A friend of mine from college posted a request on facebook the other day. She asked if anyone was interested in working to decrease the number of abortions through means outside legislative acts. And suddenly I realized--I was! I'm not a real believer in creating laws that police theological issues, specifically marriage and abortions (since those are the two big hot topics). For one thing, I don't believe the United States is a Christian country, so I don't believe it is right to force all citizens to obey Christian laws. But my second, more practical reason, is this: people won't obey them.
Not allowing gay men and women to officially marry does nothing to stop gay relationships. Not allowing women to have abortions does little to stop abortions. Those laws just make the abortions more dangerous.
Obviously my ideas are not complete--I'm all for laws that prevent and then punish murderers. That is a moral issue, and many would say it is just the same as preventing and then punishing aborting mothers.
I guess my real point is: I think there is a better way.
My friend suggested many courses of actions: better adoption services, providing free babysitting for single mothers, supporting comprehensive sex-ed classes in school. I think these are fantastic ideas! I am almost always more interested in changing the world through personal interaction rather than governmental statutes.
What got me really excited was when I thought of my own suggestion. Many women who are struggling with the choice to abort or keep their pregnancy could use counseling. Not in an "anyone who would even consider aborting their baby obviously needs counseling!" way. There are many reasons, some extremely complicated, why a woman would consider such an action. I think counseling would be helpful. And counseling for women who have had abortions. And counseling for women who chose to keep their baby, now have a child they weren't 100% in favor of keeping, and need someone to talk to.
I could be that person! Basically, I'm finding it super exciting all the ways studying biblical counseling will enable me to serve people and bring God's kingdom into our world.
It IS super exciting. And I'm super excited for you :-) And that kind of counseling is so super needed.
ReplyDeleteI recently told a friend, "If you were pregnant and planning to abort, I'd consider adopting the baby." I don't necessarily think that everyone needs to go to that kind of extreme, but I do think that we need to be serious about adoption and helping people we know who end up in tough situations if we're serious about being "pro-life."