Monday, January 17, 2005

Steve

Often our personal choices and attitudes have far reaching effects that may not be foreseen or intended. Others that may hear one's speech or observe one's actions are swayed in their own thought life or actions. In effect, personal choices can provide an adequate substrate for a general change in the spirit, or zeitgeist, of the times. I've often heard it claimed that what one generation does in moderation, the subsequent generation takes to excess.

Such is the case with legalized abortion. In the United States, the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that set aside state laws and denied the right of the people sent an official message, not only that a woman had a legal personal choice about the life of her baby, but also that they could arbitrarily choose who was to be considered human. In essence the Court stated that the weakest among us-- those with no voice-- could be destroyed at the whim of the mother. The initial decision certainly did not state it in this manner, but the ball was rolling to the degree that today a viable child can be killed through partial birth abortion and far beyond.

It is often argued that a woman has the right to control over her own body. If referring to abortion this assertion is biologically incorrect. The woman's uterus, cervix, and vagina form a structurally complex invagination. It is technically to be considered outside of the woman's body just as the inside of the gastrointestinal tract is biologically outside the actual body. The baby, with its own personal DNA and blood supply, is within the mother's personal sphere, but altogether another human entity.

The subsequent cultural zeitgeist has naturally evolved to a great degree in areas that I'm sure were neither intended nor foreseen. Even a child of modest life experience can understand that abortion is killing a baby. Although perhaps not easily verbalized, even a thoughtful youngster instinctively knows that the officially sanctified argument 'the right to control over my own body' should more accurately be translated 'the right to control over my own personal sphere'. From this paradigm the extent of one's personal sphere is subject to a wide range of interpretation. One's spouse and children are within one's personal sphere and are therefore subject to one's right to control. Bullying classmates have injected themselves to one's personal sphere so are subject to 'choice'. A despot's personal sphere may extend to all matters, public or private, within the borders of his country. The parameters of choice within the personal sphere are limited only by one's desire to play god.

Legalized abortion and its natural offshoots are a greater danger to the health, safety, and continued life of this country then all the terrorists, Iranians, North Koreans, and tsumanis combined. Our official 'constitutional' proclamation to reject God in favor of our own self-deification places us directly in line with an ancient nation called Moab. "And Moab will be destroyed from being a people because he has become arrogant toward the Lord." (Jeremiah 48:42) "They [Israel] even sacrificed their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood. Thus they became unclean in their practices, and played the harlot in their deeds." (Psalm 106: 37- 39) Moab was obliterated and both divisions of Israel suffered for generations because of their rejection of God.

2 comments:

The probligo said...

Steve, perhaps you can explain to me...

Just exactly what "rights of the people" have been denied when you state "...the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that set aside state laws and denied the right of the people"?

Is it the right of people to make "state laws"?

Is it the right of a person to determine the course of their own life?

Do you believe that the State has the right to control a person's life to the extent that an unwanted pregnancy must come to term?

Do you believe that the State should control the minutiae of all the possible exceptions to that proscription of abortion?

Or would it not be one hell of a lot easier to leave it to the conscience of the person concerned.

After all if a woman has an abortion, and if there is eternal retribution on her as a consequence, what concern should that be of the State?

It strikes me that the proscription of abortion is the removal of one right to self determination thatpeople have or should have...

Steve Burri said...

Hey, probligo! Haven't seen you around in awhile and I noticed a prolonged absence from your own postings. Welcome back!

In response to your comment, many of your questions can be answered by a reading of Article III and Amendment X as it is actually written in the U.S. Constitution. I won't spend a lot of time on it since it misses the main issue of the posting.

The main issue addressed is that the assertion by one group of people that another, weaker group has no rights, leads to an outflow of assumptions, attitudes, and actions that logically follow that premise. In this case, since a helpless baby has no right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then, at my convenient decision, neither do you if somehow I can obtain the upper hand. This unintended consequence may be a greater factor in many actions that we all consider abhorrent; greater than we can easily see or are willing to even consider. The mother has the right to determine the course of her own life, but the baby does not. Then... I have the right to determine the course of my own life, but you do not if you are within my personal sphere. I really don't see that as at all inconsistent or as much of a stretch.

You don't like the actuality of a sovereign, authoritative God? The above assertions also fit the evolutionary model like a glove, but without any sanctions.