Anne Lamott: feminist Christian pro-abortionist?

I was browsing the Star Tribune early this morning and ran across this editorial from Anne Lamott that first made print in the LA Times. I'll just give a few quotes that struck me as her having a signficant disconnect with what it truly means to be a Christian. When I have a bit more time I'll interact more with this, but I think you'll quickly see some disconnects from these snippets. The bold highlights are my doing.

Then, when I was asked to answer the next question, I paused, and returned to the topic of abortion. There was a loud buzzing in my head, the voice of reason that says, "You have the right to remain silent," but the voice of my conscience was insistent. I wanted to express calmly, eloquently, that prochoice people understand that there are two lives involved in an abortion -- one born (the pregnant woman) and one not (the fetus) -- but that the born person must be allowed to decide what is right.

But then I announced that I needed to speak out on behalf of the many women present in the crowd, including myself, who had had abortions, and the women whose daughters might need one in the not-too-distant future -- people who must know that teenage girls will have abortions, whether in clinics or dirty backrooms. Women whose lives had been righted and redeemed by Roe vs. Wade.

Then I said that a woman's right to choose was nobody else's god damn business. This got their attention.

Maybe I could have presented my position in a less strident, divisive manner. But the questioner's use of the words "murder" and "babies" had put me on the defensive. Plus I am so confused about why we are still having to argue with patriarchal sentimentality about teeny weenie so-called babies -- some microscopic, some no bigger than the sea monkeys we used to send away for -- when real, live, already born women, many of them desperately poor, get such short shrift from the current administration.

But as a Christian and a feminist, the most important message I can carry and fight for is the sacredness of each human life, and reproductive rights for all women is a crucial part of that: It is a moral necessity that we not be forced to bring children into the world for whom we cannot be responsible and adoring and present. We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society.

During the reception, an old woman came up to me, and said, "If you hadn't spoken out, I would have spit," and then she raised her fist in the power salute. We huddled together for a while, and ate M&M's to give us strength. It was a kind of communion, for those of us who still believe that civil rights and equality and even common sense will somehow be sovereign, some day.

Pray for Ms. Lamott. And if you see her, give her a Bible, she's apparently not all that familiar with it's teachings.

The following cartoon was penned by Dan Lacey of Faithmouse.




Related Tags: Anne Lamott, Christian, Feminist, abortion, pro abortion, anti abortion, conservative, liberal, progressive, Catholic, Evangelical, abortion debate, pro choice, Roe Wade, Abortion clinic, fetus, sacred life, God, Bible, Christianity, Star Tribune, LA Times,
Dan Lacey, Faithmouse, abortion cartoon