The Yoni Dance

                     The ultimate  "how to" book 
                                   about all those things
                                            your parents 
                                                   never taught you.

Volume One

Chapter Nineteen

The Assumptions Underlying 

the Abortion Controversy

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Herbert continues, “One very interesting phenomenon I’ve noticed and will share with you today is that people are very inconsistent.   Many profess a belief in one or another of these three religious assumptions and then when it’s not convenient, they behave in a manner that is absolutely counter to their professed belief.   Their belief just vanishes.   It’s as if it never existed at all.”

Why do people do that?" I ask.

He responds, "Primarily because most people can't handle the truth.   When you acknowledge the truth, you become responsible for living according to that truth.   When you acknowledge knowing right from wrong, then you also acknowledge responsibility for your behavior and for the consequences of your behavior.   You can no longer blame someone else or simply go along with the gang.   You can no longer project your self-doubts, your self-loathing, your low-self-image onto someone else.   You can no longer play victim and when you're stop playing victim, you can no longer justify hating your so-called enemies.   And the two most powerful reason are that you would have to start thinking for yourself, and you would have to change your inappropriate behavior."

Laughingly, I say, "Uhhh...  I don't think I can handle what you just said."

Jazbell say's, "Herbert, you need to know that Stoney's also a clown at times."

“OK," I say, "I can be serious too.   Herbert, please give us an example of beliefs disappearing?”

“I can give you a superb example," he says, " but it will take me into one of the areas where I have difficulty walking my talk regarding The Law of Allowing.”

Jazbell says, “Herbert, nobody’s perfect.   Nobody has all their ducks in straight rows, so please let your emotions flow and do share your example.”

Herbert continues,  “I am a strong advocate of personal liberty and because this example slaps freedom squarely in the face, I tend to stray off my path here.”

I give him a sharp military salute and say, “General Custer, Sir, please speak to us.”

Herbert laughs and says, “OK.   The most blatant example of inconsistency I can think of concerns the fundamentalist Christians and their attempt to force their religious belief about when life begins onto everyone by intimidation, by deception, and by pressuring elected government officials into passing pregnancy control laws.   They preach that life begins at conception, and they want that belief to be the basis for secular laws prohibiting pregnancy termination.”

“That’s what they believe; so, I don’t see how that’s inconsistent.”

“Let’s look a little closer.

“OK,” I say.

"First, let me set the context.    When we start talking about the nature of being human,  about why humans are here on Earth, about where we come from, what happens to us after our bodies die, and dozens of similar questions, there are simply no provable answers.  There is only, conjecture, speculation guesswork, fantasy  stories, and fairytales.   

    In the middle of this unknown arena, a bunch of ultra-conservative, fear-driven, closed-minded, anti-sexual, fundamentalist Christians have proclaimed themselves to know with irrefutable certainty the answer to life's greatest mystery, and they are trying to shove that answer down everyone else's throat."

I ask, "What Mystery is that?"

"The mystery of Life.   What is life?   What are we?   Are we a body with a soul, a soul with a body, or just a bunch of dirt that has magically acquired consciousness?   Where did we come from?   Where are we going?   What is the nature of that unknown and unknowable what-ever-it-is-or-isn't that we call God?   When does an independent human life begin?

    This is the realm of the absolutely unknown, the completely unknowable.   It's the home of the mystic, and religious philosophers.   Unfortunately, it's also the home of the soothsayers, demons, and fear mongers, the home of snake oil salesman, con artists, and manipulators,  and the home of myth, legends, fables, and fairytales.

   And it's where the anti-abortionist have set up shop and proclaimed themselves God's chosen messenger of the one and only Universal Truth.    With absolutely no proof whatsoever -- with utter disregard to conflicting evidence -- with impunity towards the rights and religious freedoms of everyone but themselves --  in the face of billions of human who hold conflicting beliefs --  and with arrogant impunity to the most basic principles of human decency -- this group has started an extremely costly and highly destructive war against everyone else.   In an already overpopulated world, they are promoting the birth of still more people."

"Arrogant impunity to the most basic principles of human decency?  Isn't that a bit too much?"

"Well that depends upon what you call intimidation,  harassment, invasion of privacy, making death threats, criminal conspiracy, assaulting people, reputations, and property, secret criminal behavior, engaging in, endorsing or condoning violence, vandalism, arson, and murder.  

