Sunday’s readings celebrate John the Baptist and the sanctity of his life. They speak much of wombs; “The Lord called me…from my mother’s womb.” The Lord “formed me as his servant from the womb.” “(Y)ou knit me in my mother’s womb.” “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant (John) leaped in her womb.” It is thus not surprising that Bible based self-titled Christians hold the life of the child in the womb as sacred. Do evangelicals also hold the life of a child born from the womb and the life of that child’s mother as equally sacred? Does the U.S. culture, which promotes abortion, hold life sacred?
It seems self-titled Christians in the U.S. are only anti-abortion. It also seems they are anti-child. Can it be said they are pro-life? There is evidence they are pro-patriarchy. Throughout history, women have been subjected to patriarchy and its domination. That includes the patriarchy and its domination within institutional christianity. Church members are among those who still deny women basic human rights such as speech, education, and work. Self titled Christian patriarchs have exercised control over women’s bodies to the point of denying women overall health care including services for family planning, pregnancy, and childcare. Patriarchs have also exercised control over women’s bodies through abortion. The abortion industry, like the war industry, has its foundation in patriarchy; a person asserts domination over another living being. They believe they have the right to inflict suffering upon that living being. Finally, they assert the living being’s death is the means of their salvation. Women have never been saved by patriarchal domination. It includes our routinely being controlled, threatened, and violated by ridicule, discrimination, abortion, abuse, pornography, prostitution, rape, partner abandonment, as well as murder – the leading cause of death for pregnant women.
Our power as women includes being in communion with vulnerable life. It is an alternative life-giving power to patriarchy’s dominating control. Women’s power is under assault from Jeff Session anti-abortion types separating children from their mothers at the U.S. southern border. Women’s power is also under assault from Planned Parenthood pro-abortion types separating children from their mothers at U.S. abortion clinics. Both anti-abortionists and pro-abortionists reflect the same military value of domination. A woman’s power to bring forth life deserves consideration in a context free from two sides of the one same value of domination. A woman nurturing life within her places her in a unique and entirely intimate relationship. The power of love and life in pregnancy gives witness to a bond of communion unlike any other. Our communion is a bond of vulnerable interdependence and wholeness rarely appreciated in a patriarchal culture that values domination.
Prayer: Spirit, empower us for life.
Question: What is my knowledge of and embrace of the consistent ethic of life?
June 24, 2018 Gospel Luke 1:57-66, 80 Feast of John the Baptist