Ticked

Ticked

Theology in the Trenches

By Kathleen Kjolhaug

 

Returning from a ten day service trip to Costa Rica, I was rested and restored. Peaceful by all accounts would be a good summary. We’d been challenged. We’d been fed. We’d been broken and restored. Miraculously, the little group went to help meet the needs of others, and as God manifested Himself beyond measure, we were healed up of much.

 

One of the topics of discussion while there was the idea of fasting in order to better hear His voice. So, feeling called to look at it in a different manner than simply fasting from food, I chose to fast from watching the news and all the negativity that swirls around with each broadcast. Honestly, before I left, it seemed to never end. Between CNN and the homepage I’d chosen for my newsfeed on my computer, I was constantly wrestling with the weight of the world. If it wasn’t someone doing harm to another, it was someone doing harm to themselves. Mass destruction seemed to be everywhere, and it was getting to me. No more distractions for me, I vowed once I came home from this trip. No siree!

 

And, I was doing well. I was doing well that is, until I received an e-mail soliciting a mere $3 donation. I checked out the website to see if it was legit and indeed it appeared to be on the up and up…and I was ticked.

 

So, what was my beef about this particular e-mail? It began with bold headlines. NY TIMES: “Most restrictive abortion bill to come to vote in either chamber in over a decade.” How bad can it be? I wondered. It’s already legal, so now what are the complaints about?

 

It continued. “Republicans are taking the war on women to a whole new level:” That certainly caught my attention because I didn’t know they were at war with women. It continued: “In a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, House Republicans just voted to ban abortions after 20 weeks.” This apparently was big news because it, too, was in bold. And they added, “That would dramatically restrict women’s access to reproductive health care.” However, the good news, according to my e-mail, was that the president was threatening to veto this “extreme” bill.

 

Hmmm…let’s add this up. First, there is the choice of abstinence when one doesn’t want to get pregnant. (No need to write me back on this point…I’m well aware of the instances when it isn’t a choice for women.) Then, if that’s not an option, there is birth control to be considered as a means to avoid pregnancy. Next, if that doesn’t work there is the morning after pill. And finally, when all else fails, there is abortion during the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteen week.

 

Apparently it’s a big bummer when someone finally has enough courage to draw a line of sanity in the sand at 20 weeks. My vote is we open up true reproductive freedom to both women and men by allowing babies to be born so they, too, might have the chance to reproduce one day if they so choose.  

 

Forgive them Father; for they know not what they do.  Amen.