Hi everyone.
In my last post I wrote about my letter to the editor at Portland Press Herald. The letter was in response to another letter to the editor written by a young woman named Caroline. I wrote back, (see my last post.) It was published on their website and received over 80 comments. Recently a "reverend" wrote a response to my letter. I would like to take a little time discussing these comments and the reverend's response.
For the comments:
One comment asked, Whose god? Which god? and went on to tell me to do what my God wants me to do and to keep out of other people's beliefs.Well I hope everyone can see the blatant contradiction there. He is arguing against my beliefs by saying that I should leave people's beliefs alone and at the same time trying to make me follow his beliefs. Oh well, what should I expect from people who cannot even justify their worldview let alone justify logical argumentation.
Another person wanted to tell me that my view on abortion being premeditated murder is just my opinion. Sorry but that was not my opinion God had come up with that "opinion" long before I did.
One person asked me to please stay out their bedroom and out of their religion. Well if they want me to stay out their business maybe they should stay out of my business and stop telling me what do with my religion.
And I did not know this but my level of ignorance and my blind faith will end up putting millions of women at risk and without access to healthcare. Or at least that is what one person thinks about me.
One person told me that I should seek help. You know there are many good counselors. I think this person should seek help from the only one who can really help any of us, God Almighty.
One person told me that as an American first and foremost they respect my opinion. They then went on to say that they were an atheist and disagreed with my belief in God but at least they were polite. I like civil conversations more than yelling matches. This comment was better than some of the others.
Someone said that we do not want to adopt special needs children, babies born addicted to drugs or "other-racial" children. First question, who ever said that? I would love to adopt a baby no matter what problems they had. Health problems whatever, we can deal with it. And "other-racial" children? We are not racists. We accept people no matter what shade of skin they have. Maybe the person who wrote this did not realize that two of the brothers who preach outside Planned Parenthood are dark skinned and that two of the families there, including my family, have children with disabilities. Oh and the founder of Pro-Life Missionaries of Maine adopted a boy from Ethiopia. Hint, he is not white. Oh and that lady is actually half Japanese. She isn't even all white. Well there goes that argument.
One person said to feed, clothe, and help the living children before I get obsessed with anything else. That is what I am doing trying to keep mothers from murdering their living children. I think that is a good first step to caring for them.
Another person said they wished they lived in a world where people like me did not exist. Well I bet that is how they feel about the One True God but that does not make Him, or me, cease to exist. You can wish all you want but that does not change reality.
Yet another person said that I need to minister to the group in front of Planned Parenthood about lying because ALL of our posters lie and they actively LIE. If they could provide facts that show we are lying I would like to hear them. PLEASE provide evidence for your claims instead of just making assertions.
Another accused one of the "fundies", I assume she meant one of our group, of saying that pregnancy resulting from rape was a blessing. I admit it, I think that even if the child was conceived because of rape that child is still a blessing. Children are always a blessing! This person may have been the one I had a discussion with on Planned Parenthood's facebook page because they accused me of something similar there.
That was just a few of the comments. Recently another man wrote a letter to the editor about his views on the abortion issue. This man claims to be a "reverend" and calls himself a christian. But I can tell you that in this aspect he is not acting Christlike. You can read the letter here. I am not writing exact quotes due to copyright laws but if you read the letter first this should make sense.
Yes I do claim to know God's will in this matter concerning abortion. He said "You shall not murder." I think that is pretty clear what He meant. This man can think whatever he wants but that does not make it true. As is made clear in the rest of the letter this man is not getting his argument from the Bible so I think that he probably went against his own advice and had an already formed opinion and then twisted Scripture to try to justify his claim.
This man thinks that I am entitled to my opinion but I am not allowed to require other professing Christians to to agree with me. I do not require other Christians to agree with my opinion. I just tell them that they need to agree with God's word. There is a difference. My opinion does not matter, what God said in His Word does matter.
Also, the prophet Micah said to "do justice." Being a voice for the voiceless and calling people to stand up for justice and the rights of the unborn sounds like doing justice to me. "Love kindness." Yes be kind to the baby in the womb. Maybe for a start you could try showing kindness to them by not murdering them in their mother's womb. "Walk humbly with God." Yes, humble yourself before God acknowledge that God is smarter than you and stop trying to make up your own opinions and saying that your thoughts are better than His revealed Word. And also why are you judging my personal faith decisions based on your biases and beliefs. Let me make my own decisions based on my understanding of God, faith and my circumstances Reverend. Please Reverend take your own advice and stop telling me what to believe.
At the end of the letter the reverend said that in such a context abortion can be morally justified and ethically correct. Since abortion is murder, this "reverend" just said that murder is morally justified and ethically correct in at least certain circumstances! And then he calls himself a person of the Christian faith!
