When it come to the moral/religious side on both issues I take a fairly conservative stance. I believe that in the majority of cases they are both sins as defined by the Bible. A recent post on homosexuality lays out the questions I still have as far as the scripture is concerned. I believe that one can find one’s self in a homosexual relationship and not be in sin, but as with heterosexual relationships these days I think that’s certainly in the minority. I don’t think God smiles on a relationship or frowns on a relationship simply because of the physical bits involved. But I digress.

I think that getting an abortion, with very few exceptions, is an immoral act. I’ve laid this out in the past as well, but due to blog changes the archives are rather spotty. The limits I would impose on abortion where I the emperor, include: an age limit (equal to the age of consent in the state involved), a term limit (I don’t believe an abortion should be performed past the first term), and a necessity limit (abortions would be allowed only in cases of medical necessity with possible allowances for cases of rape or incest). I should say that even in these cases, and my limits would likely eliminate the majority of abortions performed today, I don’t think that the abortion is made moral.

It is not the unborn child’s fault that they were conceived. To end their life because something horrible happened to the mother and the side effect of that thing was the conception does not negate that horrible thing. It adds one on top of the other. To end the life because of a clear and present danger to the mother’s life is one instance that I really can understand making that choice. Honestly, if I were a woman I have no idea what I would do in that situation. I can’t imagine that it’s an easy choice and I’m certain that for most people there would be a certain amount of grief, regret, and pain if they make the decision to abort.

The notion that there are women that get abortions as a form of birth control and feel none of that sort of emotion (an argument that I often here coming from the other side) is one I have a hard time with. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and say that this does happen. Those sorts of abortions, ones of “convenience” are ones that I would make illegal were I able to.

So let’s distill all of that down. I can’t personally stand here and say that all abortions are wrong all of the time. I don’t see the purpose of our government as being a moral arbiter in all situations. We have the freedom in this country to make decisions that other people will be horrified by. That doesn’t mean I believe that everything is permissible. It just means that there is a balance to these things. We have to find a balance between personal freedom and protecting the weak at the expense of that freedom. I think that the Democratic party is working towards that, however imperfectly.

This extends to things like homosexuals in the military and civil unions/gay marriage. Many of my fellow believers are firmly against that as well. It seems that they believe that allowing gays to serve or to marry are some indication of a moral degradation in our society. I would argue that there have been homosexuals serving and living together for as long as this country has been standing. We are just recognizing that fact as a society and are providing them the protection they need to pursue happiness just as it has been provided to us. I don’t see a clear indication that allowing these practices will actively cause harm to anyone actually so in that way, these issues aren’t anything at all like abortion. It is, in fact, protecting the (politically) weak and providing them personal freedom without denying anyone else that same freedom.

“But wait, didn’t you say that homosexuality is immoral?”

Under certain circumstances, yes. But allowing them in the military has nothing at all to do with their sexuality. Anyone should be allowed to serve who wants to. Allowing them to receive benefits that will ultimately benefit both them and society at large does more good to society at large than “allowing” their lifestyle does harm to them personally. In other words they aren’t going to make the decision not to be gay simply because we deny them some basic right.

So, there you go. I believe in allowing people certain basic freedoms even if I don’t agree with the exercise of those freedoms. I think that’s a very Democratic stance.

Why I Am a Democrat – Pt. 2 is a post from: Spiritual Tramp

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Things mentioned:
Conversation with Dan Sawyer
Creation
Abortion
Science
Rabbit trails (ht to http://www.thejenanddaveshow.com)
Conversation with Brad

Promo for http://www.jtindie.com/ played.

Spiritual Stew: Episode 14 – Anti-Intellectualism is a post from: Spiritual Tramp

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