The Good, the bad, the really grey areas and a lot of rambling....

I spent a week watching and participating in the Fb debates about the Komen decision to un-fund, then fund grants for Planned Parenthood.

I personally don’t think that abortion is something that should ever be used as a simple birth control measure… and yet I ended up taking the PP side of the debate, because I believe there are times that women will make that decision and resort to any means…leading to injury and sometimes death. I don’t believe in the death penalty for any crime, so why would I think a woman who aborts should have to die doing it.  Abortion is not the only service PP provides,they take care of all kinds of reproductive procedures and referrals including birth control, breast issues, HIV testing etc, and they get grants from Komen, and I assume must show how funds were spent.

I do however believe in BC and never have figured out how celibate men could tell me that safe sex was not beneficial to my marriage, even if not open to conception. They don't get it. Relationships can be hard, and life giving can mean giving life to the family support as well as to a new baby.

I believe that if you weigh in on someone else’s unwanted pregnancy, you should be willing to support that person and take the baby or keep your mouth shut! Babies are not theoretical issues, they are real life ones. Put up or shut up! And I can see the good that PP does in other areas. Not a completely EVIL organization.

One of my debate buddies accused me of either being dishonest (as in denial) or batty that I could support PP… SHADES OF GREY????

(BTW I regret that my church is taking a stand against providing complete health care for women. I hear the argument against using the pill, but married folks should be able to have some control over the size of their families, and NFP is not what we wanted to use.) One of the folks who posted about this debate mentioned a Catholic bishop in England who tried his best to talk a young woman into keeping her baby… but was willing to pick her up afterward, and offer her further assistance, love without restrictions.

Being totally honest, I believe that if I was raped… (B4C when I had plumbing) I would have gone immediately to a hospital asking for anything up to and including a garden hose to make sure that there was no pregnancy to deal with. And I’m a coward; I would not ask IF there was an issue, just request the fix.

During this debate a friend sent me a link to an Australian Salvation Army interview with a gay man and Tammy/Jim Baker’s son who is an open and inclusive minister. I have to say the SA woman seems to be as inclusive as she could be without making a public statement that would go against the SA. I have of course, stopped putting money in the kettles at Christmas because our kids tell us they are not welcome in the shelters in Memphis, run by SA. They are not treated as families, and the SA here works on the ‘shame the sinner’ method, according to the kids. So, I’m not a fan, and yet… they do a lot of good as well. They reach out to those who are in real trouble, they just can’t see past orientation to make all feel welcome.

I googled their statement on same gender attraction: looks a lot like ours in the Catholic Church. How do I justify participating in the church at the same time that I won’t donate to the SA? HMMM…… I do spend a lot of time saying.”In Memphis we are ok,” but I know the damage the larger church causes, and I will tell anyone I stay to help bring change from the inside…but this is obviously to some a really really grey area. The older I get the greyer the world seems. When we get on our soap box ‘against’ any issue it is really hard not to vilify the other side, and that is a hard habit to break.

Last night our speaker at potluck, a rabbi in a conservative (not like we think of conservative folks!!) congregation explained that in his faith they can hold two opposite opinions at the same time. We got a ‘cliff notes’ version of the Talmud, Jewish law, and how it is made. This makes life a lot more civil, and it is interesting to see how they have evolved on the issues that same sex attractions bring up. I can only hope that evolution and civilization will happen sooner than later in my church.