It’s been a while

I haven’t posted on this blog for a while. There have been several reasons for that. I won’t get into them; suffice it to say that I’m going to try to do better. For now, though, like to talk about two things.

Last month I lost someone very dear to me. Lisa Marie Stapp was a writer, at one time a professor of Ethics, and a devout Lutheran Christian- a far better one than I. She was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a genetic condition that prevented her muscles from developing. She divided her life between her bed and her wheelchair. She had a powerful but gentle intellect, a wry sense of humor, and an incredible amount of courage. She was my hero. She was also the most important person in the world to me. She made me want to be a better person and a better Christian. I miss her terribly. My grieving will go on for a very long time, but that’s OK. She was worth it. Her memory will loom large in my mind and heart however many years still remain in my life. I can hardly wait until the moment comes my pastor pointed me toward when I get to heaven and Lisa, who never even walked in this world and couldn’t even adjust the glasses on her nose, runs up to me, throws her arms around my neck, and gives me a big hug.

The second thing on my mind is Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court decision that reversed the ill-considered Roe v. Wade. The extremists in both parties are having a great time with Dobbs. Republicans- many of them- are going beyond the traditional pro-life position and advocating the outlawing of abortion even when the mother’s life is in danger. This is quite rightly being called out as abortion extremism, and we are hearing a great deal about the voters’ displeasure at it. Predictably, we hear very little about the position taken by literally every 2020 Democratic presidential candidate with the exceptions of Joe Biden and Amy Klochobar, supporting a “right to choose” throughout pregnancy, right up until the moment of birth. This, of course, goes far beyond Roe, and poll after poll shows that it’s just as out of step with the American public as the Republican position I just described. Yet somehow, the abortion extremism which continues to characterize the average Democratic politician doesn’t get characterized as such by the media.

Doubtless, it was the extreme positions being taken by Republican politicians, rather than Dobbs as such, against which the voters reacted so strongly at the polls earlier this month. In fact, the polls I’ve seen that accurately characterize Dobbs as simply returning abortion law from the Federal level to the states, where the Constitution intended such things to be, show support and opposition to the decision as divided just about equally. Yet prejudicially-worded polling questions and the strong pro-choice bias of the media obscure the fact that we remain a nation closely divided on the subject of abortion.

Americans don’t want abortion outlawed across the board, including in cases of rape, incest, a threat to the life of the mother, and gross fetal abnormalities incompatible with life. But on the other hand, they don’t want abortion on demand in the third trimester, either! The American public takes a thoughtful and nuanced position on the matter. But sadly, as is so often the case these days, the public debate is being carried out between the extremes, and the spin doctors of both the right and the left are distorting where we as a society actually stand on abortion. Truly accurate information is becoming harder and harder to come by. Both politicians and the media seem more concerned with advancing agendas than with meeting Americans where they are. And tragically, a deeply divided nation is led to believe that it’s even more deeply divided than it actually is, and the task of consensus-building and dialog upon which democracy depends is becoming more and more impossible.