Dear People of the Cathedral Community and Beyond,
In the news this week I have, to my heart’s lament, listened to reports of the passing of laws in both Georgia and Alabama that both sicken and, frankly, frighten me. I believe these laws, which severely abridges or removes the right of a woman to reach an informed decision on matters related to self and health, have far more to do with the disestablishment of women’s rights than they have to do with the “right to life” under which they are cloaked. I write what follows not to usurp the voice of women, but to declare my stand, and my church’s stand with them.
Here are some truths for me as I work to live daily into my baptismal vows, failing regularly, but resolved to continue in God’s grace:
First, life is sacred, and we are all created in the image and likeness of God. When that “life” begins is a matter harder to resolve. No matter how you resolve that question, however, any reasonable definition of “right to life” must continue onward well past moment of a viable delivery of a human child. That child will not be a self-sustaining living being for years. That child will not be fully developed for decades. We know that without provided food, the child will die. Without nurture the child will die. Without clothing and shelter the child will die. Without quality adult support, quality healthcare, and quality education, the child will be relegated to perpetual and unbreakable poverty. Right to life is really more right of birth, and must therefore include being prepared to provide for food, nurture, clothing and shelter, adult support (parenting), healthcare, and education. It cannot be adequate, it must be excellent. There can be no exception if we are to remain faithful to the sanctity of human life. Anything less is moral smoke and mirrors.
Up until about a hundred and fifty or two hundred years ago women were considered to be “underdeveloped men.” The good news is that this was scientifically debunked and women are accurately understood to be a different sex than men. This is not an opinion; not subject to debate. It is a fact. It is therefore fundamentally errant to me that a bunch of men (the lawmaking bodies of this land are still overwhelmingly men – and overwhelmingly white) be making decisions about issues of a woman’s body (e.g. carrying a child, to term, tubal ligation, or anything else at all for that matter). Men have not legislated similar decisions regarding their bodily autonomy.
So my dear companions on the way, let me now share with you the voice of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church from 1994 (the 71st General Convention) which reads in part:
We believe that legislation concerning abortions will not address the root of the problem. We therefore express our deep conviction that any proposed legislation on the part of national or state governments regarding abortions must take special care to see that the individual conscience is respected, and that the responsibility of individuals to reach informed decisions in this matter is acknowledged and honored as the position of this Church; and be it further
Resolved, That this 71st General Convention of the Episcopal Church express its unequivocal opposition to any legislative, executive or judicial action on the part of local, state or national governments that abridges the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of pregnancy or that would limit the access of a woman to safe means of acting on her decision. Archives Research Report, 1994-A054 Page 1 of 2 1976-2015
Please join me in prayer, and active support, for our sisters whose bodily autonomy is being threatened, and who understand the emerging and inherent sacredness and sanctity of gestating life far better than any man will ever be able. Resolve and act to maintain and strengthen their rights to reach their own informed decisions about their own bodies and being! Do this because we are in a time where these rights are being dismantled and dismissed. Do this because their life is no less important than ANY other life at any age at all. In the end, God has allowed each of us freedom of will and freedom of choice – all kinds of choice. To live in God’s image and likeness (which is not that of a powerful, worldly-resourced, straight, white man), we must be compelled to do the same.
Prayerfully.
Your Dean and your brother,
Scott+
May 15, 2019