Patent Leather Shoes and the Sins of the Flesh

This week perfectly illustrates what happens when humans are in rut–which is basically all the time. The sins of the flesh are always with us. The murder of abortionist Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas, the release of the nine-year investigation of Catholic Church sex abuse in Irish reform schools and orphanages, and the revelation that Cher’s daughter Chastity Bono is transgendering herself-himself into a son of Cher simply points out that humans have a greater hour-by-hour sexual load to carry than bull elk, paramecium, cattle, lions and rabbits. But this is just part of the story.

Abortion has been an important subject in the cave, hut, castle, yurt, brownstone, teepee, McMansion, ranch house, condo, space capsule, grass leanto and even perhaps the Garden of Eden. The historical record proves it happened in all these residences except for the last one. But for a few minutes let’s take a statistical look at a subject which raises the blood pressure of certain celibate priests, bishops, Baptists and other evangelicals who aren’t pregnant at the moment.

Let the record show that in 2008 there were 353,015 births per day in the world. That’s 14,709 per hour, 245 per minute, and four births for the second that it took to kill Dr. Tiller.

Respected medical authorities estimate that up to one-half of all pregnancies end in miscarriages. Many women have recurrent miscarriages before giving birth. (Technically, a miscarriage is the loss of any pregnancy up to the 20-week gestational age.) The experts say that about 20 percent of all pregnancies cause visible signs such as cramping, bleeding, the passing of clots and/or tissue from the vagina. There is an equal number of so-called “silent” miscarriages. In other words, the victim does not know she was even pregnant for as long as eight weeks and has lost the fetus. The most common cause of miscarriages is a chromosomal abnormality where the genetic material of the sperm and egg do not fuse together properly.

So let’s play a numbers game. If we have about 350,000 births per day, let’s use the conservative figure of 320,000 miscarriages for that same day. That’s based on the medical fact that close to one-half of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. But now we have to switch to religion instead of concentrating on fact. I think most people would recognize there is a difference.

“You Knit me Together in my Mother’s Womb”

Pro-lifers often cite the Bible for the basis of their beliefs that abortion is murder. Psalm 139 is a popular one to “prove” that God is the ultimate ob-gyn: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well.”

If God is “knitting” babies together in the womb, why does He screw up on about half of the babies? Why doesn’t He see to it that the egg and sperm fuse together properly? Is He rejecting the egg because of sins by the prospective mother? When a seven-month fetus is found by sonogram to have no brain, does He just say “whoops!” and offer to do an instant miracle? What happens when a baby is born with three sets of limbs? What about the sets of Siamese twins conjoined at the head?

I think it’s reasonable to postulate that any act a person wants to perform – killing another human being such as an abortion doctor, selling a beer on Sunday, having 300 wives and 500 concubines like Solomon, or even washing a car – can be supported by some obscure or prominent verse in the Bible. After all, it was written by men who are always looking for a way to justify their actions. So am I. I’m human. But even some evangelical professors of religion insist there is nothing in the Bible about abortion.

Michael J. Gorman, a New Testament and early church history expert at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Baltimore states flatly: “I can’t take you to text that says, ‘Don’t commit abortion.’ It just doesn’t exist.” But this isn’t my point. Pragmatism must rule when there aren’t any other answers. Sure there is life at the moment of conception. If that kind of “life” continues, then we can welcome that life to the other 350,000 who made it through the obstacle course of the blood stream, the nervous system, the science of genetics, and the perils of the vagina. But what does life at conception represent? Potential only. That speck of life-egg may develop into Jonas Salk-or Jack the Ripper-or a serial killer-or George Washington Carver-or Joe Stalin-or Mother Theresa-or Dr. Joseph Mengele-or Dr. Tiller’s killer.

There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground to stake out in the abortion battle. The American Taliban jihadist Bible thumper who has talked directly to God says, “Life is started at conception – a moment after that – it is murder.” The pro-choice pragmatist looks at the numbers of miscarriages, the cost of raising another baby, the reality of genetic foulups, and sarcastically responds: “I’m glad you finally settled the issue for everyone. It must be difficult to be God.” The pro-life faction loves to play God when it does not want to recognize that 40,000 children die each day according to the UN Children’s Emergency Fund, mainly because religious organizations obstruct the distribution of birth control devices in poor countries.

The Bible Contains an Inordinate Amount of Sex

There’s no question the Bible contains an inordinate amount of sex. That’s because humans who have been given the pleasure and the terror of the perpetual rut are constantly thinking about it. Well, that’s life. We should accept it. The Catholic Church, as Catholic columnist Anna Quindlen puts it, “seems to have a bizarre preoccupation with sins of the flesh.” But forced celibacy of priests and popes has only been around about a thousand years. And celibacy rules came about because of economics, not religious beliefs. Too much property was ending up in the private hands of the offspring of priests and popes, so to stop the flow of riches to private hands instead of the Church, the popes and bishops said: “No more priestly hanky-panky. No more sex. No more kids to inherit property.”

