dear sheril,
yes, i certainly do agree with you as a person who believes in Christ,
and as a human being, too. however,through my previous letter, i just
wanted to state how law can look at the issue--the balancing of interests
factor, and why we who believe so stongly on the issue of anti- abortion
should not get upset if we see apparent indifference from the legal
system.
let's all pray that by our concerted efforts, this barbaric practice of
abortion and the law permitting it becomes a dead letter law (the Dowry
Prohibition Act , through the concerted efforts of all--both Christians
and non Christians, has become a dead letter law....Hence please do
understand that it is not law which can do anything, but the beliefs and
value systems of the people on which it is imposed....) if we can rise up
to the challenge of convincing others that abortion is wrong, let's do it
whole - heartedly and with one voice. however ,especially because we are
Christians, remember that it is wrong to impose our views on others ,
even though we know are right and they are wrong....anyway, we can only
say ,'where sin increases, grace abounds more...'
we should certainly fight for our rights, but sometimes when such
fighting is futile, we should be wise enough to realise this,stop wasting
our time when when we reealise its futility, and instead direct our
energies towards fighting on a different plane altogether.('the effectual
prayer of a righteous man has great worth. elijah was a man lie we are;
he prayed that ift should not rain , and it did not rain for three years.
then he prayed that it should and it did rain' )
we know that we are the ultimate winners in spiritual warfare.if the
devil can beguile the minds of the population and confuse them so that
they exercise their freedom to choose evil which will lead to their
death, and being the prince of the world, he has power over those whose
eyes have been blinded to the gospel of Christ and basic common sense and
human rights or whatever you call it, then of course , we have the best
option of attacking the devil on a plane that he has been defeated long
ago...as Christians, we have failed to realise this right of ours for a
very long time, hence the devil had been granted a foothold for
generations to beguile people to exercise their freedom to practice of
various sins, like abortion, pornography, suicide, homosexuality,
euthanasia and so on....it's just like what happened to Eve.God put a
tree in the garden and said do not eat its fruit.why did God put the tree
in there? why did He not guard the tree wit! h whatever angels with
spinning spears or swords or whatever , so that Eve could not eat the
fruit ....? why did he allow the serpent to speak to Eve? if He was God ,
He could have prevented man from falling...understand the crux of the
matter--that God did not prevent man from exercising his freedom to
choose evil.
law can only try to balance the varous interests. and this balance
tends to tilt towards where the majority interests lie. hence the passing
of various human rights conventions to safeguard the minority interests.
i would humbly bring to your notice that so far no international
convention has been passed granting rights to the unborn. The Convention
on the Rights of the Child, 1989, mentions the word 'abortion' but grants
no rights to the unborn child against getting aborted. without a
consensus on this issue in the international level, i'm afraid that it
would be too much to expect anything concerted to come out of our
activities in the legal sphere out here.
it was the fault of previous generations of Christians all round the
world that human beings have been beguiled to pay scant respect to
life,so, now our task of convincing is very difficult, given the
existing social practices and literature on these issues which are for
and not against the the practice of human restraint and the voluntary
curbing of the freedom to choose what is considered to be bad according
to general moral standards of most societies and religions.as mentioned,
we have dissent with regard to the practice of abortion even within our
Christian communities itself. so, speaking on such issues would be
misunderstood as religious or moral fanaticism, nothing else. hence,
let's be practical, face the facts as they now stand , and give the devil
a stab in the back, by showing him that we are not as powerless as he
thinks we are, and that we are willing to wage spiritual warfare against
his wiles and guiles.! ...any takers?
lina
don't think that abortion is condemned only by
catholics or anyother christian church. it is a moral
issue which society of all origins have to deal with.
not just a "christian issue". and people, christian
or non-christiian all have varying opinions on it.
there are huge numbers of non-christians who are of
the opiinion tthat it should not be allowed. and many
christians who feel that "the mother has to have the
right to chose".
i'm sorry i don't know much about law, to talk about
it, but i thnk that as christians we are accouuntable
for our actions as well as the actions that we should
have done but we did'nt do. The outcome of the case
is in God's hands becase ultimately He is in control.
Whatever the outcome, and however slim the chances
that it would be in "our" favour, we should fight for
what we believe is right in God's eyes. I think. and
above all PRAY that His Will be done.with love in Jesus
sheril
--- Lina Mathew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> i am a law student doing my postgraduation in
> Bangalore. during the past
> few days, i happened to receive mails from other
> friends in jy and also
> saw in the joynet the news on the endeavour to scrap
> the Medical
> Termination of Pregnancy Act in kerala.
>
> please keep in mind that even though i am not a
> Catholic(i'm Orthodox), i
> have full respect towards the Catholic Church as it
> stands today and my
> statements are not made with a view to disparage any
> organisation ,
> institiutio! n or movement and should not be tried to
> be read between the
> lines. this is just an opinion from the legal
> perspective, as a student
> of human rights in the present epoch of time.
