It is sad and sobering to read this pastor defend abortion by writing: "When I made my choice to end Alma’s life, I was behaving as an adult." It is even sadder to read her conclusion that: "It was a human life. That’s why we named her, wanted her, but also knew we did not want her enough." This choice empowered Schaper to be a grownup, and that’s why legal abortion is, in her words, "the best policy conceivable for men and women and for mature, moral sexuality."
Judson Memorial is an American Baptist congregation, founded by the son of the most beloved Baptist missionary couple of all time, Ann and Adoniram Judson. The church was funded by Baptist John D. Rockefeller. The church is concerned for justice and fairness and equality, even noting prominently on the website that the coffee, tea, and cocoa is "fair trade."
The man who founded this church saw with his own eyes what it is for a husband and wife to sacrifice everything for the souls of lost sinners across the ocean. And yet, behind the pulpit this Sunday, there will stand a woman with no apologies to make. She will preach to them, baptize them, counsel them, and perhaps she’ll even speak to them about the liberating power of safe, legal abortion. She will tell them she’s a grown-up, and that she makes her own choices. And it’s not about babies, after all. It’s not about any particular baby. It’s not about a baby whose name means "soul."
Of all justifications of abortion, it is the religious one that frankly puzzles me the most. Most religious folk I know, even of a more liberal stripe, claim to believe in God’s role in the creation of each individual person, and God’s love for all. So we’re left with the conundrum – if God created this person and loves this person…who am I to spit in God’s face and destroy his creation?
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