sign of how hard this world is, and there are arguments for that. In addition, I know a lot of great people who have stopped going, mostly because of the bigotry. I am sticking it out, but I empathize with that.

(For the record, I am sticking it out because I think the bigotry is not doctrinal, but something caught by contagion from evangelicals. We should have protected against it better, but I still want to outlast it.)

Anyway, the thought that I had was to wonder if these good and loving parents maybe spent too much time telling their children not to sin, rather than teaching them the fruits of the spirit.

It's understandable how it happens. When there was less awareness of the bigotry in the world, so you think the most palpable evil is fornication and smoking and wearing short skirts, it was easy to feel good. When you start having to choose to rock the boat to make things better; when you have to acknowledge systemic racism or embrace it; when you have to acknowledge that men should be playing a role in maintaining their own thoughts, rather than women continually needing to cover up more; and don't forget having people who believe in the law of consecration needing to understand the flaws in capitalism.. that is a harder situation.

Then you need to know how to be comforted by prayer. Then you need to be able to feel love for people who might sin, and care about them and not make your caring conditional upon whether they sin. You need to know how to get answers for tough questions, and how to trust when the answer is delayed.

It's harder. It is harder to do and harder to teach, but it's necessary. Saying "Don't do that!" is simple, especially when "that" is illegal. If it is something that shouldn't be illegal, and yet there are still good reasons not to do it, we have not been great about having those conversations. 

Are we ready yet?