Pro-life. I guess you could say that I was born "pro-life," the son of parents who were both Conservative Baptists and Republicans.
And now, more than forty years later, it is natural for me to prioritize life. I love life and I think life is something we should want to root for in all its forms: communities, forests, endangered critters, oceans, my next door neighbor, my neighbor across the globe, the marginalized, the soldier and civilian, the poor and the rich, the forgotten and the famous, the sick and the healthy, the hungry and the fed … the list goes on and on.
Part of me wishes we could be "pro-all-life," but that might be asking too much.
Some would say that I am muddying the issue when I pull the camera back so far that "pro-life" suddenly encompasses all things and covers issues on all points of the political/theological map. Part of me wishes we could be "pro-all-life," but that might be asking too much.
Finger-point-sins and shared-sins
In our society "pro-life" refers by and large to one thing: pregnancy and birth rights. Specifically, abortion is one of the most dramatic issues in society's moral (sin) debate. For me it falls in a category that I would call: "Finger-point-sins" (more on that in a moment).
First, I want to describe another category. The vast majority of sins I simply call "shared-sins." They are the common sort of temptations that I for one face everyday. They are the sort of sins that I need to handle with care, because harsh judgment of one of these shared-sins might come back and bite me in the backside. You see, I believe I am in ever-present danger of slipping down the road toward a shared-sin. These transgressions include: greed, pride, lust, religious hubris, ignoring the poor, gossip, hording wealth, idolatry, legalism, dishonoring parents, covetousness, lying, racism, unrighteous anger, judgmentalism, malice. Truth be told, I have been tempted toward many of these sins already today.
Let me try and explain why I think abortion is treated differently, like a "finger-point-sin." Unlike our list above, it is the sort of sin that I have zero fear that I might unexpectedly commit. I have no fear that I might slip into the act, the way that I might find myself slipping into envy, judgment, pride, or greed. Thus, it creates an odd form of freedom where I can vocally and dramatically denounce the sin of abortion with no fear that my denouncement will ever come back to bite me. It is one of the great examples of an us/them divide.
Church history and modern society is replete with these us/them issues; the common denominator is that each idea leaves a percentage of society outcast, while the rest of us escape free and clean.
A finger-point-sin therefore carries great power. I can simultaneously "stand for righteousness" and all the while make an unspoken case for my own spiritual significance. Church history and modern society is replete with these us/them issues; the common denominator is that each idea leaves a percentage of society outcast, while the rest of us, at least in regards to that particular issue, escape free and clean.
Different fingers
Jesus seemed to come at such things from a distinctly different perspective.
On the schoolyard growing up we were taught to be careful with finger pointing. I remember adults telling us, "Every time you point your finger at someone else, three more fingers will point right back at you." (Try it for yourself, those darn adults were right.)
Jesus seemed a little schoolyard in his approach. He lived in a world full of more than a few us/them issues and finger-point-sins. And yet his encouragements were strange and surprisingly shared:
"Don't look at the speck in your brother's/sister's eye when there is a log in your own" (Matthew 7:3).
"You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder' and 'Whoever commits murder (finger-point-sin) shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry (shared-sin) with his brother shall be guilty before the court" (Matthew 5:21-22).
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery' (finger-point-sin); but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her (shared-sin) has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28).
"Let the one who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone" (John 10:7).
Jesus invited his people to look at the shared struggles that we all face and even to have the courage to examine our own souls and name the sin that is there.
Jesus' encouragements are for self-examination first. Jesus invited his people to look at the shared struggles that we all face and even to have the courage to examine our own souls and name the sin that is there.
In light of that, I wonder if we need to start by talking about death. And in response to the words of Jesus, I want to take a few minutes to put my finger-pointing away and instead …
I repent that I support, create, and defend a culture of death. I am, in fact, pro-death:
My repentance
I repent of the things I have done and of the things I have left undone:
- I repent that I live a pro-death lifestyle.
- I repent of the ways I have killed by harboring hatred in my heart (Matthew 5:21-22).
- I repent of the ways I have hoarded money while people across my city and across the world die daily of hunger.
- I repent of my whining over the cost of health care with little thought of the millions who die of curable diseases every day.
- I repent that I revel in the death portrayed on movie, TV, and computer screens.
- I repent of my patterns of consumerism that contribute both to the death of forests, oceans, and food-supplies, and lead to the mass-destruction of communities across the world.
- I repent that I have participated in a society that hides the elderly away in institutions to die alone; all the while I am spared the inconvenience of watching their slow death.
- I repent of anytime I have found satisfaction in a thought like: That person got what was coming to them.
- I repent of the ways that I cheer for "our" soldiers and give little thought to the untold numbers that die on the other side of the battle lines.
- I repent of the ways that I contribute to a society where some women feel so lost and alone, and believe that killing their unborn is their only choice.
- I repent that our churches are perceived as unwelcoming and judgmental so those with needs for community and assistance do not feel free to come or simply ask for help.
- I repent that I ignore systemic patterns of death (killings, addictions, unwanted pregnancies, etc.) among poor, marginalized, or oppressed ethnic/cultural communities.
- I repent of anytime I have secretly celebrated a particular person's (or group of people's) destiny to hell/judgment.
- I repent of any acrimonious delight I have found in someone's sentence to prison (living-death) or their execution.
- I repent that I benefit from a society where diseases have been celebrated as just (e.g. HIV-AIDS) and disasters are called "God's judgment" (Hurricane Katrina and the French Quarter.)
- I repent of the ways I fund slavery (living-death) by ignorantly purchasing everyday commodities (http://slaveryfootprint.org/).
- I repent of the ways that I wistfully keep my dollars (and vote for my nation's dollars) away from aiding the very real needs around the world: clean water, hygiene, access to medicine, access to nutritious food, and genocide fueled by debt and injustice.
- I repent that I perpetuate a living-death when I turn my head from my outdoor-dwelling neighbors or worse … when I don't notice them at all.
- I repent of the ways that I aid death by not giving my time, talents, or money to services that help pregnant mothers along their pregnancy path (or support men and women generally along life's path).
- I repent that I do not help foster an interconnected neighborhood, and so my neighbors feel alone, desperate and with no one to ask for help.
- I repent of all the times I have pointed an accusation at another's participation in death while ignoring my daily death contributions.
- I repent that everyday I ignore Jesus' exhortation: "Let the one who is without sin, throw the first stone."
Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
