Pro Choice?!

Choice. God's most important and most godlike gift given to his children. He even sacrificed 1/3 of his beloved offspring to assure that everyone was afforded a choice. It astounds and confounds me that people can slander the concept of choice - can twist it and defile it into meaning that abortion - murder - is a simple matter of a female's choice about her body.

Well, let me tell you, I am most definitely pro-choice, but not the kind of choice that conveniently relieves me of consequences made by previous choices. Some choices - murder, abuse, incest, etc. - are heinous! We, as children of God, are allowed to make them, but they should make the hearts of men revolt! In the case of abortion, a vast portion of our country's citizens have compartmentalized and devilified the idea until it's become a matter to be voted on. WHAT?! How desensitized have we become as a people to such perverse ideas, that the topic could even become a matter of debate? We should all feel, at the core of our being, that this practice is reprehensible and wrong. Our very soul should shake with disgust and outrage and a cry for justice.

So choice. Choice is a powerful and essential key to our very existence. We have the god-given right to choose, but we do not have the privilege of choosing or changing the consequences - good or bad. When someone chooses to shoot someone, the victim may or may not die or be seriously injured, but regardless the outcome, the shooter is responsible for his initial choice and the outcome thereof. When someone chooses to drink and drive, he may or may not cause a fatal accident, but the drunk driver is liable regardless the result. When someone chooses to involve themselves sexually with another person, the partner does not get to control whether the outcome of that choice is pregnancy or otherwise, but he is responsible for it nonetheless.

Satan would have us believe that sex is a casual, recreational thing - that it's no big deal. He is preaching this lie to our families, friends, total strangers, everyday in every way he can imagine - and he's got quite the imagination. But sex is not casual. The choice to participate in sexual intercourse is, essentially, a choice to have a child with your sexual partner. Now does that sound casual to you?

Now, I hear some of you saying, "What about rape and sexual abuse." We are all allowed our choices, and sometimes it seems that our freedom of choice is stolen from us by people who would inflict their will upon us - but it's not. No human can really take away our right to choose. They can affect our available choices, but we each get to make our own choice from the options available us. In the case of rape, I would propose that the options to adopt or keep the baby are the available choices, rather than the choice to murder a child. That said, I admit that I am definitely not in a position to judge someone who's undergone such a traumatic event(s).

Anywho, I watched this powerful and moving clip on facebook (and suggest that you do to) and felt that it afforded a great opportunity to share my view on the topic. I have thought about it quite a bit since a few years ago when one of my liberal, teenage students asked me whether I was "pro-choice" or "pro-life." The question left me speechless, because I knew my answer, politically speaking, was pro-life. But the power of the words pro-choice knocked me over. After all, my fundamental religious beliefs hinge on choice. It took me a couple breaths to realize what Satan had done in perverting such a powerful truth into such a powerful excuse for inexcusable crimes.