>
> it is my view that the point is that the presence of
> such an Act gives
> the freedom to choose to individual, which is a
> symbol of a
> non-restrictive society where the freedom of choice
> can be freely
> excercised. i doubt whether the Act will be scrapped
> as such, as the
> scrapping of such an Act would symbolise going back
> to the Dark Ages
> where the Catholic Church imposed restrictions in
> all walks of personal
> and spititual life .....even in muslim countries in
> the present day one
> can find legal systems which mix religion and
> morals with law.
>
> .however, law is different from beliefs. law has to
> take into acc! ount a
> variety of beliefs prevalent in society and attempt
> to strike a just
> balance between the conflicting interests, be it the
> ideas of various
> religious groups or atheist groups, or the human
> rights of the fetus or
> the mother .....
>
> of course, this does not mean that i, personally, as
> a Christian
> believer, consent to abortion as a matter of
> principle .but , as a
> lawyer, i do not think that law should force people
> to do something which
> is up to their personal freedom to decide. Even God
> has that attitude
> when He says somewhere in the Bible,"i have put
> before you two ways,
> blessing(good) and curse(evil), life and death.
> choose blessing and
> life, if you will" or words to that effect......in
> essence, He says that
> He is not restricting your freedom to choose evil,
>! though He would
> definitely prefer you to choose good. the question
> naturally arises as to
> why God has done like this...IF He is God, then why
> not make people
> choose good alone?....the answer lies in that it's
> because He is a just
> God and He has created man in His likeness and image
> which includes the
> capicity of full exercise of all rights, which
> includes the right to
> freedom of choice..! ... that is why He has made
> such a categorical
> statement as above.
>
> the remedy lies with us Christians...are we prepared
> to take the
> commitment of on a personal not committing abortion
> or practicing
> abortive or anti-fetal activities that snuff out
> life, and on a community
> level of promoting respect towards the right to life
> of the unborn
> through outreacha nd educative practises, and also
&g! t; on the spiritual realm
> of waging war on these elements through fasting and
> prayer on an
> individual or corporate basis.......herein lies the
> challenge---to will
> to choose blessing, rather than snuffing out the
> right to choose curse.
>
> this is my humble personal opinion on this
> issue....i'm sure to hear a
> lot of dissent from the religious community with
> regard to this
> position...whether abortion is tantamount to murder
> is also a disputed
> issue in law as there are disputing views of various
> pressure groups as
> to the existence of life as a human being in an
> embryo and when exactly
> does life as a human being start in a fetus so as to
> grant it human
> rights...science has not given any concrete view so
> far as to when life
> as a human being starts---there are again
> conflicting views on this&n! bsp;,
> according to each pressure group.it is the
> responsibility of the lawmaker
> to glean an impartial and truthful opinion as to
> these issues,which is a
> very difficult and contoversial issue again.....so,
> a compromise has to
> be struck somewhere.
>
> as law -makers, it is unfair to favour the views of
> only a particular
> pressure group or group of individuals. as
> Christians, we cannot impose
> our views on others just because we know that we are
> right and they are
> wrong. let's not use the ostrich -which -buries
> -it's -head -in -the
> -sand approach----much hue and cry will ensue
> as certain sections of
> society will say that it is better to have legal
> abortion and save the
> health of the mother than have illegal abortion and
> let both woman and
> fetus die--these are arguments th! at have been well
> thrashed out over the
> years and there is no need for me repeating them.all
> that i can say is
> that law cannot and should not restrict the
> individual freedom of a
> human being to choose evil ...
>
> our God is a God of justice , 'who gives rain to
> the just and the
> unjust', and God has given man, (who is created in
> His image and
> likeness and endowed with all rights) every right
> to enjoy total freedom
> --freedom to follow the devil or Him . that is why
> He did not prevent the
> devil from rebelling, nor does He prevent the devil
> from trying to
> deceive us....as human beings, we have every right
> to choose.... please
> choose life and blessing , if you will, as I wish
> this for you...that is
> all our dear Abba says, nothing more, nothing less
>! ; ,as He is Ultimate
> Truth and Ultimate Justice. ...(this is based on the
> theological theory
> on the jurisprudence of human rights which one of my
> classmates has
> evolved ....)
>
> so it is up to the moral elements in society to
> guide the people to
> exercise their freedom of choice in the best
> possible manner so as to
> bring about individual and social edification...
>
> so the whole responsibility lies on us-those chosen
> people of God to
> spread His plea to choose good and not evil--and on
> us alone....imagine
> the tremendous responsibility and the personal
> accountability of each one
> of us 'renewed' and 'believers' have towards Him
> ,which cannot be waived
> by any law...
>
> lina
>
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