submitted by Joshua Long, sign from Las Vegas, NV
"Don't hate God." Always solid advice from a church.
This sign is silly because "Don't hate the prayer, hate the prayer" doesn't exactly have the same ring to it as "Don't hate the player, hate the game" , does it? In fact, it doesn't make any sense. At all.
"Good thing Mary didn't have an abortion."
submitted by Joshua Long, sign from TX
Yeah, all women who have had an abortion: what if your child was the Messiah?!? HUH?!? How do you feel now?!?
Look, I don't like abortion any more than the next guy...but this sign is just terrible. Some women really struggle with a difficult decision and then struggle with guilt afterwards. The church should be there to listen and love these women, not throw terrible "what if's" at them and make them feel worse. Jesus didn't say to the woman at the well "Good thing my mom wasn't a slut!" did He? Alright then.
More.
The ones I'd be worried about are the one's with all the radical ideas about abstinence and want to impose their ideals on the whole country, adding confusion to the issue of abortion.(right or wrong)
ReplyDeleteI have some figures I would like to share with you and your readers.
World estimations of the number of terminations carried out each year is somewhere between 20 and 88 million.
3,500 per day / 1.3 million per year in America alone.
50% of that 1.3 million claimed failed birth control was to blame.
A further 48% had failed to use any birth control at all.
And 2% had medical reasons.
That means a stagering 98% may have been avoided had an effective birth control been used.
If Christians were really concerned with reducing abortions, we would focus our energies on preventing situations that make women feel cornered into having them...things like unfit conditions to raise a child, no access to birth control, no community help for raising a child, etc.
ReplyDeleteInstead we focus on policy that is quite unlikely to change no matter how much we picket, etc.
Christians should be pro-life, in my opinion. The WAY we are pro-life speaks volumes, though. Are we really being effective at our calling if we complain and picket and carry signs about policy that isn't going anywhere, no matter how many conservative judges Bush gets to appoint? Instead, let's use our faith to help create a society where abortion isn't needed as much. Legal abortions aren't a huge problem when abortions aren't necessary!
As an added bonus to this point of view, Christians who take it are all of a sudden allowed to vote for different parties, not just the one that claims to be "pro-life" once every four years and then does nothing about it.
Wow, there was a soapbox. Back to your regularly scheduled snark.
Interesting stats, aus blog. Thanks for posting.
Now thats what I'm talkin about.
ReplyDeleteBill Clinton once said abortions should be available, safe and RARE. If he were still in power I believe he would subsidise birth control to all who could not afford it, and fund lots of education on the subject.
That's the only way to stop the slaughter...
Don't get me wrong...I still think abstinence is a perfectly legitimate choice (I took it)...but I also realize that people without any religious compunction to do so will not choose that route.
ReplyDeleteKnowing that is the case, that also means that modern culture likely has no moral compunction to outlaw abortions, as it allows for people to pursue the lifestyle they wish to pursue.
As Christians, we should love those people we disagree with and quit pursuing dead-end causes. In a perfect world, abortions don't exist, not because they are illegal but because there is no need for them. We are never going to achieve a perfect world on our own, but that doesn't mean we can't work to improve our world and significantly reduce the number of abortions that take place. People who picket outside of Congress and abortion clinics aren't accomplishing this at all, they are just fighting a losing battle.
Joel, your commentary was so good on these awful signs. The part about Jesus and the woman at the well took an awful sign and poked fun at it in a great way. Thanks for being a Christian AND having a sense of humor (and a rational mind).
ReplyDeleteJoel you have more than god in your heart you also have humanity.
ReplyDeleteMany christian non profit organisations in australia have taking a caring approach just like you describe.Government funded programs to help educate and supply. The birth control is heavily subsidised and costs less than five dollars per script.
If there were a god would this not be his work ?
take care...