First a few preliminary thoughts: the fundamentalist Christians passing the latest anti-abortion law in Alabama speak of the sanctity of life--this was not always a consideration for these Christians. There was a time when fundamentalist Christians stoned sinful women to death doing their God's work. This sick, brutal, loathsome act of murder had the effect of speeding those sinful women on their way to the Christian God's torture chamber, which we understand to be a hellish place indeed. Equally horrific fundamentalist activity carrying out God's will was burning wayward women at the stake--this an inherently sickening concept to those imbued with decency.
I highlight the above fundamentalist Christian behavior because you would 'think' most Christians today would cringe at the thought of doing this again. Still, here we are, again, writing law that imprisons women for 99 years--a century in a cage. These fundamentalist Christians are fundamentally unchanged so beware!
Moving on I note that abortion would not be the emotional, contestant issue it is if it were legal, safe and seldom as most of us would prefer.
We do know it is mostly men who write abortion laws with no exception for rape or incest. We also know that one out of every three women are sexually molested by their fathers as children. Therefore, it is a statistical certainty that eight of the twenty-five legislators in Alabama who voted for this law--Well, you fill in the blank. Who can explain the twisted psychology prompting them to insist that incestuously conceived babies be carried to term.
O.K., as promised, the born-again reincarnationist's view on abortion and the crucial moment of ensoulment, which we believe takes place at birth. We could ensoul the fetus sooner but it is too damn boring to hang out in a fetus during the gestation period--worse than watching grass grow! We know this to be true because anyone who chooses to regress will remember their past lives and these mundane details. We forget our past lives a few years after birth so we will take this life seriously.
Still, we need address the anti-abortionist's concerns and the moment of ensoulment is the crux of this concern. Various religions took different positions on this over time, changing their mind over centuries. Mostly the religious believe God ensouls each and every one including the billions of Muslims and Hindus, which is awfully fair and balanced. It is difficult to know if He gets there early or late in all pregnancies. It seems no one really knows the moment of ensoulment (reincarnationists aside). Therefore we do not know if what is being aborted is a human being or just tissue.
The role of women, of all the feminine, in asserting the power they should have over their bodies needs to have standing above all else as is their right to say no to these self-important born agains who say they are called by God to do this. Finally, fundamentalist Christians are more than just annoying, they are dangerous.
Don Scotten
scotten6@gmail.com
