On Friday, June 24th, my daughter Katie turned six. It is wonderful watching her grow into this fierce, funny and wild little person. We celebrated her with a trip to a nearby farm. You can see her here with a baby chick that she met. She and some of her friends played with sheep, goats, chickens, Alpacas and one big fluffy dog.
She had the time of her life, and my wife and I were doing our best to be filled with joy, but let me tell you, it was hard. On that same day, a decision came down from the Supreme Court that said that she had fundamentally less rights than she did the day before. She had less rights than her own mother had on her sixth birthday, and she, like every other woman in this country, will have less rights than the women who grew up in the last fifty years.
I have been asked, several times recently, some version of this question: “You are a Christian. Why does this bother you?” My answer is a complicated one. First, as a person who can’t get pregnant, I think it’s more important to listen to the voices of people who can get pregnant on this issue. My wife, who is an attorney, and I recently did a sermon on the draft opinion a few weeks ago, and you can watch that here if you missed it. It’s pretty relevant because the draft opinion didn’t change much from the final version.
But while I am not a person who can get pregnant, I am a father to a daughter and husband to a wife and their rights are deeply tied to my own. As a follower of Jesus, I know that our fights for sovereignty and liberation are all deeply connected, and that everyone has a right to live and prosper in this country. That right is taken by a system that would give states the power to force women – or anyone – to be pregnant.
The decision that some of the judges made last week does not end abortion in the United States. It just makes it dangerous. It takes something that is already invasive and makes it harder, scarier, more dangerous and more expensive. The end result will be that my daughter and millions of others like her will simply grow up more afraid of what could happen if they get pregnant. More afraid to get the care that they need, and more afraid that their state will punish them for trying to control their own bodies. This decision and the laws that it allows will make life worse for women and others who can get pregnant, and that is the point.
I think it is most telling that the supreme court also ruled this week that the right to bring a gun in public is so important that it can’t be controlled by the states. Think about that. The right to carry a weapon of war into the town square is too important to let states regulate it, but the right of a woman to control her own body is less important and can be controlled by the states. That is quite a statement to make. Guns are more important than people with wombs.
The point of all these laws is control. To teach women early and often to submit. To teach them to fear their bodies and know their place. Unfortunately, you can make a case that some parts of the bible would support that as a good thing, but my faith teaches me that we serve a God who calls us to work for justice through love. My friends, this decision is neither just, nor is it loving. You can’t save babies by oppressing the people who bear them any more than you can make the streets safer by flooding them with guns. It is not justice. It is fear, and that is not where God calls us.
So, as the parent of a young girl, who I hope will never need abortion care, I am called do as Jesus calls all of us. To love her as myself. I want her to grow up with a family that loves her, and will support her even when times are hard. I want her to know that she can trust us and that she doesn’t have to be afraid. More than anything, I want her to know that she is a blessed child of God who is empowered to follow that path laid out for her as she sees fit. This ruling tells her and a nation of women that they are less and have less control than the men around them. That is why, as a Christian man, this “bothers me.” I’m scared for her, and I’m scared of what the line of thinking that made last week’s Supreme Court decisions possible means for all of us.
We don’t know what comes next, but we know that God is still with us. We were called to strive for justice before this decision came down, and we continue to be called. While we mourn a setback to the cause of equality and justice, we must keep the faith that keeps us going. Jesus reminded his disciples time and again that things would be hard for them, even as they strived for the Kingdom of God in his name. We will keep striving.
Striving alongside you, Justin