The Life Argument

I'm going to veer for a moment away from my sinful revolution thoughts because I need to get something off my mind and into the tangible. It's the issue of pro-life vs. pro choice.

Presidential voting is coming up and always this seems to be the dividing line. Economy and war and all that... the abortion argument is the front line in every election. But I'm beginning to see it less as an abortion argument and more as an overall life issue.

The pro-choice argument has for years made it's claim that it "favors the life and health of the mother", but that argument should be continued to say "... over the life and health of the child." Now, the church has said that they are killing babies and that it's murder for years. But looking at it a bit broader, the intrinsic argument is much deeper than that. What it is saying, is that one life is more important than another. It categorizes ALL human life into a hierarchy system.

To say you favor the life of the mother is to simply say you agree to the Hippocratic Oath that all doctors have taken for thousands of years. Every doctor taking this oath swears to the protection of life. So to say that a doctor will favor one life over another in the time of birth is ludicrous in it's own account. Mother or child, they both get the same treatment. And in no situation should a doctor say, "Well, the mother is screwed, let's just get the kid." What I am saying is that they should both be equal in importance. Here is an interesting article on the matter.

But that again is the abortion issue, which I think is only the surface of a deeper life issue. The real argument in abortion is that this life is more important than that life. Out of the issue of convenience and importance, this life should be allowed to choose the outcome of another. Looking at this argument at it's root structure, I think we can see a greater scope of influence.

The same argument that says "mother life" > "child life", will eventually (allowing for social gravity) say that "healthy life" > "sick life"; or "young life" > "old life". The fact that there is an argument of one life over another introduces a hierarchy that should never exist in the first place. The reality of truth is that a stance that says "mother life" = "child life" will also allow for "American life" = "Iraq life"; or "Christian life" = "Islamic life". Life = life. There is no order of importance.

I hate to go here, but this argument of one life over another is the origin of the genocide argument. For the sake of these lives, namely, "my life" or "our lives", all other lives in contrary position should be considered forfeit. How arrogant can human beings go in this system?

This argument in it's full and blown out state of being will at the end of itself ALWAYS come to "my life" > "your life". Always. Because humans are self-obsessed, and given to our own devices we will eventually fall back to a self-protection mode. In this light, how unique and wonderful is the message of Christ. "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends," John 15:13. In fact, the message of Christ flipped the argument: "My life" < "your life". "I make your life more important to me than my own." Even to the point of "Christ's Divine Life" < "our earthly dirt life". What an amazing choice of humility to flip such a profoundly obvious order of importance; that God would find His own life worth forfeit to save ours.

Look past the obvious pro-choice, pro-life argument. Listen to the candidates, and anyone really, with a different filter. If they favor one life over another (even if they happen to say pro-life), then test the wisdom of their decisions. We may find the presence or absence of Christ more obvious than we thought.

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