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I understand the Consistent Life Network as a whole prides itself on religious diversity, including atheists. In that spirit, I share this piece from my journey of faith. I know I\u2019m in good company: Francis of Assisi, Franz Jagerstatter, Ben Salmon, Martin Luther King Jr., Dan Berrigan, Mother Teresa, and even Mohandas Gandhi, who was influenced by Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n
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During the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, one of my classmates in the seminary asked me: \u201cBeing a follower of the Lord, how do you find the justification for killing in Jesus\u2019 life and his teaching?\u201d<\/em> This question troubled me. So I began to search the scriptures and was confronted by what I read.<\/p>\n I found these scripture passages quite challenging to my previous views. I began to think. \u201cif you kill someone, how is it loving them or doing good to them, since you\u2019re ending any chance they may have forever finding conversion and forgiveness?\u201d If Jesus never harmed anyone (nor did his followers for the first three centuries of Christianity), how could I kill as one of His followers? Because life is God\u2019s alone, each one made in the image and likeness of God. \u00a0(Genesis 1:26-27)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong>Jesus was steeped in the Jewish tradition; so in the Hebrew scriptures the prophets are constantly calling on the people of God to care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien<\/em>. The prophets\u2019 voice doesn\u2019t prioritize the farmer, the small-business merchant, nor even a single parent or elderly couple, although each of them is still\u00a0made in God\u2019s image and likeness and are infinitely precious to God. Rather, it\u2019s the widow. who was vulnerable because she didn\u2019t have a husband to protect her and provide for her in such\u00a0a precarious time (since there was no safety net then). At the present time, pre-born children don\u2019t have men to protect them and provide for them; since the Roe v. Wade<\/em> ruling, men have been totally eliminated from the abortion decision. Aliens are that way because they\u2019re not in their own terrain, but in a foreign place. Today pre-born children are not on their own \u201cland\u201d either, but in someone else\u2019s territory, the most dangerous place on the planet, the mother\u2019s womb. Orphans (mentioned over 35 times in the scriptures) are children who don\u2019t have their mothers and fathers. Currently, pre-born children scheduled for an abortion have no mothers and fathers. They have been abandoned by them.<\/p>\n So, the widow, the alien and the orphan<\/em>, because of their vulnerability, were continually given a special priority of care by God, through the prophets\u2019 voice. This didn\u2019t mean other sons and daughters of God weren\u2019t loved deeply by God. God didn\u2019t lessen the value of the lives of other human beings;\u00a0 God just made sure those who were the most unprotected and the most neglected were given extra special consideration and focus, so they weren\u2019t ever overlooked by the faith community. Today no one is more at risk than pre-born children, so they deserve to have focus of paramount importance of concern. At the same time, they must be given care for their lives after <\/em>being born.<\/p>\n More importantly, the Christian scriptures proclaim that Jesus is the \u201cWay, the Truth and the Life.\u201d Jesus is a clear way to navigate any dilemma we face. Jesus responded to the Pharisees when they tested him by asking, \u201cTeacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?\u201d \u00a0<\/sup>Jesus said to them, \u201cYou shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it<\/em>: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.\u201d (Matthew 2:34-40) Jesus reiterates this linked order when he states: \u201cWhoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.\u201d(Matthew 10:37)<\/p>\n In other words, there is no doubt Jesus puts the love of God first<\/em>, <\/strong>even over one\u2019s closest loved ones, one\u2019s family (in my words a \u201cpreeminent priority\u201d). But the love of neighbor is always linked<\/em> to love of God and also a priority, which can\u2019t be separated from the first commandment. John puts in this way: \u201cWe love because he first loved us.\u00a0Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister\u00a0is a liar.\u00a0For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen,\u00a0cannot love God, whom they have not seen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And he has given us this command:\u00a0Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.\u201d (I John 4:19-21)<\/p>\n Jesus is not making the second commandment in competition<\/em> with the first commandment, nor teaching that the second commandment takes a back-seat to the first. This is why God became human, to show God\u2019s love for each and every one of us, especially the sinner, one\u2019s enemy and the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Jesus states the second commandment is like<\/em> the first (but still is second<\/em>)<\/u>. It also follows because of the linked connection: if abortion is truly a preeminent priority for a follower of Christ, one won\u2019t really be credible if one doesn\u2019t work against the other threats to those same<\/em> lives\u00a0outside<\/em>\u00a0the womb.