Posted by CB on February 03, 2012 at 19:45:13
In Reply to: Re: No Matter Who or Where We Are Love Sees Us, Even if We Feel Terrible posted by I feel terrible on January 27, 2012 at 22:04:24:
Carlin does a good send-up of religion. It makes my heart hurt to listen to his criticism, because it contains truth.
"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." Not too many people can argue against helping orphans and widows. The tricky part of James' definition, to me, is how we go about "refusing to let the world corrupt you."
For example, I believe it is my own worldly corruption that gets annoyed with people who bait believers with a line like "God hates me," so they can knock down whatever response they get and stroke a weak ego by proving how much smarter and better they are than us dumbass Christians.
On the other hand, I don't think it's worldly corruption on my part to support legalized abortion as a medical option for women. If I cannot choose, I am not free. If I am free to choose, then I can choose to live in accordance to God's will as I understand it. As a matter of choice (rather than force) I can honor my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, if that is my understanding of God's will. If I cannot choose, then I must live in accordance to God's will as someone else understands it.
I probably would be a more supportive of restricting abortion on demand as a legal right if we (the church) did a better job of caring for widows and orphans.