On Wednesday, several religious leaders are launching a new campaign to reorient the conversation around religion and sexuality. Specifically, the coalition of faith groups is interested in speaking up in favor of abortion rights, contraception access, and comprehensive sex ed. They’re encouraging their fellow religious Americans to join them.
At a press conference on Wednesday morning, representatives from several faith traditions will join with advocates from secular reproductive justice groups to kick off “It’s Time To Talk,” an effort to model a new way forward on these issues.
A religious call for reproductive rights may seem like a contradiction. Many Americans assume that these issues are always in conflict with faith, particularly when it comes to Christianity. But Rev. Harry Knox, the president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), doesn’t think that’s true.
“Part of the conversation is not getting out there in this country,” Knox explained in an interview with ThinkProgress. “For too long, the extreme Religious Right has dominated the public conversation about religion and sexuality. But the truth is that most people of faith, like the majority of Americans overall, support access to contraception, comprehensive sexuality education, and reproductive health care — including abortion.”
Indeed, the majority of religious groups don’t actually support overturning Roe v. Wade. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, many religious Americans are able to separate their own beliefs from other women’s bodily autonomy — so even though they’re personally opposed to abortion, they don’t want to make the medical procedure unavailable. Some faith traditions officially recognize a woman’s right to choose. And some churches even teach sex ed on Sunday mornings.
Okay what just happened here?
Are Christians in America REALLY going to buck the trend and start speaking out for the rights of women, and access to education about sex and birth control? Is that even possible?
Oh I can hardly wait until Fox News gets wind of this!
I visited the website & clicked on the link "Telling Our Stories" which leads you to 1 in 3 Campaign where the stories actually are. Very interesting stories and I sure wish some of those anti-choice people would read them too!
ReplyDeleteI had an abortion, a late term abortion. I had 4 children at home, a husband and the fetus was very much planned and wanted. Guess what, during a medical emergency my husband made the decision for an abortion, my life mattered. I went home to my husband and children.
DeleteThat's my story and I am happy a lived.
4:09 -
DeleteI just don't understand the logic of the right wing who would have preferred that you died in that medical emergency, leaving your four children and husband to carry on without you. They are never able to explain why your life is less valuable than that of a fetus and why your children should have been left without a mother. Or why is makes any sense to let a pregnant woman die - and therefore allow her fetus to die as well - on principal.
Your family needed you and I'm glad you survived to be there for them and to share their lives.
On Facebook I belong to a group called "The Christian Left". They welcome atheists and agnostics too.
ReplyDeleteSorry it took them so long to speak up, but better late than never. Hopefully they can reverse some of this mess.
ReplyDeletechristianity is sunk and buried with the weight of hypocrisy and cruelty.
ReplyDeletewhat we got now is CHURCHianity and people who follow jesus
It's so interesting you say that. A church near me has a sign outside: "Can we save Jesus from the Church?"
DeleteI believe they are reading a book that deals with the topic,
Are 'some' doing this because elections are coming up and they want to make a visual change to the party, which I suspect they won't keep. Don't trust the Republicans at all!
ReplyDeleteI have been awaiting this rebirth of rational thinking. The fundy right was looking for a cause when Roe v. Wade became law and it was the one that they could hijack that had the most emotional fireworks. Even Baptist churches did not come out against the law until they recognized the need to fill the pews as the 1970s wore on. Read Frank Schaeffer’s books about his father’s hand in causing the rise of the religious right.
ReplyDeleteExcellent suggestion. Good reads about how the 'religious right' operated in the past and what use that history plays politically today.
DeleteIt may be easy for you to dismiss or determine when life begins. Perhaps it is with the first breath. Perhaps, as some have said it only begins when someone wants the baby, and they take it home from the hospital. In any case, the Declaration of Independence recognized that all humans have the right to life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness. If those don't take effect until adulthood, then killing a 7year old is not murder. If life begins at birth, then botched abortions end with a life, no matter what Kermit Gosnel says. If it begins when the child is viable, well.. that limits abortion.
ReplyDeletePoint I am making is that I prefer to err on the side of caution. It IS, indeed, my body, but in the case of pregnancy, it is also the home of a child. or future one. When should that child expect to fulfill it's design and be born alive? 25 weeks? 40 weeks? 12? Just trying to have some thought. I am NOT judging anyone for their decisions. Just wanted to look at this from a different perspective.
well isn't that special. Erring on the side of caution is your CHOICE! If you really want to add thought to the discussion, remove all barriers to abortion. Then it's each individual persons right to choose when and if. It is not a life until it is born. Once I get pregnant, it does not stop my rights as a human and turn me into a fetus incubator. If you don't want an abortion don't get one. But if you plan to stop me be prepared for me and the new baby to move in with you so you can help raise it physically, emotionally and financially. Put up or shut the fuck up! Stop with this "different perspective" bullshit. You're only trying to dress up the same anti-choice language in a different suit.
DeleteI live in Indiana and always ask those people with the "Choose Life" license plates if they really understand the irony.