<\/p>\n Jesus said,\u00a0\u201cIt is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick\u2026\u2026\u00a0For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.\u201d (Matthew 9:12-13). Jesus seems to be prioritizin<\/em>g one group of people, but that didn\u2019t mean that the healthy and the righteous weren\u2019t loved, nor were they disvalued by Jesus. Jesus came to redeem everyone for all time, willing to leave the 99 to find the one lost sheep.<\/p>\n In another place Jesus (who made the journey from conception to birth) states: \u201cAnyone who welcomes one child<\/em> like this for my sake is welcoming me<\/em>. But if anyone abuses one of these little ones<\/em> who believes in me, it would be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and be hurled into the deepest sea\u00a0than to face the punishment he deserves (Matthew 18:5-6, emphasis added). Jesus doesn\u2019t say this about older teens or adults or the elderly, (who are also of infinite worth) but about those most defenseless. Today, those are pre-born children, who aren\u2019t welcomed to live in the world for even one second.<\/p>\n Jesus words of the last judgement:<\/p>\n Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me. Then they will answer and say, \u2018Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?\u2019 He will answer them, \u2018Amen, I say to you, what you did not do<\/em> for one of these least ones<\/em>, you did not do for me.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 25:41-45, emphasis added)<\/p>\n This teaching of Jesus states clearly there\u2019s a difference or hierarchy in lives in those who are least <\/em>and other human lives (some refer to this as a \u201cPreferential Option for the Poor\u201d).<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been trying to make the case that pre-born children, although so precious to God (Psalm 139:13-14) for many years have been treated as the least ones because of their vulnerability, powerlessness, invisibility, lack of any voice, foundation for all other rights, heart of the family, enormous numbers killed. They\u2019re also the poorest: no<\/strong> food, no<\/em> drink, no<\/em> welcome, no<\/em> clothing, etc. ever given to them. They never see the light of day, not even for a brief moment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an undeniable fact that each day<\/em> in our world 125,000 powerless pre-born children<\/em> are killed, year after year<\/em> This figure indicates protecting pre-born children from abortion is obviously not<\/em> in any way or almost any place actually lived<\/em> as a preeminent priority.<\/p>\n God\u2019s ultimate revelation of all of this was the Word made flesh, Jesus becoming human. This is the infinite affirmation of each person\u2019s worth (John 1:1-4). The very Word of God made that journey from conception to a zygote, to an embryo, to a fetus, to a neonate; each of these natural human transitions of life was an affirmation of the dignity every stage of our human journey, both before and after birth, because each human being\u2019s origin and destiny is God (Jeremiah 1:5).<\/p>\n This fact alone makes us priceless, of infinite worth. In Jesus, God has given an absolute yes to the dignity and value of all human life. (John 10:10), from the beginning until the end (Romans 14: 7-8), because of our relationship to our creator, who gives each of us our very life (Matthew 10:30-31).<\/p>\n So it is my faith, through prayer and discernment, that draws me to the Consistent Ethic of Life. Jesus is the fullest and clearest revelation of not only who God is, but who we are meant to be, especially as voices for the helpless, voiceless, invisible pre-born children. It also means that after 52 years of working in this area, I\u2019m still convinced that Jesus shows us the Way of non-violent love, where the most vulnerable are recognized as needing special attention, and at the same time, no one is ever excluded.<\/p>\n ==========================<\/p>\n For more posts from Jim Hewes, see:<\/em><\/p>\n Death Penalty and other Killing: The Destructive Effect on Us<\/a><\/p>\n Consistent Life History: Being Across the Board<\/a><\/p>\n Reflections from My Decades of Consistent Life Experience<\/a><\/p>\n The Case for Abortion as the \u201cPreeminent Priority\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For more posts on a variety of religious perspectives, see:<\/em><\/p>\n The Vital Need for Diversity<\/a><\/p>\n The Consistent Life Consensus in Ancient Christianity<\/a><\/p>\n On Praying for the Military<\/a><\/p>\n The Early Christian Tradition<\/a><\/p>\n Fratelli Tutti \u2013 Consistent-Life Excerpts<\/a><\/p>\n Abortion and War are the Karma for Killing Animals<\/a><\/p>\n Why the Interfaith Approach is Important<\/a><\/p>\n Islam<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Breaking Stereotypes in Fearful Times<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/1-blog-Bible.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nAtheism<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n
Christianity<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n
Hinduism<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n
Interfaith<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n