He then says that he helped found the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights and then said that he is a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood. Then he says that is where his faith leads him not to the absolutism I expressed in my letter. Well, that can be where his faith leads you because he does not have faith in the God of the Bible who expressly states that "You shall not murder," and that we should take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. I express absolutism because I am stating what God has said and He is the ultimate authority! I have a reason to be absolute. Sadly this reverend is resting his argument on mere opinion not on the authority of God's Word.
My friend Sam Caldwell wrote an excellent response to this man's letter. Here it is:
Dear Donald J. Rudalevige,
I would like to offer some loving responses to your ‘Letter to the Editor.’ I am praying for you - praying to our heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
You wrote, “Virginia Cowperthwaite is very decided in her knowledge of what is God’s will. I suggest that such certainty is usually derived from a person’s already-formed opinion, which then looks to Scripture to support it.”
That could very well be the case. But could it not also be the case that Miss Cowperthwaite is “very decided” because she is following Paul’s words in Romans 12:1? (Please forgive me; I am quoting the Bible because you were quoting the Bible. I want to meet the terms of your argument.) There Paul commands, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Could it not be that Miss Cowperthwaite is in fact "testing" and "discerning" something true about the will of God? Could it perhaps be that she is taking the Scriptures to be clear enough for us to read them intelligently, clear enough for us to know and follow God’s will from them?
I appreciate that you quote from Micah 6:8. You write, “The prophet Micah says that it is God’s will ‘to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.’” But I must ask: did you not discern something clear about God’s will in that verse? Or is your perception of God’s will here just as opinion-ridden as Miss Cowperthwaite’s?
I don’t know whom to trust!
If you did discern something intelligible about God’s will in Micah 6:8, do you believe that such a beautiful text stands alone? Or would you allow for the thought that Micah’s terms find further definition elsewhere in the Word of God?
(In a word, what do you think about how Paul and the Bereans teach us to ‘compare spiritual things with spiritual’ (1 Corinthians 2:13), to ‘search the Scriptures’ (Acts 17:11)?)
Don’t you love the other parts of the Bible where those things Micah promotes – justice, a love of kindness, and walking humbly – are further defined?
Is the “justice” you read of in Micah divorced from the enjoinment of Proverbs 24:11: “Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back”?
Is the “love” part of God’s will – which you clearly discerned in your reading of Micah 6:8, didn’t you? – at all connected with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:6? There Paul tells us that true love “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.” What do you think of such love? Or do you find that “the truth” is better left as a matter of opinion? Surely the truth could never “require agreement,” or lead Miss Cowperthwaite to do so, could it?
Does your love “rejoice with the truth,” or does your love find “the truth” foggier than the Portland Head Light?
Does your “love of kindness” also love the kindness of God? For the kindness of God leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4), if Paul was speaking clearly. But repentance from what? Surely we’d have to have a modicum of agreement – some semblance of truth – if we were to speak of an actual repentance from an actual…something, no?
But the part of Micah 6:8 that really speaks clearly to you is the part about “walking humbly.” You write, “For me, that humility suggests that we not try to judge the personal faith decisions of others on the basis of our beliefs and biases, but allow them the choice of their understanding of God, faith and circumstance.”
I guess you are entitled to your opinion, just as Miss Cowperthwaite is to hers. But what you “may not do, yet seek to do, is require others of us who identify as Christian” to agree with you.
You assume agreement, as you must be aware, when you tell us what it means to be “fully human.” You seek agreement when you tell us that “In such a context, abortion can be a morally justified and ethically correct option.”
And I hope you realize that at that point in your Letter you have laid down your Bible, so I will put mine down too for a moment - if only to try to meet the terms of your argument.
You believe that “To be fully human means to make choices based on one’s own understanding of faith, their personal circumstances and their relationship to others.”
My fully human choice-making faculties are telling me that either a) you are right in your stance on abortion, b) Miss Cowperthwaite is right, or c) you’re both wrong.
With an issue as serious as abortion, I quite respectfully would not want to follow a mere “matter of opinion” from either of you. The stakes are just too high!
Either “babies are being murdered” or “abortion can be a morally justified and ethically correct option.”
Or…maybe it’s all just a matter of opinion, and the God who called Himself “the Truth” (John 14:6) does not require agreement from His followers on something as insignificant as a few million human lives. Because after all, those lives are not "fully human" on your definition, are they?
I like that phrase of yours, “to be fully human.” If only someone could define it in a more humane way.
David, how did you define the "fully human" in Psalm 139:13-16?
"For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them."
David's approach seems just a bit more "just and kind and humble." What do you, think?
In Christ,
-Sam Caldwell
sam.caldwell@utoronto.ca
I think this is an excellent response. Thank you Sam. I may write another letter to the editor in response. If I do I will post it here. This is turning into a fun conversation and not only that but God has made it so that the secular newspaper is publishing that abortion is murder! God can use anyone to proclaim the truth. Even the newspaper!
With love in the Lord,
Virginia.
Beautiful!! Love you Virginia!!
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