    We won't even mention using lies of omission  (deceiving others by intentionally withholding the truth)  peddling half-truths as if they were the whole truth, censoring opposing views, distorting the truth, practicing intentional deception, intentionally using inflammatory rhetoric, ignoring or distorting Biblical passages, ignoring the physical evidence  (or accurately, the lack of evidence)  and inciting to riot."

I say, "The anti-abortionists have engaged in every one of these practices."

Herbert continues, "I know they have.   That's my point.   Not only that, they're using the Christian Bible as their publicly proclaimed authority while ignoring the fact that that same book completely repudiates their most basic claim -- that life begins at conception.   That book also offers no support for many of their other cherished claims."

"Claims like what?"

"Like original sin; like God murdered his son to prove he loves you; like sex outside of very narrow parameters is the work of the devil."

"I take you are saying that abortion is a religious issue."

"Of Course it is! he says.   The questions are squarely in the realm of religion, philosophy, conjecture, speculation, guesswork and/or fairytales, and fantasy stories.   And the answers to the questions that the anti-abortionists claim to know with absolute certainty are, in reality, completely unknown and absolutely unknowable.   

Jazbell adds, "Those vocally opposing abortion rights are almost exclusively fundamentalist Christians or Devout Catholics.   That, in itself, clearly indicates that abortion is a religious issue."

Herbert continues, "Just for a moment, look at the religious aspects of the ant-choice declarations.    Do they or do they not proclaim that the Christian Bible is the word of God?”

“They do.”

“And do they or do they not proclaim to follow the word of God as written in the Christian Bible.”

“They do.”

“And do a great many of them believe in the literal meaning of every word in that book?”

“Yes.”

“I have something I would like you to read.”   Herbert gets up, walks to a shelf on the other side of the room, extracts two books, returns to his chair, hands me one of them and says,  “Here’s a copy of the Oxford Edition of the Christian Bible.   Please open it to Chapter Two in the book of Genesis and read verse seven out loud for us.”  

I take the Bible and do as requested.   I read the following sentence.   "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

He takes the book back and thumbs through it for a moment, finds what he is looking for, and then says,  “Would you listen to this verse, please.   This is verse 4 from Chapter 33 in the Book of Job.”   He reads,   "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life."

I sense the emotion in his voice as he says, “When is the last time you heard a Bible-thumping no-choice advocate quote these sentences from the Bible?”

“I never have,” I say.

“And you won’t hear it in the future either,” he says.   “The no-choice leaders stand up in front of their followers, hold the Bible up in one hand, thump it with the other hand and plead with everybody to read the Bible, believe every word of it and unquestioningly follow what it says because, as they say, it is the literal word of the Lord, God Himself.   They sometimes even cry over this book in their passionate appeals to have others follow its teachings.

    And, yet here in this same book, the entire case of the no-choice-advocates for life-beginning-at-conception is blown out of the water.   The Christian Bible clearly and plainly states that life begins at first breath —that God gives life  [or Spirit, as some call it]  to the human body with the breath.   Thus, their case for life beginning at conception is exposed as a boldfaced lie by their own God in their own professed to be literally-interpreted Bible.   If that is not denial and inconsistency, then I do not know what is.”

At this point, Jazbell says, “Herbert, I can see why this is an issue where you hold strong feelings.   I too, hold similar sentiments so thank you for sharing this with us.   The Biblical quotes you just read are pieces of information that, until this moment, I had totally missed.”

“You are most welcome,” he says.   Herbert opens the second book which turns out to be the revised standard version of the King James Bible and reads Ecclesiastes 11:5:

"As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of the woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”

Herbert continues, “Here in one sentence, God is telling them:  there's a difference between spirit and the body -- that they don’t know how the spirit comes into the body -- and that they don’t know how God works.   So what do the anti-abortionists do with this passage?  Most ignore it, but some of the most adamant anti-abortionists claim this Biblical passage as evidence to prove they know life begins at conception.”

I ask, “So what do the pro -life people do when confronted with these bible quotes?”

“I don’t know.   To my knowledge, the pro-choice advocates have never confronted them on it and thereby, have completely missed the boat on this point, too.”