The Catholic Church tried to sell the idea that giving up priestly, bishopric, cardinal and pope carnality would lift their leaders and allow them to grow the wings of angels. And for their wretched, horny followers, sex was for procreation only. Good Catholic girls were warned about polishing their patent leather shoes to a mirror finish so that boys could see their panties.

Oh, one could play Vatican Roulette with the calendar and thermometers and try to turn a major league sex schedule into only on Sunday, but Catholics never bought the idea that giving up sex would place them at the right-hand. Catholics, like other humans, want passion and pleasure and practically no procreation. That’s why Catholic Church attendance in Europe now runs two percent of eligibles. In the United States at the present time, four times as many people leave the Church as join it. The Catholic Church still is the largest “church” in the United States. But the second largest “church” of religionists is composed of ex-Catholics.

Just last week on a radio talk show I was accused of picking on the Catholic Church because I am an “ex.” So be it. I’ll quit when the right-wing bishops stop whining about abortion and actually do something about poverty, homelessness, and the priests who were allowed to rape the young in their charge with absolute impunity for decades. The report on the abuse of Irish boys and girls placed under the Church’s predator wings will likely destroy the Irish Catholic Church. This was also all about sex, sex, sex and celibacy, celibacy, celibacy.

Did God Really Send The Shooter?

At Dr. Tiller’s funeral the usual Christian jihadists showed up with their graphic signs and red, white, and blue patriotic symbols, including the following signs to attack the widow in her hour of grief: “Bloody Obama,” “American Is Doomed,” “Abortion Is Bloody Murder,” ”God Sent The Shooter,” “God Is Your Enemy,” “Baby Killer In Hell,” “God Hates Obama,” and other signs of Christian love, forgiveness, and prayer. How many Catholic bishops and Baptist ministers led prayers for the soul of Dr. Tiller? Oh, that’s right, he committed murder.

Was it murder when he aborted a seven-month fetus when it was discovered it had no brain? How do you raise a child with no brain? Would the Wichita churches volunteer to raise that child? The pro-lifers should read the website “A Heartbreaking Choice.” Was it murder when patients with fetuses with severe abnormalities known to cause severe physical and mental disabilities were sent to him because he was skilled in aborting third trimester fetuses? Women from all over the United States were recommended to him and only two other doctors in the country were as skilled as he was in performing these complex and heartbreaking operations. Was it murder when it was well-known that a baby with severe physical handicaps would live for only a few minutes outside of the womb Sonograms can reveal some terrible conditions and abnormalities.

The following is a passage written by a woman who had to make a terrible decision: “Imagine what it is like to walk around in your third trimester, obviously pregnant, while well-meaning people ask you about this baby that you don’t expect to be taking home from the hospital. Then imagine the baby survives (the birth) and days later you take home this child who will die…. A hospice nurse comes to your house every couple of days and reminds you the signs and symptoms of death…. Eventually this baby dies a grueling death in your arms, you want another baby, but are paralyzed by the thought of having another child with the same condition….”

A modern writer who uses verses from Dante’s Inferno has created a powerful image using Canto XXVI when Dante is looking down at the damned in Hell from a cliff: “When I arrive in an airplane and I see New York, many many times it reminds me of this canto because there are billions and billions of little lights, like fireflies, and every little light hides a sinner.” Perhaps it is something the pro-lifers should also think about.

200 Million Women Worldwide Don’t Want Pregnancies at Will

History tells us that about the same ratio-number of abortions have been performed for centuries, whether legal or illegal. Women will find a way, whether it is the coat hanger, a piece of jagged wood, or a bottle of lye. The World Health Organization experts say that there are 19 million unsafe abortions performed each year in Third World countries that kill 70,000 women. In Tanzania, for example, where abortion is illegal except to save the life or health of the mother, it is a practice to use herbs or other powerful mixtures to poison the fetus. Or they beat on the bellies of the pregnant – or they insert objects in the vagina. Often infection, bleeding, and puncture of the uterus or bowel may occur. In some cases the doctor must remove the uterus in order to save his patient.

The WHO also estimates that over 200 million women worldwide don’t want pregnancies but they know nothing about family planning.

President Barack Obama’s recent speech at Notre Dame containing references to abortion made the 24-hour news cycles for weeks. The pro-life protesters also gained press. These exchanges might have inspired the murder of Dr. Tiller. But a speech by President Patricia McGuire of Trinity College of Washington, another Catholic school, did not get much press, but her speech perhaps more accurately described the thoughts of millions of moderate Catholics: “The religious vigilantes have established themselves as uber-guardians of a belief system we can hardly recognize. Theirs is a narrow faith devoted almost exclusively to one issue (abortion). They defend the rights of the unborn but have no charity toward the living. They mock justice as a liberal mythology. The demonstrations against the president at Notre Dame were an embarrassment to all Catholics.” Amen, sister – and she received a standing ovation from the graduation crowd. At last, a Catholic voice of reason in the abortion wars.