#ShoutYourAbortion and the Cure for Shame

“I don’t even care!"

Defiance comes in all shapes and sizes, and in this case, it was in the shape of an 7 year old boy. He was in trouble again, and it was very clear that he really did care. A lot. 

It was clear that he would do just about anything to silence the voice deep in his heart that says, “I’ve blown it. No one here will accept me or like me ever”. 

Even though this little boy would swear at me, would flip me the bird, would straight up say, “I hate you!” I couldn’t help but feel a great deal of warmth and affection for him, since it was so obvious that he was hurting and wanted to be accepted and loved. I’d like to think that he warmed up to me over the time I spent with him working at the Boys and Girls club, but I don’t know if I am the most unbiased judge of that. 

As adults, we can sometimes believe that we have matured far beyond the behaviour of children, when, in many cases, we just get better at hiding our little temper tantrums and insecurities. It is sad in a way, because the better we get at silencing the hurt and tenderness in our hearts, the more we alienate those who might have compassion for us. 

Which brings me to #ShouldYourAbortion. 

I suppose the first order of business is trying to persuade you that the twitter trend #ShoutYourAbortion is the same thing as an 8 year old saying, “I don’t even care”. Perhaps I cannot be compelling, but let me say just one thing: If all these women really did not feel any shame or guilt over their abortion, why do they feel the need to, “Shout their abortion?” 

Yes, I know, it is for the women who DO feel shame: those women who are being ‘helped’ by this twitter trend. As though, if you feel guilt about something, just surround yourself with people that say, ‘No, you should not feel guilty!’ That will make the guilt go away. 

So that is the solution. When you feel bad about something you do, or that you have done, simply take to the internet, and proclaim how you, “don’t feel bad at all”. That is the cure for shame. 

If you really think that is the cure for shame, then I really don’t have anything more to say to you. However, if you have found this well to be dry, if you have found that no matter how loudly you “ShoutYourAbortion,” or any other one of the things that make you feel shame, There is another cure. One that does not just deal with subjective feelings, but the objective reality of guilt.

His name is Jesus Christ. 

He says to us,  ^"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28 - 30). 

Is your throat sore from shouting your abortion, or whatever guilt you feel? Are you running out of breathe? Come to Him. 

He had all our sins, all our wrongs put on Him. They seeped into His pours and blackened His soul, those things that He never did. But He took them on Himself so that we could be pure and righteous before the God of all Creation; the Creator of all reality.  That means that when He says, “You My daughter, My son, are clean”, it is not just His opinion, it is reality. 

He does not offer a stuffy, religious life, but a life full of JOY. God is not anti-sex, anti-pleasure, and certainly not anti-woman. He created sex, and pleasure, and knows how they work best. His ways sometimes seem counter-intuitive, but again, how is the intuitive, instant gratification method working for us so far?

Speaking of counter-intuitive, we think that in order to be free from shame, we CANNOT admit that we did something wrong. The opposite is true. Freedom from shame and guilt comes from admitting before Christ, and perhaps others, that we DID do something wrong. We all have done a lot wrong. 

Will you take this cure for shame, or continue the fruitless search for another?

Work, after eating food for thought...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4BXMD-gn40

I felt as though I would respond to this video, because I have heard these arguments over an over again, which suggests to me that not many people are addressing these issues. Furthermore it seems to allow people to not only disbelieve in God, but to feel okay about abandoning their quest for truth, or at least a truth that includes God.

First of all, I admit that I am at a disadvantage. I do not have the skills, resources, or time to produce a slick-looking cartoon. I am hoping that if the reader is genuinely interested in truth, they will do their best to be aware of their tendency to be drawn to animation rather than words, and combat that tendency. So let’s get started. 

# 1 - Thinly veiled arrogance. 

First of all, the big blind spot in this perspective is that it is portrayed to be the most humble, when the Atheist view is the most arrogant. He believes he is expressing humility by saying things like, ‘I don’t think I could be sure…’ which he believes suggest that he has a humble incredulity in regards to his own experience. 

However, if you watch the video closely, the experience of the Atheist is presented as superior to the experience of every one else. He is the smart one in judgment over all the other religious views. What qualifies him to judge all the other views? His own reasoning and experience. It is ironic because, as I’ll get to later, at least some in the crowd of theists trust holy literature above their own experience, which makes them more humble than the Atheist. 

