By Dave Andrusko
Early this morning I engaged in a spirited exchange with a gentleman whose opinion I respect on many issues at many levels. This particular back and forth didn’t go as well as our previous give and take. While decidedly not on our side, he is both very intelligent and very conflicted over abortion—particularly (as are most people) over “late abortions.”
As I have mentioned on more than one occasion, I am not surprised that self-described “pro-choicers” read NRL News Today and NRL News. Presumably they do for most of the same reason I read their material.
But what does (although it probably shouldn’t) surprise me is how many “conflicted” people as well.
That’s the power of the Internet: anyone with access to the Web can read stories from NRL News Today, courteous of the major news gathering/search engines at Google, Yahoo, Bing, Startpage, and AOL—to name just five. Practically anyone anywhere with access to the Internet can read NRL News Today and NRL News at their leisure.
The exchange this morning reminded me of a conversation I will never, ever forget. The reader wrote me to say that he could “appreciate” my feelings, adding, “My pro-choice feelings boiling down to I just don’t know. I am not King Solomon.”
What’s fascinating is that the allusion to Solomon is to the decision he made when two women claimed to be the mother of a baby. (As you recall, both had given birth, but the baby of one woman had accidentally been killed.)
Solomon said, in effect, okay, I’ll split the child in half and you can jointly “own” the baby.
We read in Scripture [I Kings 3:26-28]
26 “Please don’t kill my son,” the baby’s mother screamed. “Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him to her. Just don’t kill him.”
The other woman shouted, “Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have the baby.”
Solomon said, “Don’t kill the baby.” Then he pointed to the first woman, “She is his real mother. Give the baby to her.”
King Solomon knew the real mother would rather the other woman have her son than allow him to be put to death. We don’t have to be Solomon to understand that.
King David, Solomon’s father, understood God’s eternal reach, His role in our formation. [Psalm 139: 13-16]
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be
