by Peter John
For
unfamiliar readers, "The Christian Left"
is a formal organization. It promotes itself as sensibly Christian, believing
in Jesus Christ, promoting liberal values, and asserting that Jesus himself
seems more liberal than conservative by modern standards. After all, he
supported helping the poor and needy, and condemned hoarding wealth. He
challenged ecclesiastical authorities, exposed their hypocrisy, and disavowed
their actions "as one having authority" of his own.
"The
Christian Left" fails the test of liberalism when it suppresses open
discussion on issues, as many respondents on Facebook have learned. All it
takes to get blocked from responding to its posts is to dispute one of its
arguments. However respectful or well-considered the response may be, if it
sheds doubt on the conclusions of the original post. They block this dialogue even as they claim that Facebook censors their ads.
I learned
this by disputing an assertion that because the Bible refers to God breathing
into man "the breath of life" to make man "a living soul",
it means that Biblically we are not living human beings until we draw our firstbreath. The ironic fault in this argument is that it employs literal Biblical
interpretation -- the same literalism the organization decries in conservative
fundamentalism. More seriously, it promotes the very anti-Christian assertion
that abortion is completely acceptable in Christianity, and goes so far to suggest it as desirable in some cases. That falls far short of being tragic in even the most understandable cases.
The
Christian basis for opposing abortion has more to do with the dogma of
incarnation than does the Biblical Creation story. Luke talks of Mary carrying
Jesus --the embodiment of the Creator --as soon as she conceives. She
immediately visits her cousin Elizabeth, six months along with John the
Baptist. When the women meet Elizabeth immediately recognizes Mary as the
Mother of her Lord when John the Baptist jumps in her womb. Theologians
commonly interpret this as Jesus' formal prophetic commission of John, even
though both are yet unborn -- and even though Jesus has barely been conceived.
Such New
Testament revelation establishes the personhood of the unborn for Christians.
Philosophical conclusions augment this. These recognize that by definition
being human means that there will never be another you. As a human being, you
cannot be replaced, what makes you unique cannot be transferred to anybody else,
and you exist for your own sake -- not merely as a part of something else. In
combination it means that the key word in "human zygote" is still
"human".Christianity recognizes the
irreplaceable humanity of even a child who has just been conceived.
"The
Christian Left" has no interest in hearing these thoughts, or in allowing
discussion of them. It deletes dissent and blocks dissidents, permitting only
approval of its conclusions, and creating the illusion of consensus. Truly liberal
dialogue embraces discussion. Truly Christian dialogue does not minimize the
destruction of human life. In the end a thoroughly misnamed "The Christian
Left" becomes religious fundamentalism of the most destructive kind
because it calls evil good and good evil.
- - - - - -
(c) Peter John Stone. All Rights Reserved. Contact author for permissions.
No comments:
Post a Comment