2008
How Would Jesus Vote?
Like damn near every American voter, I'm hardly informed on many if not most political worries of the day, and probably haven't earned my vote. I do not know the details of the Surge, don't understand the intricacies of either candidates' tax plans, and I honestly don't find Sarah Palin all that attractive. So let's call those leading American issues a wash. Now let me tell you why I won't be voting for John McCain to be the next president of the United States. All our friendly cable news pundits point out the next president is likely to appoint at least a couple justices to the Supreme Court and I believe John McCain's legacy will be defined as the man who gave the Court that final push to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Elect McCain and, just as so many of our young men went north to Canada during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, so, too, will our young women be flocking there in search of safe and legal abortions by the end of the 21st century's first decade.
Speaking of which, can't we all join hands and thank God for that procedure? It has been a quick solution to an awful lot of problems. And speaking of God, if ever there were a woman who would have felt justified in terminating a pregnancy, it would have to be the Virgin Mary. Way back in the day, whilst she had her fiancé Joseph taking perpetual cold baths, she found herself expectant without ever doing the deed (that was her story and she stuck to it).
Poor girl, motherhood around the corner and apparently she'd never even gotten laid. I'd hope the hardiest of Catholics would understand her feelings and decision, had Planned Parenthood opened an early branch in Nazareth back in 9 months, B.C.
And who knows, maybe the pressure did get to her. Maybe Mary tried what she could to induce a miscarriage with some kind of primitive abortion. But, if ever there were an indestructible embryo, an "iron ovum" if you will, you'd have to assume Jesus was it.
But I digress, and I'm not sure Christ has anything at all to do with the right, or wrong, to make these decisions. Republican presidential wannabe and evangelical Sen. Sam Brownback disagrees. He's as pro-Jesus and pro-life as they come, despising the apparent dead baby fetish of those bloodthirsty liberals. How awkward.
Aren't both sides on the wrong side of every voter's favorite deal-breaker? Shouldn't Democrats be sensitive to the plight of the poor, defenseless children-to-be? Why aren't they screaming and carrying on how cruel and unusual abortion is, while Republicans identify its efficiency and the long-term fiscal responsibility inherent in that piece of sound logic Roe v. Wade guarantees?
CNN.com told me Brownback said this: "Abortion ends a human life. It destroys an individual who could have lived, worked and contributed to our society."
Let's think on that. "Could" is a tricky word. Anything "could." In recent years the United States has been sidestepping land mines at a rate of more than a million unwanted pregnancies annually. This is America, where we proudly proclaim any one of those pregnancies could have resulted in the president of the United States. But probably not.
What would happen a lot more than Brownback's fantasy is an awful lot of lives turned upside down, or worse. If there were no more abortion in the United States, how many of those unwanted children would be given a responsible upbringing and a fair shot at life? How much and how many of them would have "lived, worked and contributed"?
In his book "Freakonomics," quirky economist Stephen Levitt posits that the 1990's downturn in crime is a direct result of 1973's Roe v. Wade. Demographically speaking, he says, thousands upon thousands of those aborted would have been born into lives leading to crime.
If you honestly believe there is a man in the sky who knows even more than me denouncing abortion, and that is the reason you hate it, I understand. It's one hell of a leap of faith, but I will then accept your being "pro-life" if you will concede that in the practical sense, the world is a better place because of abortion.
WWJD if He went to medical school? My first thought was pediatrics, or maybe geriatrics. I pondered where Christ could better the most lives as I read Psalms 137:9: "How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies and smashes them on a rock!"
I am confident that Jesus Christ, MD would be an abortion doctor.