My husband and I were talking about abortion. He said he couldn’t understand how the Catholic church couldn’t be more merciful about abortion. He thought it would be better to strongly discourage abortion but leave it up to the woman because she had free will.
I countered with that’s the church’s view on all sin, even murder. The church strongly discourages people from killing one another, but they can’t force people from killing each other. In fact, the state has laws that say we can’t kill each other, but that doesn’t stop people from killing each other. We have free will and we are going to do what we will. That’s one of the most important tenants of faith: God gave us free will.
Even in situations like dictatorships, people still exercise their free will. The most famous example I can think of is the student standing up in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square. Jesus put it eloquently when the devil tempted Him in the desert. He could call all the angels in the heavens down to Earth and make all men bow before Him, but that’s not the way of God.
If it doesn’t work for God, why does man think it will work for us? We can’t create church rules or laws and then expect people to follow them all the time. It doesn’t work that way.
Jesus taught us the way. He even says several times in the gospels that He is the way. Jesus never condemns anyone for sinning. He know we all sin. He accepts that we are all sinners. He loves us as we are, shows us that acceptance and love, and then because of that acceptance and love gives us what we need to sin no more.
Yes, we need laws to maintain civil order, but those laws should never be more important than God’s laws. Right now, the laws we have in regard to women’s reproductive rights are causing women to die. Those laws don’t respect the gospel of life. Those laws put the law of man above the law of God. They are a blatant sin of pride.
At the same time, when it comes to women’s reproductive rights, no one should be telling women what they should do. Jesus wouldn’t call angels down from Heaven to force women to bow before Him, so why would the church, state, or anyone force women to do anything against their free will? Jesus teaches us that the only way to deal with this issue is to treat women with dignity, understanding, respect, acceptance, and love. When society starts to treat women the way Jesus would that’s when the issue will lead to more lives being saved than ever before.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
