Women and Men and Church
It’s good for me to practice humility and just talk about my journey and get real about my shortcomings, feelings, and internal discussions. But there’s also a day for righteous anger, in speeches and in writing.
I just saw a TV commentator hitting the nail on the head when it comes to the religious views on abortion: she doesn’t care whether people are Christian and live their own lives according to Christianity, she doesn’t care what “your little bible” says, she just says that the constitution guarantees us all freedom of religion.
That should be a powerful enough argument. But I’d like to explore this more closely:
First, the (Christian) bible doesn’t prohibit, or even mention, abortion. Not the old testament (the Hebrew scriptures) or the new testament (Jesus’ teachings.) Most of the restrictions and laws in the bible are found in the Hebrew scriptures, and there’s not a mention of it there. Neither the Jewish religion nor Islam prohibit abortion.
Second, not all Christians are anti-abortion. Very many (including some Catholics) are pro-choice. Many Christian denominations and individual churches specifically state that they are pro-choice.
Third, Roe v. Wade seems, for many people, to have overturned centuries of laws against abortion that go back to our earliest days as humans (or at least 2000 years, to the time of Jesus.) But that is completely false. It wasn’t until the 1910 that abortion was completely prohibited in every state in the US. Does that year sound familiar? That’s right in the thick of the women’s suffrage movement, and exactly a year before the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) is organized.
Finally, what the religious right is actually implying is that fetuses are people, protected from abortion via our laws about murder (and their 10 commandments.) But saying that we are killing babies is not scientifically, or even medically, correct. Abortion kills fetuses, or what we might call potential babies. We might go further to say that human eggs and sperm are also potential humans. Now, it’s true that most premature fetuses (30-40 weeks) can survive birth, with or without medical intervention, but we still call them fetuses, right? Until we specifically say that a fetus is a person, then it’s not murder. We might decide that at some point — but until then we haven’t. But my point is that any laws about abortion must be based on a consensus about when a fetus becomes a human, not some denomination’s interpretation of their religious laws — especially when those laws are interpreted differently by other denominations of their own religion.
On another facet of this topic, I was so very dismayed when many of my gay male friends responded to the overturning of Roe v. Wade with this essential message: “Oh my god! They’re coming for us next!”
Well, yes, they are. They are coming for your right to marriage. But — first of all — not yet. But also, are they coming for your right to have, or not have, children? Are they coming for your right to obtain education free of financial, logistical, physical, and emotional burdens that strap your ability to do well in school? Are they coming for your right to live with and love your partner? And are they actually coming for your right to life your life as you choose, and for your protection against discrimination? Probably not.
What they don’t see by their reaction is the very problem of women: DISMISSAL OF THEIR CONCERNS. The overturning of Roe v. Wade dismisses the privacy of a woman in matters affecting her own body. It dismisses her right to live her life as she chooses. It dismisses all the ways in which pregnancy and childbirth completely change the trajectory of a woman’s life: every single pregnancy and birth. It dismisses women’s concerns.
And by reacting as they are, by glossing right over women’s concerns my gay friends are reinforcing the very central issue: the dismissal of women.
So you guys are to blame just as much as the white cis males who have foisted this moment, these conditions, upon us. They say we’re not worthy or important (or at least not as important as our fetuses), and you are saying that we, today, in this moment, are not important enough to talk about how this ruling is affecting US.
Some of my gay male friends are extremely supportive of women. And a lot just ignore us. Now, most of these guys don’t actually know my (current) gender identity. I’m guessing they might be more into “me” if I came out as non-binary or gender-nonconforming, or gender-neutral. And maybe they’d listen to me. But why should it take my being non-cis to pay attention to and support me? It’s just awful.
Women’s rights are human rights. And gay rights are human rights. Black rights are human rights. What we’re talking about is human rights. And most of all, we’re talking about perhaps the most fundamental right of all, logistically speaking: the right of religious freedom, which is essentially the right to BE WHO WE ARE.