It's a difficult subject no matter which side you're on 4:38. No woman wants to undergo an abortion unless they feel they absolutely have to. Or if it is endangering their life. There are anti-abortion people and pro-choice. Nobody is pro-abortion.
DeleteI think it's an argument that can only be resolved in the courts but never in all people's hearts.
How about you ad your Doctor make choices for your own uterus and I'll handle mine all by myself? Got it? I hope so, keep your nose outta my privates!
Delete@ 4:38PM
DeleteYou have the FREEDOM not to have an abortion. No one is making you have one.
STOP telling others they do not have FREEDOM to have an one-stop taking away women's rights.
There are no other different perspectives, end of story.
My point is the life of the child. Why did Senator Obama fight for a bill that allows doctors to set a baby aside, if the mother doesn't want it after being born...full term, and healthy?
DeleteJust as there are laws against murdering a baby of any age, surely you, the enlightened thinker that you are, can understand how some feel that there should be laws against abortion, once the baby is viable outside the womb.
5:23, of all the abortions in this country, Planned Parenthood reported that 98% are for birth control reasons. This means that the other 2% are the rape, incest, life of the mother reasons. This should be a problem for anyone! Yes, sometimes BC doesn't work. Fine. But that is still a small percentage. This trend should bother you.
If a baby keeps you from getting a job, going to school, etc. it is illegal to kill it, since it was an inconvenience. This is a touchy subject, I understand. But I actually WAS trying to give a different perspective.
The fact that most will dismiss me out of hand proves that you aren't willing to have an actual debate.
5:25 Why make someone else pay for what is inherently a private matter? I don't care what you do with your body. As you said, that is between you and your Dr.
DeleteThe American taxpayer shouldn't be involved. Make your decidion, and go. Why is it suddenly up to the taxpayer to pay for your sex? Do what you like. Free contraceptives are NOT a human right. Pay for what you need. Milk, bread, condoms, like you said...not my business!
I see you're playing the emotional card with the use of "baby". Embryos, zygotes, and fetuses are not babies. A baby is viable. Babies are born. Embryos, zygotes, and fetuses are not viable and they haven't been born yet. They're parasitic human organisms that one day, if everything goes right, will become babies.
DeleteWhat part of "mind your own" business don't you understand? No one is forcing you to have an abortion. People like you want to force women, or pregnant corpses as was the case recently in TX, to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. What gives you that right?
As for being an American taxpayer, we all pay for things that we dont' like. Remember the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo, the NSA? I don't like them either but I'm paying for them. I'm also paying for the idiot congresspeople and senators who are trying to limit my rights as a woman.
Finally if you're so dang concerned and can't just mind your own business, as others here have told you, then I hope that you're doing everything in your power to ensure that birth control and sex education are easily and affordably available. Because if you really do want to minimize abortion - it will never be eliminated - then you will be working for these things.
Somehow I highly doubt that you're making any efforts in that area. You're just another shill who wants to punish women for having sex.
hey, dope at 7:44PM, no one is making you pay for anyone's birth control. I pay for mine with my insurance premiums as does my daughter. Anyone who pays taxes pays or their own as well.
DeleteIf you don't want or need an abortion, don't have one. That is all.
A fetus is NOT a baby. A baby is out of the womb not in it.
Delete"5:23, of all the abortions in this country, Planned Parenthood reported that 98% are for birth control reasons. This means that the other 2% are the rape, incest, life of the mother reasons. This should be a problem for anyone! Yes, sometimes BC doesn't work. Fine. But that is still a small percentage. This trend should bother you."
DeleteWars, poverty, and violence bother me more.
Completely O/T!!!
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or did it take anyone else a while to figure out that the picture above is of a snake, an apple and the crack of someone's ass?
It didn't take me long at all, and I don't like the picture. It is degrading to woman. It depicts us as the temptress, as the ones who caused the downfall of Man. It is extremely mysoginistic.
DeleteIt's kind of a small butt. It could be a guy.
Delete@3:01.
DeleteSorry. NOT a guy. The curve above the hip shown makes it improbable and the fingernails - nicely shaped and manicured - adds even more doubt.
Could it be a guy? Yes, but not likely. Besides, the CONTENT of the picture - i.e., the snake and the apple - totally eliminates that idea. FAR too much cultural meaning to the symbols!
I agree with Otto Katz. Misogynistic!
Pretty difficult to wrap my brain around, if they're sincere, more power to them. But what took them this long to evolve on the topic?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was Catholic, there were women and many families who used condoms and birth control (big no no), everyone knew it, even the Priests, and they were allowed to participate in sacraments on a regular basis.
This is a step in the right direction, if true.
re: seeing this issue on Fox
ReplyDeleteYou will NEVER see this on Fox. They would not want to give any of their brainwashed masses any ideas.
I attend the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach, CA. The UU church supports reproductive rights and comprehensive sex education. In fact, they have their own sex ed program for teens called OWL (Our Whole Lives). It's running at my church right now. UUs are very progressive and have been on the forefront of LGBT rights advocacy as well. So it's not ALL religions that are backwards. I believe Jeanne Devon of Mudflats is a UU.
ReplyDelete