Abortion, by William Edelen, (Taken from: www.williamedelen.com) The Republican National Committee, the big shots, are meeting. Do you know what they are going to debate? A proposed abortion litmus test for all Republican candidates. My gawd! Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, where are men of your stature and brilliance now that we need you?
In this "debate" the "Bible" and "God" are words that are going to be raining down like balloons at a Republican convention. A few facts will puncture those balloons. If a person wants to simply say "I do not like abortion." That's fine. That's their opinion and they have a right to it. But when they start using the bible, the church and God to justify their position they do not seem to realize how inane, unhinged and comical they appear. In papal theology they use the phrase "the sanctity of life from conception onwards." There is no reference in either the Old or New Testament to the "sacredness" or "sanctity" of either human or fetal life. All through the Bible, people are murdered and slaugh- tered by the millions. The lack of "sanctity" of the fetus is all through the Old Testament. 2 Kings 15 reads: "All the women therein that are with child shall be ripped up." Hosea 13:16 reads: "The infants shall be dashed to pieces, and those with child ripped up." God tells Moses how to mix a potion for an abortion if a man's wife has become pregnant by another man (Numbers 5:11-31). Deuteronomy 21:8 gives us instructions on how to kill our sons if they are "rebellious." Deuteronomy 13 tells us how to kill our wives and children. Jesus shows no concern for fetal life: "Blessed are the barren and wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck" (Luke 22). Lack of space precludes my listing hundreds of other biblical passages. Pro-life? You've got to be joking. In the Bible, human life begins with breathing, not conception. The Hebrew word to describe a human being is "nephesh . . . the breathing one." It occurs 854 times in the Hebrew Bible. The history of the Christian church has never been pro-life. Today, those using the church and the bible for justification of their pro-life position condemn abortion as "murder of the unborn," while the church itself has one of the most horrible, unjust and cruel murder records in the history of our species, of both the "born" and "unborn." Millions slaughtered by instruments that stagger the human mind. If the Republicans want to simply say "I am against abortion" and let it go at that, fine. But in the name of all that is truth and all that is sacred, let them stop using the blood soaked hands of Moses, the Bible and the church for their justification.
