Why do I say nothing when they talk like that?

I am part of many church-related WhatsApp groups for sending and receiving messages. I use these groups to arrange meetings, receive encouragement – scriptures, worship songs etc – or just to say a quick hello.

Occasionally, people send a chain-letter-style prayer. Last month, someone sent me a petition against New York’s recent bill protecting a woman’s right to abortion. It called for New York’s Governor to apologise for lighting the One World Trade Centre in pink to celebrate this historic bill, and to remove his signature from the bill. In response to this message, I was silent. Another friend responded: ‘Disgusting!’

Why did I stay silent? I am conflicted. Before becoming a Christian, I might or might not have felt uncomfortable about late abortion. Now, I think I am supposed to be against abortion of any kind. But I am not. When the level of debate is ‘disgusting’, I don’t really want people to know about this, so I stay silent.

I could have talked about the compassion I feel for women who find themselves in that situation – from a woman hearing a diagnosis that her child will not survive birth, to minors who did not know they were pregnant, to those whose state has made access to early abortion too restrictive or expensive. I could have argued that I do not believe women choose this option because motherhood would be ‘inconvenient’ (a direct quote from a Christian website). … But still, I stayed silent. …

Commitment-Phobe is a Christian

___

This is an extract from an article that was published in the March 2019 edition of  Reform

To read the full article, subscribe to Reform