“This point, too!   Are you also taking issue with the pro-choice advocates?”

“In spite of the passion I hold regarding this issue, my intention is to be as neutral as possible and not to condemn either side.   I’d like to hold this as an observation rather than a judgment.   Unfortunately, where the abortion is concerned, I'm not doing a very good job.  My intention is to point out areas where actions are inconsistent with professed beliefs and/or with publicly-stated intentions."

"In many aspects of this controversy, the pro-choice people have sat back and allowed the no-choice advocates to go unchallenged.”

“To what are you referring?”

“The no-choice advocates have skillfully defined the playing field by using cleverly-contrived, inaccurate, intentionally-misleading and highly-emotional terminology.   The pro-choice people have sat back and allowed the use of inaccurate language to go unchallenged.”

“What terminology are you referring to?” 

“You just used one of their terms, pro-life.   Pro-life and pre-born-baby are examples of highly emotional and highly inaccurate terms.   To this day, the no-choice advocates are still being allowed to completely dominate and control the terminology being used regarding this issue.   Not only that, as I've just showed you this entire controversy is clearly a religious issue,  and yet the pro-choice people have not challenged their adversaries on the basis of separation of church and state or on the basis of freedom of religion.”

“At this point, Jazbell cuts in.   “Herbert, it looks like you know how to do a great job at pissing off just about everyone, including yourself.”

Herbert laughs and says, “Yes, the truth does have a way of getting people upset.”

Jazbell continues, “Well, you’re my kind of guy and I like your style.   You seem to have some uncommon insights on the abortion issue.   Do you have anything written up on this?”

“Yes, I have the draft of a book on the topic.”

“Would you permit me to read it?”

“Yes!  of course.”

Herbert gets up, goes to his desk and returns with a spiral bound text of about two-hundred pages.   He hands it to Jazbell and say, "You can take this home with you.   Please open it now and read a page."   She flips through the pages and stops to read the following out loud:

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Jazbell finishes reading and says, “On that note, I’d like to either end this conversation or shift it to a lighter topic.”

“Wait,” I say, “Before we end this discussion, I have one more question.   Herbert, why do you suppose the no-choicers are defying their own God?   Someone could really take them to task on this point.   Aren’t they taking a big risk in doing that?”

“Stoney, I don’t have an answer for you, so perhaps you might ask some of them directly.   I do have one observation as to why they defy their own God, but that observation may or may not be relevant.”

“And,” I ask,  “what is that observation?” 

“Did you ever wonder where the conservative, fundamentalist Christians would be without their two major areas of focus — anti-sex and anti-abortion?   The amount of money they raise and the political power they have are both functions of the amount of passion they manage to generate in their believers and, as you well know, sex and pregnancy termination are both highly emotional issues.   I can’t say with any provable certainty that this is a relative factor, because I don’t know what their true, internal motivations are.   I don’t want to be pointing fingers at others either, so, again I say, perhaps you might ask some of them directly.”

I reply with, “Why bother asking them?   According to what you just told me about rationalizing behavior, if money is a prime motivating factor, it’s deeply buried under justifications and denial.”

“Yes, Stoney, you’re right.   It’s impossible to get provable answers to ‘why’ questions, so don’t bother to ask them.

I ask, “Then where does that leave us?”

“Well, if you're willing to let go of the distortions, the lies, the half truths, and the outright fairytales regarding  this issue and examine all the available evidence, I'd say that leaves us with these options:   First, to come up with the most probably theory about reality, second, to become aware of what is occurring in the abortion controversy, and third, from that position, each one of us has the opportunity to make up his or her own mind about what to believe and how to live his/her lives.”

That pretty much raps up our conversation.   We talk very briefly about baseball.   Jazbell and I agree to return for a ball game in three weeks.   Herbert gives Jazbell a copy of his book for her to review.   He also gives each of us a copy of his write-up on Intentional Manifesting  and then, with a personal escort to our car by none other than General Custer himself, Jazbell and I leave.

Please return to the index page

 To Access

Chapter Twenty

The Yoni Dance

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Book One -- Circles of Intimacy

Chapter Nineteen

The Assumptions Underlying the Abortion Controversy

http://www.joy101.org/yd-bk1-ch19.html

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