{"id":198169,"date":"2019-03-11T07:36:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T12:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=198169"},"modified":"2019-03-09T14:38:29","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T20:38:29","slug":"religiously-pro-life-not-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/religiously-pro-life-not-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"I used to be religiously pro-life, but I&#8217;m not anymore. Here&#8217;s why."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.secularprolife.org\/2019\/03\/i-used-to-be-religiously-pro-life.html\">Secular Pro-Life<\/a>) I used to be religiously pro-life.<\/p>\n<p>Or rather, I used to be pro-life because I am religious.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m still pro-life. And I\u2019m still devoutly Catholic. I just don\u2019t necessarily believe the former is dependent on the latter.<\/p>\n<p>Being pro-life merely because your religion dictates it puts you in a dangerously tempting position \u2013 a position to say \u201cabortion is wrong for me, but not everyone shares my beliefs, so it is not wrong for everyone\u201d much as you would say \u201cIt is wrong for me to miss Sunday Mass, but not everyone shares my beliefs, so it is not wrong for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many people I know acknowledge the tragedy of abortion and would never choose it for themselves, but simply do not feel that it is their place to make that decision for others. Of course, this \u201cpersonally pro-life\u201d position is basically the definition of pro-choice. I understand the appeal of this position. It is a comfortable position to be in (moral relativism usually is), but you can only remain in this position if you don\u2019t think too deeply about whether or not abortion is a victimless action.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.str.org\/articles\/only-one-question#.WLiGQPkrKCg\">Greg Koukl proposed<\/a> that \u201cIf the unborn is not a human being, no justification for abortion is necessary. However, if the unborn is a human being, no justification for abortion is adequate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because of my religion, but also because of biology and logic, I believe the unborn are human. Deep down, I think most people know this to be true and just need to follow this knowledge to its logical conclusion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/im-pro-life-activist\/\">Why I\u2019m a pro-life activist<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you think abortion is sad, horrible, difficult, and\/or serious, you are already halfway there.<\/p>\n<p>If you think there should be some limits on abortion, regardless of what those limits are, you are already halfway there.<\/p>\n<p>If you are \u201cpersonally pro-life,\u201d you are already halfway there.<\/p>\n<p>If you think abortion is \u201ca necessary evil\u201d or should remain \u201clegal, safe, and rare,\u201d you are already halfway there.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever treasured an ultrasound image of your child, you are halfway there.<\/p>\n<p><i>Why<\/i> should abortion be rare? <i>Why<\/i> is the decision so difficult? <i>Why<\/i> would you never have an abortion? <i>Why<\/i> don\u2019t you like it?<\/p>\n<p><i>Why?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Because abortion destroys something that has intrinsic value.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bHe8YGPGzj4\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Why do we say it\u2019s okay for you to \u201cchoose\u201d to destroy <i>this<\/i>, but we need laws to prevent you from destroying <i>that<\/i>?<\/p>\n<p>What determines our humanity? Is it size? Location? Age? Independence? Circumstance? Being wanted?<\/p>\n<p>Is a teenager\u2019s life worth more than a toddler\u2019s because the teenager is bigger?<\/p>\n<p>Is a newborn\u2019s life worth less than that of a 10-year-old\u2019s life because the 10-year-old is more independent?<\/p>\n<p>Is a professional athlete\u2019s right to life greater than that of a woman in a wheelchair?<\/p>\n<p>Is the child of wealthy parents more worthy of legal protection than a child who frequently goes hungry?<\/p>\n<p>Can a mother kill her son because as he grows he resembles and reminds her of an abusive ex-husband?<\/p>\n<p>If a young girl wanders into your house uninvited, are you allowed to kill her? What if asking her to leave would endanger her life? What if you called the police and they told you it would take them nine hours to come collect the child? What if it took nine <i>months<\/i>? Could you kill her then?<\/p>\n<p>We cannot draw arbitrary lines at points in human development or changes in circumstance where we go from \u201cI don\u2019t know if you can hurt him. That\u2019s up to you\u201d to \u201cNo. You do not have the freedom to intentionally cause harm to an innocent human.\u201d A person\u2019s value does not increase by degrees. It is inherent, intrinsic, and not up for each of us to determine according to our opinion.<\/p>\n<p>This is why my pro-life position is not determined solely by my faith. My faith does inspire and embolden me to speak on this difficult topic where I am usually a very non-confrontational person, but I believe abortion is as much a human rights issue as it is a religious one.<\/p>\n<p>My hope is that in the future we will think about legal abortion they way we think about slavery today. So rather than accusing me of <i>imposing<\/i> my view, instead understand that I am <i>proposing<\/i> that you think about it. I can\u2019t change a law, but maybe I can change a heart.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This article was published at <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.secularprolife.org\/2019\/03\/i-used-to-be-religiously-pro-life.html\">Secular Pro-Life<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Secular Pro-Life) I used to be religiously pro-life. Or rather, I used to be pro-life because I am religious. I\u2019m still pro-life. And I\u2019m still devoutly Catholic. I just don\u2019t necessarily believe the former is dependent on the latter. Being pro-life merely because your religion dictates it puts you in a dangerously tempting position \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":192162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I used to be religiously pro-life, but I&#039;m not anymore. 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