Who Am I?

Touchy Topic Ahead ahoy!

March 12, 2007



Ok, now that I"m out of the duldrums...the topic I"ve been holding onto.

100 gp's goes to the first person to correctly identify the movie my title is modeled after...lol-I know, not much but I"m semi poor and trying to save for next month when my upgraded membership runs out.

On Wednesday nights we are studying a book called Confronting the Controversies...I could tell you who wrote it if the book wasn't still in my van.  Last weeks topic was abortion.  As many people do, I have an opinion on this.  I'm guessing that will surprise no one.

Having been raised Catholic, I was raised with an opinion on this topic.  I was born in 1973-this has been a topic most of my life in some way shape or form.  Personally I'm pro life-I even went on a pro life rally in high school with my youth group-all the way to Washington DC, on a bus.  There's a story there but I'm going to wait until the end of the entry to share it.

I can't imagine having an abortion-life is too valuable and God wouldn't allow a baby to be created that He didn't have plans for. 

I'm also a tad on the pro choice side.  While I consider abortion a non existent choice for me, it's not my place to judge another or make their decisions for them.  I have 2 friends who have had abortions-one had it forced upon her by her mother at a very young age(mom should have been paying attention long before she got pregnant at 12) The other, I wasn't around when it happened-it's a friend who I made as an adult who made that choice as a young adult....she lives with the consequences of that choice and the grief and what if's and always will.

I have another friend who got pregnant at 14 and delivered the baby-gave it up for adoption to a family member and still sees the child (now 19) occasionally...she probably lives with some what if's too...but 3 years later, when pregnant again, kept the baby, married the father and had 3 more children by him.  He's pretty much done nothing but make her life hell except for her babies..and she's divorced him since (thank God).

I have one more friend, who I met my freshman year of highschool, who had a one year old baby.  She was raising him, going to school and living with her mother-she lost her childhood.  She dealt with the stares and the condescending attitudes.  She went to church, she went to school and that was it.  She loved her son, very much...I lost touch with her when they moved...he was almost 2, she was almost 16.

Wrong choices?  Right choices?  Not my choice.  I love each one of these ladies for who they are.  Had my opinion been asked, even at 14, I would have said, abortion is wrong..how can you take a life and how could you live with yourself? Then again...How do you give birth, and let that child go?  How do you live with that?  How do you live with having no life, with riducule and dirty looks-even in a society that it's become more common place and acceptable?  How do you raise a baby when you aren't raised yourself....or if one is an adult...but not secure, or not a person to parent..how do you make that choice?  Each one is difficult and bares heavy consequences.  I believe I know what my choice would be...I believe I know what God would have me do in my own life...Mary didn't abort baby Jesus...even when she was an unwed mother and could have been stoned to death...I can't imagine.

Yet all parties still deal with the consequences of those choices-besides the obvious not getting into the situation in the first place, which is another topic I could go into-they all did what they felt was the right decision for them.  The sin they chose is no better or worse than any sin I've chosen-and thank God His grace is sufficient for us all.

So in truth, I dont' know what you call me prolife? pro choice?  I'm pro let's love people and accept them for who they are ...and pray they make Godly choices and feel the love He has for them..because the mother who aborts the child who is unwanted and unloved is no worse than the one that delivers the child and doesn't love it, cherish it...that part's not coming out quite as I want it to...I"m not explaining myself very well...I'm not advocating for abortion...I think it's the last and worst choice and not one God would like...but I'm pretty sure i"ve made my own mistakes and my own choices God didn't like too...and honestly....I have more compassion for the woman who aborts her unborn baby than the one who has the baby and abuses it or allows it to be abused, neglected and uncared for......I'm not sure that makes as much sense on paper as it does in my head but there it is...

Now, onto the pro life rally story...when I was, I think 15, I went on a trip with my youth group....I don't remember how many of us went..but 2 friends of mine went with me and we went on a VERY LONG bus trip to go from Indiana to Washington DC...I don't remember where exactly the rally was...but then it was 110 degrees and my friends and I ended up skipping the rally and going to the Smithsonian-then we went and found some  fountain(which I swore for years was behind the post office-but my sister looked a couple of years ago and there wasn't one there...lol)  We still have pictures somewhere.  The one thing I remember was singing I believe the Children are the future by Whitney Houston on the bus trip home-it was one  of the few times I sang in public as a child...someone else sang something else too...The girlfriend that went with me-a year later, was pregnant-in danger of losing her life if she delivered the baby because of a medical condition-her mother forced the abortion-she was 12, maybe 13-looking for love...thought she'd found it in sex...and her boyfriend who got her pregnant..mom had let move in when his own mom kicked him out-he sat there the evening of the abortion and said nasty hateful things to her-things I won't repeat here because of the graphic nature and it serves no purpose...but it was all in regard to the abortion she'd had...my heart went out to her..and still does...

Another one of those times where if mom and dad had been the parents and shown the child love and respect, taught her to respect herself and love herself-if they hadn't been to busy living their own lives instead-if they hadn't beent rying to be a friend-at the very least-if she'd been taught about sex and reproduction...maybe it wouldn't have happened in the first place...

But there are many others who choose for different reasons.....

Anyway...I'm rambling...because this topic confuses and concerns me greatly..but as Jesus told us..."the greatest of these things is love"..it is what we are called to and what He did...


Love the sinner, hate the sin...

Now...to lighten the mood a little...a joke

Last night, my wife and I were sitting in the living room and I said to her, " I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependant on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug".

She got up and unplugged the TV and threw out my beer.