Breathe In (Yah) Breathe Out (Weh)

 

A friend posted this image on Facebook in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. There are many Christians celebrating this historic decision but there are many Christians and Jews who are not. This is largely due to the fact that there are two kinds of Christians in America: those that know the Bible and those that do not.

This may surprise many on the dim-witted maga side of the Christian aisle to learn that an anti-abortion stance is not championed in the Old or New Testament. Neither can a "principle" from Scripture be applied to show abortion is wrong. So how did it come to be such a political dog whistle among Christian Nationalist Evangelicals? (Well, that is a question for another article.)

What I'm interested in is how the Worldwide Church of God and it's cult daughters found themselves on the wrong side of this issue. When I say "wrong" what I mean is "against" Scripture. I may or may not find abortion as a practice, repugnant. Many religious and non-religious folks do. But what I find infuriating is when Christians make moral claims and insist that Yahweh/Jesus is on their side when in fact, they have no such backing from on high.

HWA spent so much of his air time and in writing, attacking all Christian churches for not blowing the dust off their Bibles and seeking the mind of God on all things. He convinced a generation of "weak and base" Americans raised on the radio that he and his believers in his message were smarter than the "scholars" and the educated (in this world) in all things from science, medicine and law to theology, doctrine, morality and ethics. For 18 and a half centuries, not a single person on earth had been given the right understanding of all things Bible until the blessed Herb took his first breath in 1893.

And the blessed Herb knew he would be proven right when the Christ returned in his lifetime to vindicate him. Yep, 1975. Mark your calendar. And then Herb died in 1986 and here we are in 2022 dealing with what surely the Churches of God are considering a significant setback in prophesy. How will Bob, Dave, brother Gerald, and his other brother Gerald prognosticate this one?

So why do the Churches of God oppose abortion? Is it clearly in the Bible? In the May, 1973 issue of The Plain Truth, HWA weighed in on the Roe v Wade ruling made just 4 months earlier in January. The title of the article is, "Abortions Now Legal But is Abortion Murder?" True to form, Herb spends the first third of the article running down science, technology, modern medicine, education and human reasoning. Then, he insists (his private interpretations of) the Bible is the only source of knowledge, understanding and truth. And he certainly doesn't let the "professing" Christian world off the hook:

"The one supreme and sure authority is the world's best seller- the same book so many religious denominations claim as the source of their beliefs. Yet, incredibly though it seems, most of their teachings and customs today are diametrically contrary to those of the book they profess to follow! They could find the true and right answers to questions, problems and evils if they would read it like it is. But they interpret away the one tenth of it they use, while ignoring utterly the other nine tenths."

OK. So, just read it like it is and don't ignore any parts. Got it. Herb is going to show plainly from the Bible, the mind of God pertaining to abortion. Except he doesn't.

Instead, Herb begins with a medical science explanation of conception, gestation and birth. He then goes to John 3 where Jesus explains to Nicodemus that he must be born again of spirit. A few other verses from Paul and abracadabra! Herb's "Biblical" proof is an imaginative analogy comparing human conception and gestation with spirit. I remember describing this analogy to a friend, explaining how the Holy Spirit is God's sperm implanted into the ovum of the human mind. My friend's incredulous response was, "We get f*cked by God!?" 

 Here is HWA's flawed syllogism from the article:

"The spirit-begotten Christian is now in the spiritual state comparable to the embryo-fetal physical state. We are now, already, the sons of our heavenly Father. Therefore, the unborn human is, from the moment of conception, the child- the son or daughter- of the parents!"

Herb then states his baseless claim (it's just an imaginative analogy) is from the Creator. And then, to follow his analogy given directly from the Creator ,bypassing the Bible, to it's conclusion, he insists that to purposely end the growing process of a potentially born human after conception is murder.

Hey, I give him an "A" for imagination but a definite "F" in exegesis. 

So, what does the Bible say about life and what inferences can we draw from certain verses?

Genesis 2:7

It is clear from the very beginning that life began when Adam took his first breath. Life is shown to begin with the act of inhaling and exhaling. The Jews say that the very name of God is an expression of Him being the life-giver: Inhale (YAH) Exhale (WEH). 

Exodus 21:22-25

This also makes it clear that someone guilty of causing a miscarriage is not guilty of murder. If the woman dies, it is a murder. If the fetus dies, there is a payment to be made. This certainly makes sense since even slaves and daughters are considered property. Losing a fetus would have been a loss of property and the determination on price was probably based on whether the fetus was male or female because as we all know, males were more "valuable" than females in Canaanite societies.

Numbers 5:11-31

If "abortion" is described in the Bible, it is here and what we find is Yahweh is very much a pro-abortionist. If a man suspects his wife is pregnant from another man, he can have her brought before a priest, completely humiliated in a ritual, whether she is innocent or not, and made to drink a magic potion that may chemically induce an abortion and is nothing short of an ancient version of the morning after pill. 

This whole magic ritual with spells and potions is shocking in multiple ways. There are two ways this played out in reality. If it was magic, then nothing ever happened because "all magic is real and real magic is fake." But if it was a chemical concoction, then this certainly was a viable way to destroy a fetus. And we have no way of knowing it's success rate. The other thing is how this seems to be no different from the superstitious nonsense of the centuries of abuse of women by men making accusations of witchcraft in Europe and early America. The man can falsely accuse her and not be held accountable (so much for the 9th commandment) but she must still endure the humiliation of the ritual whether she is innocent or not. 

Another aspect to consider is that Yahweh thought it was a fit punishment to kill the innocent fetus for the sin of adultery. If Christians were to be consistent with their God, it should be Christians that should be having many of the abortions today. Ironically, they are highest in the Bible belt but I doubt they are doing it to comply with their God. Christians are no more chaste than non-Christians and the stats show spirit cannot override the natural urge to "fornicate." Now, Christian girls are at greater risk of harm and death as abortion will not be stopped by hypocrites  bellowing from lecterns, only hidden once again.

II Samuel 12:13-17

This example seems to take this issue to its absurd limits. Not only does Yahweh forgive David for murder and adultery, but then kills his innocent born (not unborn) son. And this, after fasting and pleading with God for a full week. Where is the sanctity of life for the innocent from God? 

In light of these verses, it brings out the absurdity of Christians posting memes like the one above quoting from poetry in the Bible.

If you think all religious people in America are "pro-life" then you would be mistaken. It is just that the ignorant Nationalist Evangelical Christians have the biggest mouths and the smallest comprehension of Scripture. If you want to advocate for the unborn, there is nothing wrong with that. But trying to validate it with a theistic stamp of approval from on high is ignorant at best and dishonest at worst. Life is complicated. Attempting to navigate life with black and white thinking and prescribed by a cult is childish and dangerous to the well being of society. Ignoring all the science from medical to mental to social and embracing a Biblical claim that is not even there is absolute insanity!

The biggest problem with Armstrongism has been it's focus on spreading the gospel of a Christ returning in 3-7 years instead of extending grace, love and goodwill to all people. It is a death cult that checks out of life and waits unproductively for an afterlife they have no evidence even exists. It is the ultimate expression of turning inward in a collective narcissism so it should be no surprise that the Churches of God would jump on the anti-abortion bandwagon while simultaneously despising those who are breathing all around them.

This quote from a Pastor Dave Barnhart I saw on Facebook is a message perfectly suited for the Churches of God:

"The unborn are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. It's almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn."

V