ken wilson online

Still on this theme.  Isaiah being a prophet is the master of the obvious when he says in God’s name, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.”  Which means that the task of a disciple is to be willing to think thoughts that are outside the realm of one’s ordinary thoughts.  Which is not an easy thing to do, neurologically. I read recently that 95% of our neurological activity is “automatic,” that is, while it involves our brain, it doesn’t require our active intention (so reading is automatic, but deciding to read involves active intention.)  And that the 5% of non-automatic activity is very tiring.  Like intending to think a thought that doesn’t come from within one’s normal realm of thinking.  So people of faith have adopted, or many of them (us) have, to view thoughts labeled “liberal” as either faithful or unfaithful to God, and thought labeled “conservative” the same.   In my neck of the religious landscape, liberal thoughts are “unfaithful to God” thoughts.  So let’s do a little thought experiment regarding the hot topic issue of abortion (ha! I’ve got your attention!)

Abortion. What could be a category of thoughts more closely constrained by the liberal/conservative category?  What thoughts might be true thoughts that require one to think outside those particular thought boxes?  I’ll mention two thoughts that have come to me from outside the conservative thought box on abortion.  (I should also mention that my leanings on this issue are strongly toward what has been called the pro-life direction.)

One thought from outside the conservative thought box on abortion: the pro-life lobby, as a whole, has been a powerful force to constrain-restrain-restrict the availability and distribution of condoms all over the world, including Africa, where AIDS is running rampant.  I spoke with a leader of a well known evangelical relief organization who told me that Christian AIDS relief workers in Africa are under pressure from American leaders in the pro-life movement not to distribute condoms even though many of the Christian relief workers know that the distribution of condoms to, for example, married African women whose husbands have HIV, could save their lives, and protect their children from becoming orphans.  What are your thoughts about that as pro-life person who tends to automatically trust only the thoughts on abortion that come from the conservative thought box?

Is actively restricting the availability of condoms in Africa) a pro-life thing to do or a pr0-death thing to do?  It is a pro-death thing to do, I think.  Actually, I think it’s a shameful thing to do and morally repugnant.

That’s not a comfortable thought, is it?  It’s a disturbing-disorienting thought.  It’s a thought outside the box for those who assume that the conservative thought box is only filled with pro-life thoughts.  If you’re having this thought for the first time, you might check your blood pressure.

That’s all I’m saying, nothing more than that.

Just to calm any nerves that have been rattled by the neurological effort of this kind of painful thinking, let me go at it from the opposite angle.  If one is used to drawing from the liberal thought box on abortion consider this: why is it highly unlikely that you’ve thought long and hard on the question, “Why should abortions be rare?”  It is a given within the current political discourse that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”  Why should it be rare?  Should abortion be rare because there is a profound moral issue regarding abortion, involving the vulnerable life of the fetus? Should vulnerable human life be protected, or is protection of vulnerable human life completely immoral?  If one is supportive of the rights of pregnant women to decide the issue for themselves throughout the entire length of their pregnancy, wouldn’t that place an even greater burden on society in general to speak openly concerning the morality of the choice involved, so that individuals with the legal choice, could be informed by the moral dimension of the question? Questions are thoughts. Why are these thoughts not found in the liberal thought box regarding abortion? If they are found there, why are the spoken out loud so little?

This is exhausting work isn’t it?  I was kind of nervous writing these down. It took a lot of energy. I scrutinized my thoughts carefully.

As disciples of Jesus, are we willing to think thoughts that are outside our well worn neural pathways?  You’d think we’d be all over that as disciples, knowing that His thoughts are beyond our own.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am and is filed under beyond conservative-liberal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.