Thursday, October 06, 2005

Never Born


*
The phone vibrated in my pocket while I was eating dinner.

It was the mother of someone I have known for almost 30 years.

"She is being rushed to the hospital."

I closed the phone and returned to the table slowly.

I tried to finish my dinner and I did my best to continue chatting.

But there was no pleasure in it.

Later, much later, I got another call.

This time it was from the daughter.

"I had to deliver the baby. . . .

It was dead."

She had a miscarriage.

"Oh baby", I said, "are you out of danger"?

"Yes, but they won't take the unborn dead child out of the room."

"They what?"

"They won't take the unborn child out of the room until I name it.

And they say I have to tell them where

and how the young 6 month old fetus will be buried."

This woman has just suffered the loss of her unborn baby,

and she is being asked, no coerced, into making decisions only

hours after a significant emotional loss and physical trauma.

All I heard yesterday was talk about abortion.

Will the new SCOTUS designee support or oppose it?

Since she is a member of a middle of the road, tongue talking,

full gospel, faith healing, snake biting Christian Cult,

of course she is against killing unborn babies,

Whether they would ever be born are not.

Now, I can talk about Christians because I am one.

I have even been a Trustee in a fine Baptist Church.

I used to play golf with the preacher.

Often I would give him good ideas for his sermons.

One time, he asked me to read the scripture for the Sunday service.

I read the last chapter and half of the Sermon on the Mount,

Including Chapter 7 verses, 22-24.

He never made that mistake again.

So, let me try to handle this delicately then.

I think the abortion or for that matter the miscarriage of an

unborn child,

is a sad, substantial, and tragic loss of human love,

and human hope.

The loss of any life, either the unborn child, or any other death,

is often a major emotional hurdle in the life of those who suffered the loss.

We grieve these losses.

But is it morally healthy for an entire nation, its media, its politicians,

and its religious politicians to elevate the loss of these unborn children,

be they a clump of DNA or a 6 month developed fetus,

to such a point that the national dialogue becomes fixed on the issue?

Is it morally healthy and wise to ignore the grotesque murders

of tens of thousands of born and walking, talking children and adults,

who just happen to be at the killing end of our bombs and bullets?

Is it morally healthy to debate abortion and ignore infantcide in Africa?

Is it socially healthy to allow the abortion debate to divide us

so that we neither have the energy or the time to debate and solve

the really great issues and global forcing agents that are upon us today?

I think not.

As morally reprehensible as the elected loss of the unborn may be,

It does not stand up well against our other communal social crimes.

The abortion issue is a giant political sponge that sucks up and diverts

our National Attention.

And it is no accident either.

The abortion issue is the perfect emotional smoke screen.

It overcomes us with its emotional power and sexual force.

It hides the crime in the suites and it blinds us to the streets.

It is a moral paint job that gives cover to the misery and butchery.

It is a magical salve, an elixer of moral superiority.

It is a colossal political red herring.

We would do well do bury it along with our other dead.

The young fetus that had to be named was named Angel.

His ashes are now in a little box.

We will spread them someday back to the dust of the earth,

or maybe the sea.

He would have been my grandson.

But he was never born.

Those who would use that loss for political purpose. . .

They must be zombies.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,

neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,

shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;

but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord Lord,

have we not prophesied in thy name?

And in thy name have cast out devils?

And in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them,

I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Matt 7:18-23


Home

What it is About

Earthfamily Principles

Earthfamilyalpha Content

Links

LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS

*Gustaf Klimpt, Death and Life

8 Comments:

Blogger Charlie Loving said...

Life?

What is it? A fleeting second on the geologic scale.

I have been to dozens of funerals and wakes but not many birthings, maybe three in 64 years on the planet. The birthings are miracles, the funerals are closing doors.

And what of this God?

In Zarie (now the Congo) I was living in Kinshasha working with the French traveling along the mighty Congo River from hamlet to village to city. Everyday there were the women, the mothers, with their babies. Starving babies being nursed by starving mothers. It was very sad to see and at first it preyed on your soul, but as time wore on these hapless starving people became invisible. There were so many that you became blind to them, the starving mass became a sort of norm. The bloated bellies and the ugly situation were just there and we had a job to do and a club to get back to with its swimming pools and fine food. Besides what could we do anyway?

A Southern Baptist missionary I met in Kisangani a big town, talked to me. He was looking for someone to speak English to, and I was him. 'The Congolese are heathens and most are beyond redemption for the will not embrace Jesus, so they are cursed and their children will never reach heaven.'

Lots and lots of miracles relegated to die of hunger and then wrapped in shrouds and sent to their ancestors. Babies that never had a chance.

To wit I thought that that makes no sense at all. Are we not all susposed to be...?

It was at that point I realized that Christianity has failed us and the world and all religions are made up stories. I sometimes wish they weren't but I really think that they are. A set of rules to live by and to get along with others of your ilk. Parts of those rules are pretty good.

5:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Oz,

I'm sorry for your loss and also your daughter's loss of the baby. What a bizarre scenario at the hospital.

Thanks for a wonderfully thoughtful and balanced essay on the politicizing of abortion.

7:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Charlie Loving's comment speaks of the disregard for humanity that we have always had as Christians for any other human being not of our color.

The story in the hospital is even more telling. Barbaric.

It is no wonder we are becoming the largest killing machine on the planet. We hold the sanctity of an unborn child higher than that of any other human being on the planet.

7:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So very sorry to hear of your loss, OZ, you and Hope are in our thoughts and prayers
K

10:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this a shaping and view of this issue that should get more attention.

well done.

thanks

10:34 AM  
Blogger Step Back said...

How many of the "We Love Life" crowd adopt an unwanted child?

Orphanages and foster homes team with unwanted children who were saved from abortion. Now many of these "saved babies" live lives of despair and misery. Is this what God wills of us?

10:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry you lost your almost grandchild. I'm so sorry that our country thinks that abortions are worse than bombings.

We are collectively crazy. I am against abortion but there are other important issues too.

Keep talking.

10:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you, OZ, for sharing something so sad and personal, and for taking that pain and transforming it here. I hope you, your daughter, and her mother are alright.

2:09 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home