Book One

The Dream Catcher's Dream

Chapter Twenty

Assumptions of the Forced Motherhood Peddlers

Herbert continues, “One very interesting phenomenon I’ve noticed and will share with you today is that people are very inconsistent.   Many profess a belief in one or another of these three religious assumptions and then when it’s not convenient, they behave in a manner that is absolutely counter to their professed belief.   Their belief just vanishes.   It’s as if it never existed at all.”

Why do people do that?" I ask.

He responds, "Primarily because most people can't handle the truth.   When you acknowledge the truth, you become responsible for living according to that truth.   When you acknowledge knowing right from wrong, then you also acknowledge responsibility for your behavior and for the consequences of your behavior.   You can no longer blame someone else or simply go along with the gang.   You can no longer project your self-doubts, your self-loathing, your low-self-image onto someone else.   You can no longer play victim and when you're stop playing victim, you can no longer justify hating your so-called enemies.   And the two most powerful reason are that you would have to start thinking for yourself, and you would have to change your inappropriate behavior."

Laughingly, I say, "Uhhh...  I don't think I can handle what you just said."

Jazbell say's, "Herbert, you need to know that Stoney's also a clown at times."

“OK," I say, "I can be serious too.   Herbert, please give us an example of beliefs disappearing?”

“I can give you a superb example," he says, " but it will take me into one of the areas where I have difficulty walking my talk regarding The Law of Allowing.”

Jazbell says, “Herbert, nobody’s perfect.   Nobody has all their ducks in straight rows, so please let your emotions flow and do share your example.”

Herbert continues,  “I am a strong advocate of personal liberty and because this example slaps freedom squarely in the face, I tend to stray off my path here.”

I give him a sharp military salute and say, “General Custer, Sir, please speak to us.”

Herbert laughs and says, “OK.   The most blatant example of inconsistency I can think of concerns the fundamentalist Christians and their attempt to force their religious belief about when life begins onto everyone by intimidation, by deception, and by pressuring elected government officials into passing pregnancy control laws.   They preach that life begins at conception, and they want that belief to be the basis for secular laws prohibiting pregnancy termination.”

“That’s what they believe; so, I don’t see how that’s inconsistent.”

“Let’s look a little closer.

“OK,” I say.

"First, let me set the context.    When we start talking about the nature of being human, about why humans are here on Earth, about where we come from, what happens to us after our bodies die, and dozens of similar questions, there are simply no provable answers.   There's conjecture, speculation guesswork, fantasy  stories, fairytales, and then there's what the evidence tells.   The evidence tells us what is most likely the truth.   

    In the middle of this unknown arena, a bunch of ultra-conservative, fear-driven, closed-minded, anti-sexual, fundamentalist Christians have proclaimed themselves to know with irrefutable certainty the answer to life's greatest mystery, and they are trying to shove that answer down everyone else's throat."

I ask, "What Mystery is that?"

"The mystery of Life.   What is life?   What are we?   Are we a body with a soul, a soul with a body?   Are we just a bunch of dirt that has magically acquired consciousness, or is there some other answer that the Christian fundamentalists completely ignore?    Where did we come from?   Where are we going?   What is the nature of that unknown and unknowable what-ever-it-is-or-isn't that we call God?   When does an independent human life begin?

    This is the realm of the unknown, the unknowable.   It's the home of the mystic, and religious philosophers.   Unfortunately, it's also the home of the soothsayers, demons, and fear mongers, the home of snake oil salesman, con artists, and political manipulators,  and the home of myth, legends, fables, and fairytales.

   And it's where the anti-abortionist have set up shop and proclaimed themselves God's chosen messenger of the one and only Universal Truth.    With absolutely no proof whatsoever -- with utter disregard to conflicting evidence -- with impunity towards the rights and religious freedoms of everyone but themselves --  in the face of billions of human who hold conflicting beliefs --  and with arrogant impunity to the most basic principles of human decency -- this group has started an extremely costly and highly destructive war against everyone else.   In an already overpopulated world, they are promoting the birth of still more people."

I respond, "Arrogant impunity to the most basic principles of human decency?  Isn't that a bit too much?"

"Well that depends upon what you call intimidation,  harassment, invasion of privacy, making death threats, criminal conspiracy, assaulting people, reputations, and property, secret criminal behavior, engaging in, endorsing or condoning violence, vandalism, arson, and murder.  

