I wonder if it's just where I work.
A few years ago I moved from a red state to a blue state. The area I live in is in many ways like where I used to be, so it's easy for me to use the mental shorthand of thinking I'm in one of those place where it's actually a mostly red state that is overcompensated by some large, ultraviolet population centers, but then someone says something that I'm shocked to hear when I'm not on the Internet.
I may have mentioned a certain coworker before; nice young lady, smart, talks about how she grew up in a conservative redneck family--and they have their issues, I won't knock her that--and then how she got to college and her eyes were opened. I appreciate her somewhat hipster taste in restaurants and breweries in the area, but I couldn't help teasing her once about professors saying "Didn't you know everything your parents taught you was a lie?" with a straight face.
Totally lost on her. But also only tangent to my point.
She's a minority amongst the abortion supporters I cross pass with these days. She likes to talk about how going to third world countries to "teach them about" contraception and abortion would be a great way to help bring education to women and bring their country to modernity.
The majority? In the abstract, I hear talk about the real hardship cases, how it's a necessary last resort for lonely and helpless women in a real bind.
In the concrete, however, "real hardship" is a little nebulous. One suggested a few weeks ago mandatory abortion for pregnant women who contract zika. Another said to me that if she found out her teenaged daughter was pregnant, they'd immediately take a trip to Planned Parenthood; no discussion, no negotiation, no consideration for alternatives. "So much for being a choice," I said. "No! She's not old enough to know what comes with motherhood!" That argument would have gone in a different direction if her teenaged daughter weren't just hypothetical, but I did notice a pattern.
There's a lot of talk about the hardship cases. But mostly there's a lot of people who want to preserve some right to a certain lifestyle, and they're willing to destroy real civil rights to get there.
A few years ago I moved from a red state to a blue state. The area I live in is in many ways like where I used to be, so it's easy for me to use the mental shorthand of thinking I'm in one of those place where it's actually a mostly red state that is overcompensated by some large, ultraviolet population centers, but then someone says something that I'm shocked to hear when I'm not on the Internet.
I may have mentioned a certain coworker before; nice young lady, smart, talks about how she grew up in a conservative redneck family--and they have their issues, I won't knock her that--and then how she got to college and her eyes were opened. I appreciate her somewhat hipster taste in restaurants and breweries in the area, but I couldn't help teasing her once about professors saying "Didn't you know everything your parents taught you was a lie?" with a straight face.
Totally lost on her. But also only tangent to my point.
She's a minority amongst the abortion supporters I cross pass with these days. She likes to talk about how going to third world countries to "teach them about" contraception and abortion would be a great way to help bring education to women and bring their country to modernity.
The majority? In the abstract, I hear talk about the real hardship cases, how it's a necessary last resort for lonely and helpless women in a real bind.
In the concrete, however, "real hardship" is a little nebulous. One suggested a few weeks ago mandatory abortion for pregnant women who contract zika. Another said to me that if she found out her teenaged daughter was pregnant, they'd immediately take a trip to Planned Parenthood; no discussion, no negotiation, no consideration for alternatives. "So much for being a choice," I said. "No! She's not old enough to know what comes with motherhood!" That argument would have gone in a different direction if her teenaged daughter weren't just hypothetical, but I did notice a pattern.
There's a lot of talk about the hardship cases. But mostly there's a lot of people who want to preserve some right to a certain lifestyle, and they're willing to destroy real civil rights to get there.
Thanks, but if we're going to get into the nitty gritty, it's the Church that interprets the Church, and will do so until the Eschaton. The latter-day city on a hill might in some times and places be hard to find but it will not be the one that breeds doubt and confusion.
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