Christ Lutheran Church - Valencia, CA

Thoughts from Robin
Posted on: 10/21/2008

Robin Hyland, our Connected in Christ Coordinator is beginning an occasional series of blog entries where she will reflect on her faith journey.

Voices and Fingerprints

It’s unfortunately a topic that you can’t help hearing about every single day, pro-“choice” vs. pro-life. Coming from a vehemently pro-“choice” background, I have experienced a heavy pendulum swing toward life in the past decade. I am aware that the fact that I have this background can help explain my over-zealousness concerning the sanctity of life. I do not take it for granted since what was taken for granted in my past was that “a woman can do whatever she wants with her body”. Perhaps with her body (though that’s debatable), but not with another person’s body

I had a “discussion” with my brother this past weekend. He has drifted toward the more conservative side as he’s aged, loosing himself from the liberal moorings of our upbringing. He’s extremely rational and incredibly smart, but he is caught in the man-centered ideology that permeates our society. By that I mean the worldview that “man” is the pinnacle of beings, that there is no one above us and that we evolved to this human state over billions of years from a single-celled organism that came to life in a pool of primordial ooze struck by a random bolt of lightening. However, all other living beings evolved from that same cell, during that same time, so man is essentially no different or better than a dog or a fish or a tree, we are all equal. He doesn’t believe in God as Creator, though he has some notion of a “force out there”. Very Star Wars.

I don’t even remember how the subject came up, but I found myself trying to explain why life begins at conception and not at some designated point chosen by the woman who has the child in her belly. My brother actually argued that then you could say life begins before conception, i.e. when the cells are still sperm and egg??? Huh? Then he said that life begins when the child is born, as if going through a birth canal or being pulled through a surgical slice can somehow make you an official person. I then found myself saying “it is a person, it’s not a dog!” when it’s in uteri.

“A woman should have the choice to do whatever she wants to with her own body!”, “But, it’s not her body any more, it’s the baby’s body!”…we went round and round. And didn’t get anywhere.

It was only after I had time to think about it that I realized why you shouldn’t kill babies in the womb, even if it’s extremely inconvenient and will make you look bad for a while and be embarrassing and break your heart if you decide to offer the child for adoption. Each person has a unique set of fingerprints. Each person has a distinct voice. So distinct, in fact, that a computer can distinguish your voice from all the billions of others out there.

He formed us in the womb, He knows our name, He knows our voice, He has great plans for us. Each person is a unique creation of God. We should not be in the business of getting to “choose” whether that person gets to exist, God should make that choice.

Of course, I’m a believer. How do we convey this truth to those who are not? Can we?

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