Welcome to your future, America....

...whoever is left to see it.

NOTE: This post is primarily a response to an article posted on CNN. My information has been gleaned from there. You can read the article at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/23/obama.abortion/index.html

A bit of a bitter beginning, but I am a little bit bitter, though mostly sad. I logged on to post something about cooking. Instead I was mobbed by the headlines on my friend's home page. Beneath the pictures of Janet Jackson (fat again) and the headlines about Taylor Swift's first big song (something about someone else's husband) a small headline caught my eye. "Obama Reverses Abortion Policy." My heart sank. Wait, I thought, maybe I read it wrong. So I went to CNN to find out. I didn't. I started to cry.

For starters, why is it that issues of international importance are continously relegated to the basement of our news? The luscious, the lewd, and the ludicrous get top billing. But, like the city in Ursula LeGuin's short story, we have shackled what is truly important in a small room. And we feel no guilt.

More important than placement, however, is the shear enormity of what has changed today. Former President Bush instated this policy as one of his first acts and, in so doing, made it illegal for government money to fund family planning organizations that advocate and perform abortions overseas. Today that was changed, and now the money of the American people, most of whom are against abortion, can again be used to fund abortions overseas.

Great. There are so many issues here I'm not sure where to begin. I don't need to go into detail in saying that it is incredibly evil and ungodly that government funded money is allocated to fund the killing of innocent children. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian ought to be incredibly grieved that an avenue for exploiting and murdering the voiceless innocents has been re-opened.

Then there's the issue of sheer jingoism. After all, we assume that in this case, it is best for all countries to follow western ideals about family and a woman's health. Once again, we will step in to protect our poor brothers and sisters around the globe from their own cultural ignorance (note sarcasm). And yet, if someone seeks to go to another country and incarnate the gospel amongst them, that is an unspeakable evil. Because, it is assumed that it destroys their culture. The gospel does destroy parts of every culture (the part that is sinful), but it also affirms and upholds the uniqueness and beauty of true diversity amongst cultures and people.

Then there's the naive comment by the head of a family planning agency proclaiming that Obama's decision will help save women's lives around the globe. Sure, I can agree with that. If we forget the severe complications that arise in a woman's body and heart because of an abortion. And, if we ignore the women that abortion kills in the process. If we can forget that, sure I can agree to her statement. Hasn't she read at all about the link between abortion and breast cancer? Or the trauma that mothers go through? If she has, how can she sweep it all away?

Now that I have said all that I am left to wonder if most of America will even notice. More importantly, if most Christians will even notice. In the midst of our hopes for a changed economy and our believe that we can now do anything, will we even notice what has happened? Will we notice what came before an economic stimulus plan or even a plan to cut down on fuel emissions? I am not sure that we will. And, perhaps, that is the saddest part. I am also left to wonder, particularly in the light of recent conversations, how the western Christians' acceptance of "family planning" as a system has contributed to the callousness with which we all approach this issue and the ease with which abortion is so readily accepted. We are quick to decry the evil that exists in others' hearts, but how often do we look to the unbelief in our own and realize that it too makes its contribution?