Christianity and Abortion

In the time of Christ (and today amongst conservative Jews) a baby wasn't really a person or a member of the community until it was seven days old for males and even longer for females. That is why even to this day the bris (circumsion), which officially brings the baby boy into the community, takes place only after the seven days have passed. Women routinely managed their fertility in the Jewish culture of Jesus' time. In addition to various forms and methods of contraception, they used herbs to end unwanted pregnancies. Today, Jewish women are on the forefront of a woman's right to choose because they have always been in charge of their own bodies. It is a fanciful notion that there was a period in time when all pregnancies resulted in a child regardless of choice.

This has been a time of forgetting for women largely resulting from the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church. And somehow men (sorry to you fellows who don't feel this way) have felt as though they have a right to control a woman's body and to coopt her fertility. Perhaps it is the woman's power of creation, the aspect of her that is most like God, that makes men jealous. And so the only path open to the man who covets the power of creation is to try to control that power in women, though this will never make him a creator himself.

Jesus never spoke of abortion nor is it mentioned in the Bible. Why? Because pregnancy was under the domain of women, just like childbirth and childcare. One of my greatest wishes is that Christians who say they are going to live a Bible-based life take the time to read the Gospels and study the culture and history of Jesus. I wish they would lay off the writings of the Apostle Paul who, every bit prone to error and poor human judgement as the rest of us, tried with great success to position men above women in a spiritual hierarchy. But just because he said it, doesn't make it so. Read the story of Mary and Martha, The Gospel of Mary, The Gospel of Thomas or stories of the early dissemination of Christianity (it was a women's movement, gals!) Why do you think the Romans worked so hard to squash the Gnostic Christians which made up 60% of Christians at the time?

Wake up women! Remember who and what you are! Only those who can create know the implications of such an act. Only those who can create should decide when it is best to do so.