    We won't even mention using lies of omission  (deceiving others by intentionally withholding the truth)  peddling half-truths as if they were the whole truth, censoring opposing views, distorting the truth, practicing intentional deception, intentionally using inflammatory rhetoric, ignoring or distorting Biblical passages, ignoring the physical evidence  (or accurately, the lack of evidence)  and inciting to riot."

I say, "Are you saying that the anti-abortionists have engaged in every one of these practices?"

Herbert continues, "The irrefutable evidence tells us that they have.   That's my point.   Not only that, they're using the Christian Bible as their publicly proclaimed authority while ignoring the fact that that same book completely repudiates their most basic claim -- that life begins at conception.   That book also offers no support for many of their other cherished claims."

"Claims like what?"

"Claims like original sin; like God murdered his son to prove he loves you; like sex outside of very narrow parameters is the work of the devil."

"I take you are saying that abortion is a religious issue."

"Of Course it is! he says.   The questions are squarely in the realm of religion, philosophy, conjecture, speculation, guesswork and/or fairytales, and fantasy stories.   And the answers to the questions that the anti-abortionists claim to know with absolute certainty are, in reality, completely unknown and absolutely unknowable.   

Jazbell adds, "Those vocally opposing abortion rights are almost exclusively fundamentalist Christians or Devout Catholics.   That, in itself, clearly indicates that abortion is a religious issue."

Herbert continues, "Just for a moment, look at the religious aspects of the ant-choice declarations.    Do they or do they not proclaim that the Christian Bible is the word of God?”

“They do.”

“And do they or do they not proclaim to follow the word of God as written in the Christian Bible.”

“They do.”

“And do a great many of them believe in the literal meaning of every word in that book?”

“Yes.”

“I have something I would like you to read.”   Herbert gets up, walks to a shelf on the other side of the room, extracts two books, returns to his chair, hands me one of them and says,  “Here’s a copy of the Oxford Edition of the Christian Bible.   Please open it to Chapter Two in the book of Genesis and read verse seven out loud for us.”  

I take the Bible and do as requested.   I read the following sentence.   "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

He takes the book back and thumbs through it for a moment, finds what he is looking for, and then says,  “Would you listen to this verse, please.   This is verse 4 from Chapter 33 in the Book of Job.”   He reads,   "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life."

I sense the emotion in his voice as he says, “When is the last time you heard a Bible-thumping no-choice advocate quote these sentences from the Bible?”

“I never have,” I say.

“And you won’t hear it in the future either,” he says.   “The no-choice leaders stand up in front of their followers, hold the Bible up in one hand, thump it with the other hand and plead with everybody to read the Bible, believe every word of it and unquestioningly follow what it says because, as they say, it is the literal word of the Lord, God Himself.   They sometimes even cry over this book in their passionate appeals to have others follow its teachings.

    And, yet here in this same book, the entire case of the no-choice-advocates for life-beginning-at-conception is blown out of the water.   The Christian Bible clearly and plainly states that life begins at first breath —that God gives life  [or Spirit, as some call it]  to the human body with the breath.   Thus, their case for life beginning at conception is exposed as a boldfaced lie by their own God in their own professed to be literally-interpreted Bible.   If that is not denial and inconsistency, then I do not know what is.”

At this point, Jazbell says, “Herbert, I can see why this is an issue where you hold strong feelings.   I too, hold similar sentiments so thank you for sharing this with us.   The Biblical quotes you just read are pieces of information that, until this moment, I had totally missed.”

“You are most welcome,” he says.   Herbert opens the second book which turns out to be the revised standard version of the King James Bible and reads Ecclesiastes 11:5:    "As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of the woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”

Herbert continues, “Here in one sentence, God is clearly distinguishing between a physical, human body and the spirit that lives in it and He's telling them three things:  1)   there's a difference between spirit and the body,  (2)  that they don’t know how the spirit comes into the body, and (3)  that they don’t know how God works.  

So what do the anti-abortionists do with this passage?   Most of them ignore it, but some of the most adamant anti-abortionists claim this Biblical passage as evidence to prove they know life begins at conception.”

I ask, “So what do the pro -life people do when confronted with these bible quotes?”

“I don’t know.   To my knowledge, the pro-choice advocates have never confronted them on it and thereby, have completely missed the boat on this point, too.”

“This point, too!   Are you also taking issue with the pro-choice advocates?”

