Every Saturday morning this semester, I have tried to pop out of bed early and get to my favorite coffee shop for a super-charged study session. Every Saturday, I drive by a Planned Parenthood on my way there. This morning when I drove by, there were huge pictures of bloodied, mangled fetuses.
My first thought was a sudden panic for those women and men who would drive by today and who had traumatic or lonely memories of abortions.
My second thought was about something one of my professors in college had said. I can’t confirm if what he said is actually true, but I just remember what he had said that day in our History of Christianity class. “The early church ,” he explained, “was known for picking up abandoned babies and taking care of them.” (According to this professor, the abandonment of babies was not uncommon in the Roman empire.)
My third thought was what those signs could have said—especially if the people holding the signs were Christians. What if Christians communicated that the doors of churches were always open to pregnant women, and that resources were always available to help, and there would be absolutely no spirit of judgement or shame? What if passionate, pro-life Christians in America were not known for displaying pictures of blooded fetuses, but instead were known for taking pregnant women into their homes? What if poor women knew that churches gave away endless supplies of diapers and baby food? What if they knew that churches across America offered free babysitting services so a mom could take an afternoon off and care for herself with a good book or a nap? What if those same churches were also known for caring about the sexist and racist economic structures that marginalize so many people from having the resources they need?
Furthermore, what if the powerful and wealthy Christians opposing health care reform because of fearing the federal funding of abortions would have actually offered something constructive and creative? What if they had said, “Health care is a life issue, and we are fully supportive of bringing health care to all American citizens. But, in good consciousness, our own tax dollars can’t fund abortions. However, we are going to meet you half-way. If you make federal money available for abortions, that just inspires us to do everything we can to provide other options for women and men, so that your money for abortions isn’t needed after all.
The failure of the church in American is too often a failure of love and a failure of creativity. As I have watched the health care wars evolve these past several months, I remain unconvinced that the people who speak so passionately against the federal funding of abortion actually care at all about the women who are seeking those abortions. They care about being right; they care about being anti-Obama; they care about leveraging this issue for their own power. If they actually cared about abortion beyond their own self-righteous convictions, we would be witnessing far more creative efforts to love.
