Jesus’ listeners choose to dehumanize Samaritans. Jesus knows this when he is teaching, “Love God… and love your neighbor as yourself.” Thus, when a listener asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus asserts, It is “a Samaritan.”
Choosing to dehumanize human life is an element of the ancient and still prevalent religion of Militarism. The religion is evident in the Gospel example and additional examples in which one group relates as ranked supremacists over another subordinate group, abuses them, and does violence to them. Militant colonialists chose to dehumanize Native people thus ruling, abusing, and killing them. Militarists maintain a reservation system to maintain dehumanizing Natives. When will Native life as human life begin for indigenous people? Militarist founders of the U.S. chose to dehumanize Black people thus ruling, abusing, and killing them. Militarists maintain a plantation system to maintain dehumanizing Blacks. When will Black life as human life begin for Black people? When will human life begin for people who are gay, Muslim, immigrants and other humans who are dehumanized by Militarists? Militarists have a history of choosing to dehumanize females deny them political and financial rights, legislating them as property, raping them with impunity, and developing a military based prostitution system to continue raping women. Militarists maintain a patriarchal system to maintain dehumanizing women. When will female life as human life begin for females? When will a child’s life as human life begin for children? Whether as heir or as slave, patriarchs control children’s lives like they control female lives. Patriarchy is thus in control of birth control for women. Patriarchal control has not included control over males. In the same way patriarchal control spawns violence against the body of women, they spawn violence against the body of the earth. So too militant patriarchs spawn the violence of war, poverty, pollution, racism, ecocide, the death penalty, sexism, abortion, and more. Early feminists understood patriarchy’s tendency to dehumanize and do violence, especially to themselves and to children. Early feminists therefore opposed abortion. They understood it was patriarchy’s personal and social rule, abuse, and violence dehumanizing them that drove pregnant females to patriarchy’s false ‘choice’ of abortion. It was thus two men, Bernard Nathanson and Lawrence Lader, “the father of the abortion movement,” who started the modern abortion cult. Their first group was NARAL, now NARAL Pro-Choice America. Lader especially, and other patriarchs, convinced proximal wealthy white females joining the patriarchy and being trained to rule, abuse, and kill within it, to also rule, abuse, and kill unborn children. Patriarchs were not freeing females from patriarchy but convincing them they could not advance in the patriarchal system if they remained female. Abortion is patriarchy’s ultimate dehumanization of females. It is patriarchy’s ultimate dehumanization of those who are vulnerable, unborn children. Patriarchy’s choice to dehumanize human life explains the Pro-Choice position for all violence, especially abortion. Pro-Choice females could be guiding the world from their pro-creative authority to be free of patriarchy but they are unfortunately choosing to conform to a world ever more rampant with patriarchy.
It is not patriarchs with a history of dehumanizing people who will end rule and start relating with females as their neighbor. Nor will patriarchs end the abuse they inflict upon females for wombing and birthing babies. Nor will patriarchs end violence and practice healing. We who will not be dehumanized but relate as fully human beings will do so. We will do so because we relate in communion with the cycle of life, live in love with such energy, and act as healers in touch with that power of life flowing through us and around us. We can re-create this world so that peaceful human life can begin.
Prayer: Spirit of Life, we commit to co-creating a Pro-Life culture and world.
Question: Since life began an infinity ago, why do we keep letting patriarchs question when life begins?
July 10, 2022 Gospel Luke 10:25-37 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
It is unbelievable that we still live in a patriarchal world. Even though I don’t believe in or promote abortion, it angers me that old white men are making decisions over a woman’s body. A cultural change that comes from teaching woman about the privilege and gift of life in my opinion is the answer. Knowledge is power. Male white supremacy prevails in every corner of society.