Go check out the photo heading the Piraeus blog today

The woman in this photo is not, of course, consciously making any religious statement, but my own mind was pulled in that direction by her photo. More specificially, it put into really stark terms, as this blogger says, the distinction between these perspectives.

Many try to justify abortion on religious grounds, or, at the very least, place it – somehow- on a plane of affiars to which God is indifferent. I really don’t get that at all.

I mean, do you believe that God is responsible for the creation of each human life or not? Do you believe that God’s hand is in the creation of each human being or not, that really, in God’s eyes, there are no accidents? Do you believe that God loves each and every person?

Then how can you believe that God could be please to see this unique little person he’s fashioned targeted for execution?

What so many seem to have forgotten is that this way that we live – working mysteriously with God to create and rear children and care for each other in community from conception to natural death – is just terribly difficult because it requires such sacrifice of the self. To be able to love in this way requires one to be totally wrenched from the socket, turned around and re-oriented. No, I am not the center of the universe. Yes, others are just as deeply loved and valued by God as I am. Yes, God works through me to bring life and nurture. And yes I want to love – and all of that means, no matter the price.

That’s hard. And when religious communities step off the boat and settle on the land of self-actualization – it’s harder than ever.