Member-only story
I wrote this as a Facebook post on 20 May, 2019. I’m not going to edit it because I don’t have time for this nonsense.
I was replying to a very dear friend, a Christian woman, who I know to be a person of good and decent moral character. She is against abortion. It’s a — shall I say, fundamental — part of her religious belief system. My friend and I have radically opposing views about the relationship of law to religion.
Here is what I wrote to her, and to anyone else on Facebook who wanted to read it…
I must try to respond in a way that will be perceived as dialogue, and not as argument. It’s hard, without facial expression and tone of voice. Believe me when I say that there is no malice, anger, or scorn in my reply.
I’m against abortion, too… but I’m also against forcing non-Christians to live by Christian rules. Jesus said, “Follow me;” he didn’t say, “Make people do what I say.”
Christians don’t like the Pharisees in the New Testament. But Christians also fail to see that the danger of Phariseeism — a preoccupation, an obsession, with observance of the law, and a corresponding pride in self-righteousness, and disdain for unrighteousness — is an ever-present, modern-day peril. Jesus spoke harshly against the Pharisees, not because he would thus make them disappear…