“In spite of the passion I hold regarding this issue, my intention is to be as neutral as possible and not to condemn either side.   I’d like to hold this as an observation rather than a judgment.   Unfortunately, where forced motherhood is concerned, I'm not doing a very good job.  My intention is to point out areas where actions are inconsistent with professed beliefs and/or with publicly-stated intentions."

"In many aspects of this controversy, the pro-choice people have sat back and allowed the no-choice advocates to go unchallenged.”

“To what are you referring?”

“The no-choice advocates have skillfully defined the playing field by using cleverly-contrived, inaccurate, intentionally-misleading and highly-emotional terminology.   The pro-choice people have sat back and allowed the use of inaccurate language to go unchallenged.”

“What terminology are you referring to?” 

“You just used one of their terms, pro-life.   Pro-life and pre-born-baby are examples of highly emotional and highly inaccurate terms.   To this day, the no-choice advocates are still being allowed to completely dominate and control the terminology being used regarding this issue.   Not only that, as I've just showed you this entire controversy is clearly a religious issue,  and yet the pro-choice people have not challenged their adversaries on the basis of separation of church and state or on the basis of freedom of religion.”

“At this point, Jazbell cuts in.   “Herbert, it looks like you know how to do a great job at pissing off just about everyone, including yourself.”

Herbert laughs and says, “Yes, the truth does have a way of getting people upset.”

Jazbell continues, “Well, you’re my kind of guy and I like your style.   You seem to have some uncommon insights on the forced motehrhood issue.   Do you have anything written up on this?”

“Yes, I have the draft of a book on the topic.”

“Would you permit me to read a piece from it?”

“Yes!  of course.”

Herbert gets up, goes to his desk and returns with a spiral bound text of about two-hundred pages.   He hands it to Jazbell and say, "You can take this home with you.   Please open it now and read a page."   She flips through the pages and stops to read the following out loud:  

Twelve of the Most Basic Truths

About Forced Motherhood  (Anti-Abortion)

1)  The “real” truth about abortion is that we do not know the truth and have no way to find the truth.  

2)  The stories peddled by the forced motherhood promoters have not based upon provable evidence.   They're made up fairytales that fit into he same category as the fables about the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny.  

3)  Each of the three basic assumptions about life, Atheism,  Christian One-life-ism, and Reincarnation, gives a very different meanings to human life and to intentionally terminating a pregnancy.   Because the basic assumptions underlying each of these beliefs are mutually exclusive, two of them contain major errors.    This leave billions of people making irreversible, life-altering decisions based on a false foundation.   

4)  Passing secular laws which restrict or interfere with a woman’s reproductive rights is nothing short of religious tyranny.   Why?   Because each of these assumptions,  Atheism, Christian One-life-ism, and Reincarnation, has billions of devotees and because no one can say with certainty that his religious belief is correct and everyone else’s religion is wrong.  

5)  The forced motherhood controversy is a highly complex issue.   To understand all the meanings and ramifications of both sided in this war takes considerable time, effort, and study.  

6)  Speculations, conjectures, guesswork, opinions, and religious dogma are presently being peddled by the no-choice promoters as if they were provable facts.   The entire anti-abortion war is based on several completely un-provable assumptions such as:  1) “At every human conception, God steps in and with an act of instantaneous, supernatural, transcendental magic, He (a masculine God) creates a brand new soul,”   2) “Independent human life begins at conception,” and  3) “A human being is his/her physical body.”    These assumptions are in direct conflict with the Christian Bible and in direct conflict with the religious beliefs of literally BILLIONS of other people.  And there is no scientific evidence to support these assumptions.  

7)  A highly organized, very dedicated group of ultra-conservative Christians is attempting to force everyone else to practice their religion.   The anti-abortionists have every right to base their own lives upon any beliefs they so choose, but they have absolutely no right to use lies of omission, distortions of the truth, secular laws, threats, harassment, intimidation, violence, vandalism, arson, and murder to force their personal religious beliefs upon others.   ]

8)  A human being's relationship to Creator/God is a individual choice and a personal experience.   Organized religions controllers have turned connecting to Source into a social movement designed to make money for the promoters.  

9)  An examination of the hidden and usually ignored consequences of the forced motherhood war indicates that the "pro-life" leaders are actually promoting death and misery.   Because they ignore the plight of already born babies, thousands of innocent children die for every embryo the no-choice leaders save.  

