Is The Abortion Debate A Microcosm Of The Incivility Of Our Society?

The new Alabama law on abortion has made the issue of abortion a very hot topic now. On the pro-choice side, we have memes showing a vast hypocrisy of many, not all, of those who oppose the legalization of elective abortion. Those memes describe how hypocritical it is for opponents of elective abortion when they do not also demonstrate the same care for children who are born as they do for the unborn. And those memes speak an inconvenient truth about many opponents of elective abortion who also show little to no concern for the children of asylum seekers who are locked up in cages. That inconvenient truth is that these opponents of elective abortion are unable to credibly claim that they care about children.

But if we take the converse of those memes, isn't another hypocrisy revealed? For how can one claim that they care about children regardless of their sincere concern for children of immigrants when they allow for the killing of those in the womb. After all, it isn't the children of immigrants who might infringe on the freedom of a woman to pursue a career or who could cause great distress in the taking care of the child if born, it is those in the womb.

The combination of the memes with their converses give a modern illustration of Jesus's parable of the two men praying (click here for the source):

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

It seems that both sides have forever been mirror grumbling at each other as the Pharisee grumbled about the tax collector. And that grumbling serves the purpose of causing onlookers to regard the issue as not worth their interest and effort. Thus we have what seems like a forever stalemate. And it is the political parties that use their respective groups on this issue who truly benefit from the stalemate. For each political party knows that for as long as they can portray themselves as either supporting or opposing the legalization of elective abortion, they can slide on so many other issues.

But if we looked at those in the abortion debate who keep accusing their opponents of hypocrisy as the only ones to whom Jesus's parable applies, then we have leaped without looking into the role of the Pharisee in the parable. For whenever we speak against some injustice without remembering the times where we have been unjust to others, we have passionately embraced the role of the Pharisee. For the point of Jesus's parable is that because we are all sinners, we can't afford to look down on others.

There is a solution to enabling fruitful discussions about the abortion issue. That solution is to be an advocate for either the pro-choice side or the anti-elective abortion side as the tax collector from the parable. So instead of touting our own moral superiority because we have chosen the right side of that issue, we become more and more connected with our failures and sins. That is because the more we are connected with our failures and sins, the more tolerant we will be with those with whom we disagree. And the more tolerant we are with those with whom we disagree, the more we will listen to them even if listening to them never changes anyone's mind.