“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10).
My oldest granddaughter, Ruth Bell, just turned 15. She is spectacularly beautiful, with a sweet, strong spirit. One of the birthday traditions in our family is that each of us gives the one who is being celebrated a Bible verse.
….
My selection of the verse I felt led to choose for Bell this year was affected by what I saw on news reports the day after the Inauguration of the 45th president of the United States.
Various news outlets played video and audio reports of hundreds of thousands of women all over the world marching in protest of President Trump. It was an incredible sight to see women flooding the streets, not only in Washington, but also in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, London and dozens of other major cities. They were peaceful, vulgar, at times obscene—marching for what? They claimed to represent all women, yet a common denominator seemed missing, unless it was fear of President Trump and the possibility that he may interfere with their right to easily accessible abortion for anyone and everyone, at any time and for any reason.
When I opened my Bible the morning following the march of women, this is what I read in my previously scheduled devotions for the day: Proverbs 9:13-15, 18 (NIV): “The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house, [wives, mothers, soccer moms] on a seat at the highest point of the city [in the workplace, in leadership positions], calling out to those who pass by … But little do they know … that her guests are in the depths of the grave.”
My heart aches for many of the women I saw marching, women who have joined a “movement” that is deceptive and in the end, will be destructive and lead them to a spiritual and moral “grave” (see 2 Tim. 3:6-9). I pray earnestly for them to turn to the one, true, living God, who is the only One who can give them the deep, permanent peace, love, hope, and security we all long for.
With these sights and sounds still fresh on my mind, the verse I have chosen for our beloved Bell is one I share with you, too: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Prov. 31:30)…
— Anne Graham Lotz, Charisma News, What the Bible Has to Say About Last Week’s Women’s March, January 27, 2017
In other words: “Don’t you dare to become like those women, granddaughter mine….”
And my heart breaks for this poor 15 year old so buried and burdened in Woo. May the human spirit give her strength to live beyond the hallucinations of Bible-quoters, the haters of free being.
Ruth Bell, never let politics or religion suppress your ideas. Welcome them as they come to you from your reading, your learning, your imagination. Never be ashamed of your body or mind. Wear the clothes you are comfortable wearing. Be you.
If there was a God, the message from it would be to be all you can be, not to hide yourself and be used by others for some royal purpose. The only royalty that is real is in the human spirit. Fight suppression, Reject the extremes of the evangelical fundamentalism practised in your family. You can be free.
“I pray earnestly for them to turn to the one, true, living God, who is the only One who can give them the deep, permanent peace, love, hope, and security we all long for.” -Always the same vague prescription for whatever ails you. But at least she’s not calling them names, so that’s nice.
She is using a passive-aggressive approach. I prefer the name calling and fire and brimstone preaching to fake, syrupy, big smile Christians who hold the same social/political/theological as the name callers. This kind of Christian hides their bigotry and hatred behind a facade that obfuscates their horrible beliefs.
I don’t know her, but I think she probably thinks just what she is saying-she called them loud, undisciplined and without knowledge. Her world is the Bible, and she’s quoting from it. I doubt she hates these women-probably does feel sorry for them, because she thinks she has the truth and wishes they did.
This may make me unpopular here, but I’m overwhelmingly NOT in favor of abortion either.
The only cases where abortion may (and even then, this is requires serious discussion between the parents and doctor) be permissible is in 3 cases:
the mother’s life is in danger.
the child is the result of rape
the child is born with 1 or more permanent debilitating mental or physical disabilities that will impair his ability to become an independent adult and will constantly require the care of a guardian who lacks the resources to help him.
In cases where a pregnancy occurred due to sexual irresponsibility between a man and woman, I believe that abortion is unacceptable because it shows an inability to accept responsibility. Imagine how you’d feel if your father had an illegitimate child with a mistress and tried to cover it up by paying for her abortion?
But here is where the fatal contradiction between pro-life and Christianity arises!
Fundamentalist Christians believe that God will save a select few while billions of unsaved are tormented forever and ever in a smoking garbage dump. In other words, this would mean that most of humanity would’ve been better off if they were never born at all! And if most of humanity was simply aborted as babies, then we’ve actually saved them! They would’ve grown up to be sinners, be in danger of hell, and need to be “reborn”. Most Christians agree that babies go to Heaven since they’re not guilty of original sin.
If we take predestination to its most extreme logical macabre conclusion, even crimes like murder are suddenly surprisingly justifiable.
If I shot and murdered somebody who was an unsaved, wicked damned person bound for hell to begin with- then have I really committed a crime?
What if there’s a nursery full of 50 babies and all but 5 of those babies are going to grow up to become wicked people destined for hell? If I then killed 45 of the babies, wouldn’t I be saving them from hell since I killed them before they became capable of sinning?
Elliot,
It’s time for you to move on.
Bruce Gerencser
(makes mental note to donate another $100 CDN to a local medical charity that facilitates abortions)