Pro-Life or Pro-Choice

I'm guessing this may clear out a few social media friends on both sides of the argument.  First and foremost, I truly believe the current American political system in place doesn't give two hoots about the life of any citizen, much less the preborn.  The fact that abortion has been a hot button issue for every election cycle for years, tells me the politicians aren't going to change anything, except to further divide the people.  The timing of this argument raised my curiosity though, as it's not yet the campaign cycle. 

Abortion has been legal for nearly 50 years.  Nobody is going to stop having sex because some politician does some posturing or some "old lady" blogs about it!  I am not for abortion, but I'm not anti-choice.  See how crazy the wording on this subject can get?  I believe the choice about pregnancy should be made before the chance for conception.  If you don't choose to be pregnant, don't do what it takes to get that way!  I don't believe in America's health care system at all.  I believe pharmaceuticals are sorcery and abortion is part of America's health care system.  People from both sides of the political aisle find something to disagree with me on this subject.  There are plenty of religious conservatives who will "boycott" at the drop of a hat, until it comes to health care.  If abortion is part of health care, why aren't these religious conservatives boycotting and trusting the G-d of the Bible for their health.  That's what I'm doing, and I get plenty of grief from that group for my decision, but I digress.  Not to leave out the progressive liberals, who seem to want free health care.  It was actually the pro-life nitpicking and the pro-choice hate that motivated me to truly reconsider my perspective.

Now, hang on, because I've begun to look at this from an eternal perspective.  I made a social media post on the subject of abortion, and the thread took on a life of its own.  As I read the comments, and the hate that was spewed and the ridiculous accusations and individual cases of victimization, I was appalled.  People get so ugly when they feel strongly about this issue, and once the ugly starts, the tone overrides the content of the statement.  As the thread devolved, the strangest thing came to mind, though, and that's what I'm blogging about today.

First, I thought of Abraham.  Ishmael was certainly not a part in the perfect plan.  All things considered with Islam, just where would this world be right now, if Ishmael had not been born? 

Second, I thought of Pharaoh and Herod, while Nebuchadnezzar brushed the edges of that thought.  Pharaoh and Herod had no problem declaring death sentences for babies.  Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon and he designed some pretty harsh punishments for those who were not of Babylon.  Considering these three men were all about power and control with little consideration for life that didn't bow down to their power and control.  Both sides of the argument lost me there, as American politics is all about power and control.  I'm just passing through this world.

Scripture speaks of children being sacrificed to Molech.  Molech was a king who received infant sacrifice.  Molech has always seemed to me to be a metaphor for self-serving convenience, and that's where my thoughts really began to scramble.  In that thread, I read comments made by young women looking forward to the deaths of "older people."  When I thought about what some parents and grandparents sacrificed for people this age, I realized there is a serious issue of self-centeredness, and perhaps as Paul mentioned seared conscience or reprobate minds.  We older generations didn't do a very good job!

We truly are living in the last days.  If these people can look at other people and make statements of waiting for them to die, no wonder they want to maintain the right to kill someone they haven't seen.  I couldn't imagine being a helpless baby at their mercy . . . I can't realistically offer to raise and care for all the unwanted babies.  I wish I could, but I can't.

Those thoughts were troubling.  I know, several G-d fearing people think an unplanned pregnancy should "end" in adoption.  We all know that's not going to happen very often and when it does, the government is right in the middle of that, also.  In a perfect world, perhaps adoption would be chosen every time, but in a perfect world, there'd be no unplanned pregnancy.

Realizing how much I value choice and how many people just really want to make decisions for other people, I've realized I don't want to make decisions for other adults and I don't want them making decisions for me.  I also realized in some of those pro-choice comments, I wouldn't want them to have a baby!  Still, though, it's not my decision.  The rhetoric and brainwashing is intense.  Calling a developing human a zygote or embryo, or even fetus; somehow removes the "human" factor for some individuals.  Conscience cannot be legislated!  I've read about the cases of rape and incest, but anyone with Google can find the actual abortion statistics on that and realize it's a very, very small percentage of the abortions that are performed.