10)  If the true intention of the anti-abortion leaders is to save innocent lives, they are doing a dismally poor job.  They could save hundreds of thousands more lives by focusing on the tens of thousands of already-born children who die every day simply from lack of food and basic health care.   And they could do this without insulting, angering and alienating millions of people who are not devout Catholics or fundamentalist Christians.  

Their goal is NOT saving lives!   Their true intentions are to dominate the Republican party and create what they call a "Christian America."   Abortion is merely a tool for achieving their political agenda.   Their ant-abortion stance is merely publicity ploy -- a means of manipulating their followers --  an emotional hook to sway public opinion.   The anti-choice leaders may be pro-embryo, but they certainly are not pro-life!  

11)  The costs Are Enormous:   The poverty, grief and misery pushed onto desperate women all over the world who are forced to birth unwanted children is a shameful disgrace.   The amount of time, effort, money, and resources that are being consumed by the anti-abortion war, it staggers the imagination.  

The environmental destruction resulting from human overpopulation is making irreversible changes in the environment -- changes that will result in an ecological disaster -- a disaster that, if not stopped and reversed will kill literally billions of people.   Given the current path of humanity, the question is no longer will a disaster occur, the only question is how soon will it occur.   The cost in terms of species extinction (resulting from the births of far too many human babies than the environment can care for) is beyond imagination.  

12)  The forced motherhood leaders claim to speak for God, but they condone, promote, endorse, support and/or engage in tactics reminiscent of Adolph Hitler.   Here's a list of the activities that pro-life leaders condone, endorse, promote and or engage in:  

Lies of omission  (deceiving others by intentionally withholding the truth)  -- Peddling half-truths as if they were the whole truth -- Censorship of opposing views -- Distorting the truth -- Practicing intentional deception -- Using inflammatory rhetoric -- Ignoring or distorting Biblical passages -- Inciting to riot -- Criminal conspiracy -- Intimidation -- Harassment -- Invasion of privacy -- Threats -- Assault against people, reputations, and property -- Secret criminal behavior -- Violence -- Vandalism -- Arson -- and Murder.  

Jazbell finishes reading and says, “On that note, I’d like to either end this conversation or shift it to a lighter topic.”

“Wait,” I say, “Before we end this discussion, I have one more question.   Herbert, why do you suppose the no-choicers are defying their own God?   Someone could really take them to task on this point.   Aren’t they taking a big risk in doing that?”

“Stoney, I don’t have an answer for you, so perhaps you might ask some of them directly.   I do have one observation as to why they defy their own God, but that observation may or may not be relevant.”

“And,” I ask,  “what is that observation?” 

“Did you ever wonder where the conservative, fundamentalist Christians would be without their two major areas of focus — anti-sex and anti-abortion?   The amount of money they raise and the political power they have are both functions of the amount of passion they manage to generate in their believers and, as you well know, sex and pregnancy termination are both highly emotional issues.   I can’t say with any provable certainty that this is a relative factor, because I don’t know what their true, internal motivations are.   I don’t want to be pointing fingers at others either, so, again I say, perhaps you might ask some of them directly.”

I reply with, “Why bother asking them?   According to what you just told me about rationalizing behavior, if money is a prime motivating factor, it’s deeply buried under justifications and denial.”

“Yes, Stoney, you’re right.   It’s impossible to get provable answers to ‘why’ questions, so don’t bother to ask them.

I ask, “Then where does that leave us?”

“Well, if you're willing to let go of the distortions, the lies, the half truths, and the outright fairytales regarding  this issue and examine all the available evidence, I'd say that leaves us with these options:   First, to come up with the most probably theory about reality, second, to become aware of what is occurring in the abortion controversy, and third, from that position, each one of us has the opportunity to make up his or her own mind about what to believe and how to live his/her lives.”

That pretty much raps up our conversation.   We talk very briefly about baseball.   Jazbell and I agree to return for a ball game in three weeks.   Herbert gives Jazbell a copy of his book for her to review.   He also gives each of us a copy of his write-up on Intentional Manifesting  and then, with a personal escort to our car by none other than General Custer himself, Jazbell and I leave.

End of Chapter Twenty -- 

The Assumptions Underlying the Abortion Controversy

Take me to Book One -- Chapter Twenty One  

A preview of Coming Attractions

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