After Friday’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, at our home we sat at the breakfast table long after our meal discussing and sharing, reading Facebook posts, wondering where we were headed. Our neighbor came back from a rally at the County Administration Building, visibly upset. The country is in turmoil. As I pondered, not about the need to say something, but what to say…something pastoral, not to throw more fire on the flames as we have seen done recently, my wife came across these comments from her District Superintendent of the California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Rev. Sandy Olewine. Her words moved me in the depths of my spirit - and I shared them with the congregation today. Several people have asked for a copy - and here it is.
Pro-life - Pro-choice
these are not opposites in my way of thinking.
I am pro-life in all its fullness and complex beauty.
I am for children being able to go to school without learning armed shooter drills.
I am for addressing the systemic issues that keep people trapped in poverty, particularly addressing the racism that feeds it.
I am for treating refugees and immigrants with dignity and respect.
I am for people being free to love who they love and to express themselves fully as who they know themselves to be as beloved children of God.
I am for a commitment to restorative justice, transforming a broken judicial and legal process.
I am for humans having the right and support to make difficult health decisions without the fear of coercion and judgement.
I am for people naming the Sacred as they experience it and expressing that relationship through the traditions that bring peace, wholeness and mercy, compassion and love to life in the world.
All of that and more is what being pro-life means to me
…and is what leads me to also be pro-choice.
Women are fully human, actualized beings, capable of weighing difficult decisions and not narrowing those down to sound bites.
o They can grieve decisions that are difficult and they can continue to function.
o Women have the right to care for their health and well-being.
o The State imposing limits on that when those limits are not based on best known medical practice but on inconsistent political posturing and religious half-truths is incompatible with democracy.
We women will not make the same decisions when there are hard ones to be made. But if we create community that has integrity, compassion, trust and respect at its core, we can hold the space to honor each other’s difficult choices.
The first step may be stepping away from sound bites and slogans. Life is complex and messy and beautiful and challenging. Sound bites and slogans too often simplify and divide and really don’t lead us to beloved community.
Today, we did not take a step towards a better world.
Today, we did not become more pro-life.
We revealed, actually, how little we actually think about so much.
We have choices ahead of us about who we will be as a nation.
Today, I am not optimistic about the choices we will make.
Sandy Olewine, District Superintendent
California Pacific Conf UMC