Harry Knox, Interim Executive Director of Integrity USA, the voice of LGBT Episcopalians and their allies, was the founding director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program and was appointed by President Obama to the President’s Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Yesterday, he wrote a piece for the Huffington Post that castigates Christians for being anti-abortion. His reasons for supporting abortion, to me, are just mind boggling.
The harsh and condemning judgments of some religious leaders are troubling. They suggest that abortion is morally wrong, while ignoring the fact that miscarriages and unwanted pregnancies are common.
Wait. What? Miscarriages are common so abortion’s OK? Does he know that everyone eventually dies? 100 percent of people die so why should it be a crime to kill someone? It’s the same logic, if by “logic” I mean asshattery.
And then he comes up with 6 reasons that Christians should support abortion.
1.Religions hold that all human life is sacred — and include the life of a woman as well as that of a potential child. This belief inspires many religious communities to work for a world in which women are healthy and every child is wanted, loved and cared for. Those religious communities support birth control, safe and legal abortion, and health care for all.
Huh? The fact that he calls the unborn baby a potential child already indicates that we’re not really reading from the same sheet of music.
Where in the Bible does it speak of “potential children.” But let’s forget religion for a second, let’s talk science. Scientifically speaking, what’s a “potential child?” You see, liberals came up with that moniker out of desperation. And guess when the “potential child” becomes an “actual child.” It’s whenever they damn well please. And not a second sooner.
You know the old saying that you can’t get “almost pregnant.” Well, according to pro-aborts, you can now.
2.Religions value the responsible and loving use of the gifts of sexuality and reproduction. The decision to become pregnant and have children is one of the most important we make as individuals and couples. We have a sacred responsibility to support the rights of women in this process because women have the responsibility of bearing children.
And there’s one pretty dependable way to avoid bearing children, isn’t there?
Knox talks about using the gift of sexuality in a responsible and loving way. Is it responsible and loving to have sex with someone I don’t particularly like all that much? Isn’t Church teaching saying that the gift of sexuality is to be used responsibly but when the Church says it, the Church means in a marriage while Knox means putting saran wrap on your junk or going halfsies on the abortion bill.
His reasons 3 and 4 are just too boring to go over. Essentially he’s saying that women should be able to do what they darn well please when they darn well please.
#5 is essentially just Knox saying that all the cool peeps are doing it so why shouldn’t everyone else. You think I’m kidding, don’t you? OK. For not believing me, here it is:
5.Reproductive rights are central to the lives of women and girls along with access to education, health care, equal opportunity and human rights. Women’s full participation in life and full expression of self requires that reproductive health care and options are available. This is especially true for women who are economically marginalized, who have unintended pregnancy rates that are four times as great as other women. In this country, half of all pregnancies are unintended and about half of those end in abortion. That means one in three women will have an abortion at some point in life. Use of birth control, which some opponents equate with abortion, is virtually universal. As many as 99% of women use it at some point. Access to safe, legal abortion and universal availability of birth control must be a basic part of a woman’s reproductive health care.
Pro-aborts don’t do right and wrong, they do polls. Instead of conscience they just kinda’ ask around. Instead of the Catechism, they refer to Gallup.
It’s true. You can’t argue anything with libs. You just get numbers thrown at you like 98 percent of Catholics use contraceptives!!! So?! So what?
6.We are a nation with a rich diversity of religious traditions. Decisions about birth control and abortion are medical decisions and are also decisions of conscience — what an individual believes is ethical. Since religions have varying views about reproductive rights, enshrining any one view into law restricts the ability of those who disagree to follow their own conscience and religious beliefs — thus denying them religious freedom.
That is, unless that law is forcing religious institutions to pay for your abortion pill. Then it’s OK.
This guy’s piece is just darn unimpressive. If this is the best they can do, I’ll ask once again the question that plagues me in the night –How are we losing to these guys?
May 4, 2012 at 4:50 am
Man does not create personhood. Not government, nor the United Nations, nor China creates personhood. Man codifies personhood, measures and studies personhood, but man does not create personhood. The person is immutable, that is, the person is a person always, from the first instance of life when two become one, God creates the rational, immortal soul, and endows unalienable rights, and inalienable gifts, and among the inalienable gifts are free will, intellect, and sovereign personhood.
Man does not create freedom. Not government, nor the United Nations, nor China creates freedom, life, and liberty.
God creates life, liberty, freedom, sovereign personhood, inalienable and unalienable rights. Our Creator creates persons in His image and likeness in free will and freedom.
Government is constituted among men to protect life, liberty and freedom. Government is constituted among men to protect innocence, virginity, and Justice. Government is constituted among men to acknowledge the person.
May 4, 2012 at 4:57 am
Point of fact, we're not losing to those guys
May 4, 2012 at 5:08 am
You know why economically marginalized women have an unintended pregnancy rate four times greater? It's because people keep lying to them about how babies are created. It should terrify this supposedly scientific society that girls are saying every day "I don't know how I got pregnant" – and they really mean it. They have no idea how they got pregnant since no one told them they could get pregnant while having "safe" sex.
Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results". Our culture needs to wise up – encouraging people to have sex while not being ready for babies hasn't worked for several decades now.
May 4, 2012 at 8:55 am
These are not reasons to permit the killing of the child in his mother's womb; they are poor excuses. "Reasons" require reasonableness.
May 4, 2012 at 11:53 am
DaTechGuy, As much as I believe things are starting to turn around, 50 million legalized killings would say this has definitely been a rout for a long time.
matt
May 4, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Man is God’s intellectual property. Those who would deny their Creator are intellectually dishonest. What is more, they advocate that people put asunder what God has joined together, the human being, composed of body and soul. They incite the wrath of God against our nation and use the wrath of God against the people of God with impunity. How long will God be silent?
