A SECOND CALL TO PRAY AND ACT

When I read a post by someone who wrote that the main issue as to why that person voted Republican and voted for Trump is the issue of not agreeing with those who are Pro-Choice, the images of fatherless babies because their fathers were lynched came horribly to mind . . .and images of babies and children, their parents, grandparents and other relatives killed in the Holocaust; images of babies and their mothers, sisters and grandmothers--along with the men--killed by soldiers on the Great Plains and dying on the Trail of Tears . . . .images of babies starving because drugs and violence and terror abound in the marginalized neighborhoods . . . images of babies and their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, being killed in the name of religious beliefs . . . images of babies dying of starvation and disease in refugee camps, or in tankers and semi-trailers or packing crates fleeing to America from conditions most of us can't even imagine . . . images of little girls and boys and even babies being used and abused as sex slaves. Are we all working together hard enough for those babies and children and adults?

Because, yes . . . abortion is a horrible thing for a woman to resort to. 

Mother Theresa said, "It is a poverty."

But isn't there another way to help women who feel led to make that horrible and sad decision? There ARE ways. 

(And many people work to help.)

We can protect and care for the children and women of all ages who are raped and abused over and over again. 

We can work on improving opportunities and living conditions for the marginalized people in our society. 

We can have compassion for the woman or young girl made pregnant by incest and/or rape and make sure the perpetrators are punished. 

I suspect that very few of the violent protestors who threaten and sometimes injure or kill women and the people trying to help them have any knowledge at all of the kinds of violence that is forced on the women--and girls--who are not supported enough by the fathers of their children or who are pregnant because of rape or incest. 

No one wants a baby to die. But condemning women and girls and the people who serve them does not help. 

Surely we need to turn back to God and live in the peace, security and abundance that all people desire for themselves and their families. 

Surely all people want to enjoy the security of a home and food on the table and safety and security. 

But it is also "a poverty" for people who have all those things and who have never lived in fear and poverty and hunger and homelessness to angrily and judgmentally berate or do violence against women--or girls--who face that sad and life-changing decision.

When abortion first became legal, an elderly physician told me that he believed that as a nation we would reap the whirlwind over the decision to legalize it. 

However, as a nation we have been mostly unrepentant of many whirlwind-triggering offenses such as those below (not a complete list).

We are a nation that at its founding claimed freedom as its goal while making slavery the basis of its economy. 

We are a nation that ordered and tolerated the mass murder and dispossession and ongoing abuse of the indigenous people, continuing to perpetuate the conditions that have led to generations of impoverished people.

We are a nation that tolerates inequality and oppression; homelessness and starvation; drugs and missing children while McMansions spring up as far away from the people living in poverty as possible.

We are a nation that encompasses all of that and more, so it seems to me that if the whirlwind is indeed coming, the wrath of God will have much more to fuel it than the sadness of women--and girls-- who feel led to make the sad and horrible decision of not being able to bring a child into the world.

I do not believe in abortion, but I also do not think it has anything to do with a government or any man's directions or censors -- or any woman's either, except that woman--or girl--who is pregnant.

Even if you don't believe in God, you must see that we are out of control and that there are consequences for our actions and for our inaction.

Turning to violence, hatred and fear instead of acting out of compassion, protection, understanding; and doing all we can do to help people does not help but only causes more damage.

The most important avenue to help does not have to be through the government but from our grass roots. Just as happens in so many cultures where the people help one another -- including those who are recent arrivals here, or traditionally, the most important way to help people is starting at home . . . and then helping members of your extended family and your neighbors . . . and helping the people in your town or village, your county . . . through your clubs or your faith-based organizations, your business community, your counties, your states, and beyond.

There is a lot more that we together can do for one another when we work together. Our government leaders from the federal level on down . . . or from the local level on up, can and do make a difference by setting the tone and offering some standardized care. But when we expect the government to do everything--or when we decide that the government should not do anything, too many people get no help whatsoever.

Of course a great deal is being done by many people and organizations as described above this. Nevertheless, there is still so much help needed. 

All that is needed will not be accomplished in an atmosphere of hate and fear. If we tolerate those conditions, we will all lose and suffer. But people with the greatest need--the least, the last and the lost will suffer first and suffer the most as they already do.

So I am putting out another call to pray and act according to your conscience, joining with people who have compassion and act on it, Beloved.

When even one of us is oppressed, suffers or is marginalized, that affects us all. 

And it is wrong to believe that God won't notice hasn't noticed. It is wrong that there will be no consequences when eternal spiritual, economic or societal laws and principles are broken. 

The results of allowing and causing suffering are already evident in the world today. Beyond that, you only have to know a small bit of the history of the last century when most of us were born and raised to find very good reasons to stop it all from happening again.

This is not a time to sit back and see what will happen next. 

This is a time to pray and to act and to change things. 

We must head off what disasters and strife may come if we do not pray together, act together, keep praying and keep acting.

* * * *

As ever, I pray for you, Beloved, that you will come to know how much you are loved, and that you will share that love in action with people around you and with whomever you feel led to share. 

May the Lord of Lords bless and keep you and yours tonight and always.

<3 <3 <3