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 still choose to dehumanize Native people and maintain a reservation system to maintain ruling, abusing, and killing them. When will Native life as human life begin for indigenous people? Militarist founders of the U.S. chose to dehumanize Black people and still maintain a plantation system to maintain ruling, abusing, and killing them. 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 dehumanizing females and still maintain a patriarchal system to maintain ruling, abusing, and killing them. When will female life as human life begin for females? Females have been and are denied political and financial rights, are dehumanized as property, to be raped with impunity by a patriarchal master class who also maintain a prostitution system to continue raping them. Patriarchs’ ruling, abusing, and killing of females, for millennia, has also included ruling, abusing, and killing any female’s child. When will a child’s life as human life begin for children? Whether as heir or as slave, children’s lives are controlled by patriarchs like female lives are controlled. Patriarchal control of female conception and birthing of children means denying their natural flow. Patriarchal control has not included control over males. Patriarchal birth control over women has usually done violence to the body of the female, as patriarchs have usually done violence to the body of the earth. Patriarchs tend to devise things, like birth control, according to their values to rule, abuse, and kill. Whether a person aligns as right wing or left wing, straight or gay, Black or white, male or female, when they chose to rule, abuse, and do violence, they choose to relate as militant patriarchs and they spawn war, poverty, racism, ecocide, sexism, abortion, and more. Early feminists understood patriarchy’s double dehumanization against themselves and against children and therefore opposed abortion. They understood that it was patriarchy’s personal and social rule, abuse, and violence oppressing 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 human beings. Abortion is patriarchy’s ultimate dehumanization of females. It is patriarchy’s ultimate dehumanization of those who are vulnerable, unborn children. It is patriarchy’s choice to dehumanize human life that explains the Pro-Choice position for 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. It is human beings who will do so – human beings who relate in communion with the cycle of life, who live in love with such energy, and act as healers in touch with that power of life flowing through them and around them. 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.