Another few points of veiled arrogance are the way that the Atheists walks away at the end (showing, ‘he tried, but they are just too foolish…), his forceful, ‘logical' argument is met with silence (showing his thoughts to be wise), and the way the silence is broken followed by more arguing and fighting amongst the theists (showing that the theists have nothing to come back with). It draws out this unspoken, ‘If only more people were more level headed and logical like the Atheist, the world would be a better place.” Such a view needs to do some homework and see that Atheism does not breed utopia, not by a long shot.

# 2 - Straw man argument

If you don’t know what a ‘straw man argument’ is, it is when you put forth a weak version of a person's or group’s argument, in order to show how ‘stupid’ it is without doing the actual work of understanding what they believe and refuting it. That is what happens here, in AT LEAST the case of the few Christian denominations that are represented. I can’t speak for all the other ones. 

Although I am surprised at some of the accuracies, only the most bigoted and naive perspectives of each person’s faith is being represented here, and that is just not fair arguing. 

The first example of this is right at the very beginning. The video broad strokes all Theists as believing that God has spoken to them, simply because of some subjective ‘feelings’. I know that for myself, being a Christian, I am a staunch doubter of my emotions. Furthermore, Christians do not set their hope on their subjective feelings alone, we set them on the Word of God, and the Historical person of Jesus Christ. Here is Richard Dawkins admitting that Jesus Christ lived:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5EjA-JNiVk

If you want to argue the validity of the Bible, miracles, etc., there are many resources for such debates. The point is that Christians do not simply rest their belief that there is a God, and He speaks to them, based on their biased, subjective feelings. 

# 3 - Straight up lies. 

The Atheist says at 3:03, “typically, religion obeys borders, while truth does not”. He say this after a condescending lecture, finger pointed, harsh tone stating that their view of God comes from the way they were raised, and the view of God they were taught. This is simply not true, and there are some very obvious points behind me. 

Christianity, for example, was started in the middles east, amongst Jews. It moved around the world, taking hold in Europe, and then moving to North America. Today, China and Africa each have percentages of Christians that at least compete, if not completely overwhelm the numbers in the US and Canada. It is simply not true that, ‘for the most part, religion obeys borders’, at least not in the case of Christianity.

# 4 Differing perspectives on an issue does not mean all perspective are wrong. 

I’ll say it again: “Differing perspectives on an issue does not mean all perspectives are wrong!”. Let’s say there were 5 doctors that each at a different perspective on your health, and two of them said, ‘It’s cancer”. Would you throw up your arms and say, ‘Who can know if such smart people disagree!’ No, you would roll up your sleeves, and darn well figure out who is right.

This argument is more common among agnostics, but it is also used by Atheists: “If those religious people can’t agree, then logically, there is not point in finding out what is true. In fact, probably no one is right”. This is not even logical.

# 5 God should be clearer

The argument at the end says, “If God had a message about who He is, and what He requires of man, then why wouldn’t He express it in a way that we would all understand and agree on?” The answer to this is very simple: we don’t want to. 

Think about it. Have you ever had an argument with someone who refused to see plain logic because of the consequences of conceding to your argument? Of course! That is what this video is accusing theists of doing. The reason people all agree that 2 + 2 = 4 is because there are no consequences from the way we live whether it is 4 or 137. I can still do what I want, when I want, even if 2 + 2 = 4. But if the God of the Bible is real, then there are real consequences for the way I live. We see this all the time in how people twist scientific research into the harm of certain chemicals, etc, reinterpreting the results when there is money involved.  

So why doesn’t God just correct us all? Because He allows us to choose. He is humble enough to put His beautiful, eternal Word in a book, and simply say, “When you want to know, here it is”. With some He is more urgent, but that is the way He has done it in general. 

Things I like about the video

I actually appreciate that there has been some homework done in regards to different denominations, and that this person admits that there are true and real contradictions between these belief systems. I do believe there was some attempt to portray these views in a real and fair way, even though it failed in the ways I mentioned. My goal here is that those who have stopped thinking about the possibility of God and the next life would pick it back up again, since truth is worth it.