No one's touched this with a 10-foot pole yet. But let's talk.
Let's first acknowledge that the prenatal healthcare associated with Biden's plan, goes far to change minds of any woman who aborts because she cannot afford treament. Meals and healthcare then let the expectant mother know that she can care for the baby once born. Grant Biden that.
Grant him also that, if he is a pretending Catholic, and not just a more liberal one than the author, that the Catholic church's position on voting for someone, is to not just look at the abortion issue, but all their stances. This is different from the debate on whether Biden should be able to have communion in the Catholic church. But neither can I, because I am not a member. In this case, Catholic Church, Schmatholic Schmurch. I am a Christian.
It could easily be, that God is with Biden not only being POTUS, but by advancing His work through an inspired man of God. Let that be a mystery, and let's talk about mystery.
What's missing in the Biden plan as far as I know, is counsel. I would love to see women be directed by Planned Parenthood or whomever, to the counsel of their churches, when deciding whether to have an abortion, or to have such counselors available. With the separation of church and state that we have, I don't trust that Planned Parenthood is going to do a good job at the issue of ensoulment, the mystery of ensoulment. Therapeutically speaking, there is a guilt problem, and let's identify this as trauma, that some number or percentage of women will have post-abortion, wondering whether they murdered their child. Others have no such worry.
Let's say, though, that somehow we were able to have Planned Parenthood just use the holy book of a woman's choosing, in guiding her decision. Let's say that woman cheated on her husband, got pregnant, and now wants an abortion. Well, the Old Testament helps us here, or does it? Numbers 5:11-31 talks about how the jealous husband can take his possibly cheating wife to a priest in order that, if she is pregnant, what the priest makes her drink, causes her to miscarry. Or not. Maybe it was some psychological ploy to get the truth out of her, and even though there were threats of bodily contortions, they never really happened, that "miscarry" is a bad translation. The mystery remains.
The linked article talks about abortion being murder to the Catholic church. And yet, the penalty for causing another man's wife to miscarry, is not the criminal's death, but allowing the husband to sue the criminal (Exodus 21:22-23). Does this prove that the fetus has a soul? Or should we rather argue that God has once again left the mystery of ensoulment a mystery?
Let flip the "assertiveness" of the Bible, and go to Jeremiah 1:5, Douay: "Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations." Alrighty Almighty then, even before Frank Wilson was a twinkle in his father's eye, God knew he would have the blog Books, Inq., right? Surely. But across town, there was another Wilson family who was going to have a son named Frank, but that Mrs. Wilson miscarried. God knew that too. Indeed, an argument against ensoulment before first breath, is that there are far more unwanted miscarriages than abortions.
For these reasons and surely more, such that the Bible seems to just not address the issue of abortion decisively, the Catholic church, has flip-flopped on the issue, but for the last several centuries, landed on the idea that we should act as if there is a soul to protect (such that we would ensure excellent prenatal care, for instance). Would you want to hurt or kill any Frank Wilson that God wants to have a books blog? Not me, no way. Do I know which ones or when any pre-born child has been ensouled? No, and neither do any scientists or Catholic theologians. The latter don't, and they know they don't, and they know why. It's a mystery.
In order for the USA to consider abortion murder, we'd need a Constitutional amendment, that states that unborn offspring is considered full human, and that its destruction is thus considered murder, that all differentiations and punishments among homicidal negligence, manslaughter second degree and first degree murder apply; and as a corollary, harming the unborn in the womb, whether by physical act or by negligence, is considered abuse, punishable by imprisonment. In order to get this amendment through, we would need to have our arguments in order, such that they would appeal even to atheists. And yet, it's a mystery. Thus, who should make the decision, the Catholic church, a majority of voters, or the pregnant woman?
No one's touched this with a 10-foot pole yet. But let's talk.
ReplyDeleteLet's first acknowledge that the prenatal healthcare associated with Biden's plan, goes far to change minds of any woman who aborts because she cannot afford treament. Meals and healthcare then let the expectant mother know that she can care for the baby once born. Grant Biden that.
Grant him also that, if he is a pretending Catholic, and not just a more liberal one than the author, that the Catholic church's position on voting for someone, is to not just look at the abortion issue, but all their stances. This is different from the debate on whether Biden should be able to have communion in the Catholic church. But neither can I, because I am not a member. In this case, Catholic Church, Schmatholic Schmurch. I am a Christian.
It could easily be, that God is with Biden not only being POTUS, but by advancing His work through an inspired man of God. Let that be a mystery, and let's talk about mystery.
What's missing in the Biden plan as far as I know, is counsel. I would love to see women be directed by Planned Parenthood or whomever, to the counsel of their churches, when deciding whether to have an abortion, or to have such counselors available. With the separation of church and state that we have, I don't trust that Planned Parenthood is going to do a good job at the issue of ensoulment, the mystery of ensoulment. Therapeutically speaking, there is a guilt problem, and let's identify this as trauma, that some number or percentage of women will have post-abortion, wondering whether they murdered their child. Others have no such worry.
Let's say, though, that somehow we were able to have Planned Parenthood just use the holy book of a woman's choosing, in guiding her decision. Let's say that woman cheated on her husband, got pregnant, and now wants an abortion. Well, the Old Testament helps us here, or does it? Numbers 5:11-31 talks about how the jealous husband can take his possibly cheating wife to a priest in order that, if she is pregnant, what the priest makes her drink, causes her to miscarry. Or not. Maybe it was some psychological ploy to get the truth out of her, and even though there were threats of bodily contortions, they never really happened, that "miscarry" is a bad translation. The mystery remains.
The linked article talks about abortion being murder to the Catholic church. And yet, the penalty for causing another man's wife to miscarry, is not the criminal's death, but allowing the husband to sue the criminal (Exodus 21:22-23). Does this prove that the fetus has a soul? Or should we rather argue that God has once again left the mystery of ensoulment a mystery?
DeleteLet flip the "assertiveness" of the Bible, and go to Jeremiah 1:5, Douay: "Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations." Alrighty Almighty then, even before Frank Wilson was a twinkle in his father's eye, God knew he would have the blog Books, Inq., right? Surely. But across town, there was another Wilson family who was going to have a son named Frank, but that Mrs. Wilson miscarried. God knew that too. Indeed, an argument against ensoulment before first breath, is that there are far more unwanted miscarriages than abortions.
For these reasons and surely more, such that the Bible seems to just not address the issue of abortion decisively, the Catholic church, has flip-flopped on the issue, but for the last several centuries, landed on the idea that we should act as if there is a soul to protect (such that we would ensure excellent prenatal care, for instance). Would you want to hurt or kill any Frank Wilson that God wants to have a books blog? Not me, no way. Do I know which ones or when any pre-born child has been ensouled? No, and neither do any scientists or Catholic theologians. The latter don't, and they know they don't, and they know why. It's a mystery.
In order for the USA to consider abortion murder, we'd need a Constitutional amendment, that states that unborn offspring is considered full human, and that its destruction is thus considered murder, that all differentiations and punishments among homicidal negligence, manslaughter second degree and first degree murder apply; and as a corollary, harming the unborn in the womb, whether by physical act or by negligence, is considered abuse, punishable by imprisonment. In order to get this amendment through, we would need to have our arguments in order, such that they would appeal even to atheists. And yet, it's a mystery. Thus, who should make the decision, the Catholic church, a majority of voters, or the pregnant woman?