Reasons why I'm not ashamed to call myself a Christian and be Pro-choice

This is a response to a facebook wall debate that started as a call to political activism in support of federal funding for Planned Parenthood and ended as a mudslinging debate about abortion and atheism. Upon further inspection, I'm happy to see that for the most part, people responded with well thought-out opinions, but there was some uncalled-for blatant disrespect for any opinion that doesn't agree with one's own. Abortion is an extremely controversial issue and I'm not trying to convince anyone either way, I am simply explaining my own beliefs.

In a perfect world, there would be no need for abortion. Everyone would practice safe sex (thanks to free access to a variety of forms of birth control which would work 100% of the time)in stable relationships capable of withstanding a crisis pregnancy. It goes without saying that the world we live in is far from perfect. The 'you made your bed, now lie in it' attitude that is present in anti-abortion arguments such as 'you shouldn't have had sex if you weren't prepared for the chance you could get pregnant' is unfair in my opinion. It only takes takes one time to get pregnant. One time does not make a woman some floozy who goes around having tons of casual sex and using abortion as her own only form of birth control. (Before you point me towards an example of women who behave like this, I'm sure you can find some. Unfortunately it is a sad part of human nature that people are selfish and lazy. You can neither change nor control everyone, and it's no reason to get rid of an organization that is otherwise useful to millions of other people in need.) No two people's situations are the same so even if one woman deals with an unplanned pregnancy one way, it doesn't mean her choice is what is best for the next woman. Again, in my opinion it is unfair to assume such things and then tell someone else what to do.

Now to bring religion into the mix. Clearly murder and adultery are sins. Now we're left with the debate of whether or not abortion constitutes murder. For the sake of simplicity, let's say it does. (Though I don't think it should legally be defined as murder, but that's a whole different debate.) (Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you...) So there we go. It's sin. Big surprise there. But we can't stop there. Divorce, lying, using the Lord's name in vain, having an impure thought about another person, all of these things are also sins. In case you haven't figured in out, we all sin. Everyday. And sin is sin. It has no magnitude. If you break one commandment, you are just as guilty as breaking them all. (James 2:10) This is what makes the story of Jesus so awesome. In the eyes of God, we're all sinners. No one is any more or less of a sinner than the next person. I am not capable of condemning someone to hell, nor am I in any position to judge. And neither are you. I don't believe a woman should have to be punished for the rest of her life for one mistake. Especially because this can have ill effects on the children and our society.

Abortion is not going to go away. If we drive it underground, it gets extremely dangerous for the women involved. There is no universal 'right decision'. This doesn't mean I think every unplanned pregnancy should end in abortion. I certainly do not think that and neither do the people at Planned Parenthood. I just think we are in no place to judge other people and do not have the right to take away resources they may need to live a fulfilling life.

As a Christian I don't consider it my responsibility to convince everyone I meet to think the same why as I do. You can point out bible verses to me about how we are supposed to stop people from sinning, and to that I call shenanigans. That's impossible. I strive to love and serve others. This means I will not judge you and tell you to act a certain 'right' way. I will be there for you if you need any thing. My only hope is that you do the same to me.

Back to School

Walking onto the Harrisburg HACC Campus was really weird. I didn't know what to expect. I'll admit I'm a bit of an academic snob so I failed to realize that for some people, this is it. It looks like a real college. I arrived via Rabbit Transit Express from York at 8:30 in the morning. It's a snowy morning and both York and Lebanon HACC campuses are closed today (In my defense I'm pretty sure at least the York Campus is just one building. I'll find out for sure on Friday.) so I wasn't even sure Harrisburg's would be open this early. Much to my surprise, there were people everywhere; hanging out with labtops in the lobby of the main building, hanging out in the gazebo in the courtyard. It's unmistakeably a college campus. I still found it weird that it was 8:30am and so many people were out and about. The library (my current location) is pretty full. You would only see a crowd like this at this hour of the morning during finals weeks at Lehigh. Well, come to think of it, I can't say that with any authority, because I was personally never in one of Lehigh's libraries from 8-9:30am. I was either in class or sleeping (or both!) so I could be wrong. I guess HACC students don't have the luxury of jumping out of bed and running across campus to class. The have to hang out here all day in the midst of going to class. And now I'm one of them. A line from another Avenue Q song comes to mind. The last line to this sucker:

"These kids are so much younger than me." (Which I would only say because, following the rhyme sequence, it has to rhyme with 'be'. Grammatically, it's an incorrect sentence and should be "younger than I". See, I told you, I'm a snob.)

After the initial shock of "whoa, this is like real college" I read the syllabi for two of my classes online and was reminded of where I am. With remarks like "quotes should not take up the whole page" in instructions for one page responses that will be due and later examples of the type of sentences NOT to write, my professor's frustration with prior students' performances is palpable. The other syllabus for the online class is filled with threats of deducting points if your posts are indicative of a lackluster effort. A post doesn't count if it only repeats another student's point and doesn't add anything new to discussion, you lose points if it looks like most of your posts are posted "at the last minute simply to meet the deadline rather than engaging in meaningful discussions" (that sentence is in bold and underlined) as well as for poor grammar and spelling (bold and italic). I've never felt so talked down to in a course syllabus. But then I look around me and see the guy next to me singing along obnoxiously to whatever is coming through his headphones (remember we're in a library) and the guy across from me aggressively scratching his junk and then I understand why they include these things.