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The OP isn't advocating decriminalisation. It is opposing criminalisation - it is part of a discussion that arose elsewhere on the recent supreme court ruling on the Roe V Wade ruling. But - Who do you say is the murderer and who are his co-conspirators in the crime of abortion and do you want them tried for murder, all of them?Why would you want to decriminalize that which you know to be the taking of innocent life?
Slavery is opposed by almost everyone on Earth nowadays. Child molestation is opposed by almost everyone on Earth nowadays. But Abortion is opposed by many, accepted by many.
Abortion is an issue that the community has not yet reached a consensus upon. Ask yourself if it is right to impose your view of the matter upon the 60% or so of people (in the USA) who accept abortion? Impose your view (and perhaps God's view too) by the law and with criminal penalties?
Can a Christian, in good faith, refrain from imposing what he/she believes on a moral issue (and perhaps God also views it the same way) upon others who do not share that view?
This is an interesting response. I wasn't thinking of a theocracy when I wrote my reply, but now that I've read yours, I'm curious if you would say the same about secular authorities -- are they also a disaster, given the errors in conduct and thinking that government officials make?
Yes, many are disasters. Russia has an elected president, some say he is a dictator yet he was elected, and he has led his nation into a disaster and hurt another nation to the point of terrible grief and death with destruction on a people who did not attack him or his nation. So yes, secular as well as religiously inclined governments make messes at times. But a Theocracy has an added dimension; such governments believe that God is telling them what to do and they cannot brook any dissent from their God directed path.
Secular leaders in western nations rarely seek to crush religious thinking. In the USA religion is freely practised by any person who wants to practise a religion.And secular leaders are doing what they think is right and think they have some kind of obligation to crush religious thinking. That doesn't make secular leaders choices any better or any more right.
The life of Christians is difficult enough and I would not add any other "creeds" to for example join a church (depends on what the context of your statement is).Can a Christian make the following statement in good faith?
I will never have an abortion nor would I advise another person to have one nor would I go out of my way to assist a person to have one. Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.Please, when replying, do not make this into a pro-abortion vs anti-abortion debate. The intention is to ask if a faithful Christian can hold both that abortion is morally unacceptable and also that the state ought not to legislate to make a pregnant woman, her doctor, the nurses and other support persons into criminals because they participated in an abortion.
Will you give some examples of such disputed moral issues which nevertheless have laws enforcing one side against all others?
There is no law enforcing homosexual behaviour. No law mandating such behaviour as a requirement for continued life in freedom in the USA. But a law criminalising abortion as murder would make criminals of anyone who procured an abortion, had an abortion, performed an abortion and so forth.Homosexuality, is per Catechism of the Catholic a disordered condition. Current law justifies and ratifies it. It makes denying the legitimacy of homosexuality illegal.
There is no law enforcing homosexual behaviour. No law manding such behaviour as a requirement for continued freedom in the USA.
I think a theocracy of men running the church (or the world) as they think fit may be a disaster given the many errors in conduct and thinking that church officials of every kind have made their regular habit.
There is no law enforcing homosexual behaviour. No law mandating such behaviour as a requirement for continued life in freedom in the USA. But a law criminalising abortion as murder would make criminals of anyone who procured an abortion, had an abortion, performed an abortion and so forth.
Yet here you are denying it and no one has arrested you.Ignatius wrote about current laws that make "denying the legitimacy of homosexuality" illegal.
I'm not sure if you are responding to my comment "The lack of a law then becomes the conscience.".There seems to be a dichotomy in that statement that would make it impossible for any rational person to make, Christian or not.
Yet here you are denying it and no one has arrested you.
Murder can be unintended and culpability reduced by ignorance. But it’s still murder. So if we truly value human life there must be consequences to wiping it out.The OP isn't advocating decriminalisation. It is opposing criminalisation - it is part of a discussion that arose elsewhere on the recent supreme court ruling on the Roe V Wade ruling. But - Who do you say is the murderer and who are his co-conspirators in the crime of abortion and do you want them tried for murder, all of them?
Hmm, not sure about the point here but the view of the CC is that abortion is the taking of innocent life while sex is simply the means to the procreation of that life. The life, itself, is sacred whether inside or outside the womb.The statement in the OP would most likely be from an older Catholic. They might reasonably see the prohibition of abortion as part of a specifically Catholic view of sex, rather than it is undoubtedly murder.
If you see abortion as the taking of an innocent child's life would that not mean it is a crime?How so? The statement rejects abortion and any assistance in procuring an abortion.
Having sex is not a "mistake". Poor sense of self worth, bad morals and ethics, are some of the factors that lead to high rates of unplanned pregnancy.Mistakes are made, they are very common, what is one to do in such a case?
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