I had two other thoughts that seem oddly comforting.  Our Heavenly Father, whom many do not serve or honor promised Abraham heirs too numerous to count.  In describing the number, He compared them to the stars and sand . . . We've watched the decline of morals and the rebellion against our Creator gain momentum.  Every aborted child will not be raised by self-serving hedonists or religious hypocrites.  I know hearts can change.  I'm certainly not the person I was in my twenties, and for that I'm terribly thankful.  Would I ever counsel someone to have an abortion?  No!  But by that same token, I think it's much better for those babies to be amidst the white robed throngs than raised by someone that doesn't want them and doesn't care about the value of their soul.
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; Torah of Holy Scripture




 

Technological Purgatory

There is a "spirit" over this country that seems to be covering nearly every aspect of our interaction.  In using the term "spirit" I am in no way giving an excuse to the behavior we choose to demonstrate, nor the words that fly out of our mouths.  What I am saying is, America had the world wide reputation of being rude, years ago.  Now we've gone beyond rude, to aggressive and argumentative!  There have been a number of situations in the past week, I find myself "not fit for polite society," then discover our society is far from polite.  Anger management has been an issue for several years now!  I don't want to interact on a level that feels like it's dropped the standard.  Technology is adding to this aggression, I believe, as well as to difficulties in our ability to focus and possibly a host of other emotional imbalance.

Usually, I'm pretty calm in person, until I've had more than enough.  My kids and grandkids say I'm, "patient, patient, patient, patient . . . DONE!"  I've gotten better about not always telling someone what I think and simply finding true peace in letting them have the last word.  I'm sure it could be labeled as some sort of convoluted control game of a free spirit, but so be it.  I'm at peace with it, and I feel if I didn't initiate the interaction, I am free to discontinue my participation.  Somehow the Scriptural passage in Proverbs warning about answering a fool according to their folly . . .really resonates in my spirit, to just be quiet.  Not every person who disagrees with me is a fool, but I would really like to avoid making a fool of myself when the disagreement will obviously remain unresolved at the time.  I realize this is beginning to sound more like a sermon than a state of our nation observation.  The title of this article does give warning of religious overtones.

As technology increases, the "human experience," of course, is decreasing, and with that decrease is the decline of etiquette.  Social media is filled with memes and images depicting groups of people in the same room, obliviously looking at their phones.  Although I don't have a smart phone or even a cell phone for that matter, I do spend a great deal of my day in front of this screen writing, posting, and answering questions.  I have realized, although; I have made some genuine friendships and relationships, I enjoy the fact that I don't carry the internet with me.  I remember when I noticed one of my daughters and grandkids focus on their phones and texts.  It seemed their apps were more important than personal interaction.  As it turns out, they do have personal interactive social lives; it was just their way of letting me know where I stood.  Technology is still neither good nor bad in and of itself, but rather only reflects the user.

I had a wake up call the other day, or I should say I made a wake up call.  When I came online in August of 2001, my first ministry website was through yahoo.  As I gained my footing online and expanded the size of the website, I stayed with yahoo.  The first website was very simple, just a few pages with which I had help so it didn't require much tech support.  In preparing to move and change my information, wires were crossed and the website was eliminated.  I remember that moment the technician told me he could wipe out my site as soon as the call ended.  That was back in 2004 or 5, with day shift personnel.  Upon relocating, I continued with yahoo, as I understood their sitebuilder and a couple of the people on the night shift were awesome tech support.  I still remember Charles and Angela, fondly with much gratitude.  They could walk me through any technical question I had or dig me out of any disaster I'd made.  Sadly, I haven't spoken with Charles or Angela in many moons.

In my continuing patronage of yahoo, I apparently missed a memo . . .  I'm working on moving my domains to GoDaddy while maintaining my webhosting at yahoo.  Thinking I had deactivated my card that yahoo could "automatically hit," I had planned to move the domains when they neared expiration.  On my screen, my yahoo wallet showed my method of payment had expired.  However, much to my surprise; I soon discovered that was not the case on yahoo's side of the screen.  I called, had my incident number, etc. and the voice on the other end in billing sounded strangely similar to the last voice I'd heard in tech support when my page wouldn't publish.  It took awhile to put the pieces together, and sadly, my reaction to yahoo purgatory was less than exemplary.  I thought I was prayed up enough, but as it turns out, I can be pretty obnoxious without coarse language or yelling.

The prompts seem to be just a technological stall.  I've decided it's probably been researched and found to be similar to the techniques of "mental breaking down" used in other areas of our society.  The method of "hurry up and wait" is a phrase credited to the military, but also very clearly seen now in health care as well.  Who is ever seen by the doctor at scheduled time of the appointment?  Unlike the military where there is a pecking order, and unlike health care where one can simply get up and leave the over crowded waiting room, there is no resolution in tech support and auto pay.  All we can do is pray before making the call; stay on the line, follow the prompts, breathe deeply, and practice anger management.  

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.  a Proverb of Holy Scripture