May 4, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Matt said, "Scientifically speaking, what's a 'potential child?' You see, liberals came up with that moniker out of desperation."
Exactly. It's as if they think when the "fetal material" is passing through the birth canal, nobody really knows what is coming. Could be a mackerel. Could be a rhesus monkey. Who knows?
May 4, 2012 at 1:48 pm
Scott W: It's as if they think when the "fetal material" is passing through the birth canal, nobody really knows what is coming. Could be a mackerel. Could be a rhesus monkey. Who knows?
Oh, I just love surprises. Especially after laboring for hours.
How in this age of information can women be so ignorant about how the female anatomy works? It's not rocket science.
"Women's full participation in life and full expression of self requires that reproductive health care and options are available."
I fair to venture that some women can go all through life and never know what a natural menstrual cycle looks like. What an artificial way to live.
Henry Knox is a fool, and as a good priest friend who is from Nigeria told me once, "I don't negotiate with fools."
May 4, 2012 at 2:11 pm
'How are we losing to these guys?'
"How did Jesus loose to those guys?" is a similar question. Those guys didn't know what they were doing.
Forgive, pray, and argue like Jesus, even though it may seem/be futile.
Amen, amen, Love wins in the end.
May 4, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Chris Johnson at MCJ blog suggests we take Knox's logic for a test drive:
(1) The harsh and condemning judgments about dropping a nuclear bomb on Tehran are troubling. They suggest that the complete annihilation of Iran’s largest city and every single man, woman and child in it is morally wrong while ignoring the fact that hurricanes and tsunamis regularly destroy cities and kill innocent people. They deny that God is present in these times
(2) The harsh and condemning judgments about setting off that bomb in a crowded city are troubling. They suggest that terrorism is morally wrong while ignorning the fact that volcanoes regularly explode, killing thousands of people all over the world. They deny that God is present in these times.
(3) Your harsh and condemning judgments about me boinking your wife are troubling. They suggest that adultery is morally wrong while ignoring the fact that more men and women have sex outside of so-called “wedlock” than in it. They deny that God is present in these times.
May 4, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Nice Scott W!. I have seen a lib illogic exposed by substitution like this a few times. It's a superb way to clarify – even to the most challenged lib mind – how their arguments are in fact retarded nonsense. More of their blithering should receive such treatment.
May 4, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Since females with dark color skin are the Primary target, it is very easy to substitute "black woman" or "blackgirl" for any of the typical dehumanizing terms they use against unborn people…
Eg: … Potential black woman…
It uses demography to replace dehumanization.
May 4, 2012 at 5:24 pm
"I have a bourgeois attitude toward murder — I disapprove of it."
— Hercule Poirot in one of Agatha Christie's stories
Mack in Texas
May 4, 2012 at 5:52 pm
"Women's full participation in life and full expression of self requires that reproductive health care and options are available."
Does he not realize that infertility clinics are book to the brim of women who weep, pray, scheme, beg, bargain, and bankrupt themselves for "full participation in life."
There is one argument these goons will never take from us:
Babies are beautiful.
Babies are miraculous.
Babies are the great wonder and joy of the world.
QED
May 4, 2012 at 10:51 pm
Blackrep: "Goons" is right'. Are all Episcopalians stupid, or just this guy?
May 5, 2012 at 3:21 am
Intentionally or not, these arguments misrepresent pro-lifers in general, by assuming we are out to control women instead of acting out of genuine concern for the child. I'm thinking it's unintentional, because they probably aren't smart enough to realize it.
May 6, 2012 at 5:55 am
5.Reproductive rights are central to the lives of women and girls along with access to education, health care, equal opportunity and human rights. Women's full participation in life and full expression of self requires that reproductive health care and options are available.
What these pro-choice "Christians" don't seem to understand is they come from the perspective of women unable to control their sexuality. If a woman's sexuality is not something they should and/or can control, there needs to be certain "rights" attached. The "right" to kill the child while in utero, the "right" to abortifacient contraceptives, etc.
This is especially true for women who are economically marginalized, who have unintended pregnancy rates that are four times as great as other women.
I find it interesting to note they failed to mention the majority of abortion providers and PP clinics are in very low-income neighborhoods. That's all these people know as "healthcare." By setting themselves up in vulnerable populations, pro-choicers knowingly provide a temptation for people who are desperate. It's like dangling a piece of candy they know they shouldn't take, but they can't help but take it because it looks appealing. Messed up.
1.Religions hold that all human life is sacred — and include the life of a woman as well as that of a potential child.
Life is either sacred, or it's not. There aren't any in-betweens, but wow this one is pushing it.
From my knowledge, the only Abrahamic faith which mentions a "potential life" is the Jewish faith. Last time I checked the stats, more Christian women aborted than Jewish women. It looks like a lot of Christians are going the cafeteria route, but it's a la carte to the tenth power.
May 8, 2012 at 2:43 pm
QED,
All Episcopalians are not stupid, though the revisionist majority does lap this stuff up. Those few remaining conservative dioceses and parishes in the Episcopal Church (TEC) desperately hope * they * come up for air when this rapidly graying and decaying spiritual Titanic sinks. … And yes, this denomination is the 'wonderful example' that lefty, cafeteria Catholics always speak of so glowingly. This heresy is also the logical conclusion of "women's ordination".
– an Episcopalian layman
May 16, 2012 at 10:06 am
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