A Letter to Neale

Dear Neale,

 I found CwG to be very inspiring. Thank you for asking about life and love and success!! I am interested in your insights about abortion especially.

Jacqueline, AZ

Neale Responds

Dear Jacqueline,

I find it interesting that among the questions I am asked the most are questions on abortion and homosexuality. I think that people really want to know what God thinks about these things, so that they can settle all this for themselves once and for all.

The first thing I want you to know is that God makes no judgment about these (or any other) behaviors. There is, therefore, also no punishment. So anyone looking for a God of judgment, condemnation and punishment is going to be very disappointed in the God who talked with me. The second thing I want to say is that all behaviors are classified by us as "good" or "bad" depending upon who and what we are trying to be. That is, every value judgment we here on earth make is based on a value system which is constructed around our own personal goals. This system has nothing to do with whether a thing is "right" or "wrong", "good" or "bad" objectively, but only subjectively. Let me give you some examples:

A young man wanted to join the wrestling team in college, but he was of slight build. The coach told him he needed to "put some meat on those bones" if he was going to wrestle, and recommended that the young man supplement his diet with bananas and milk shakes. Two blocks away a young woman who was studying to be a ballerina was being scolded by her teacher. "Young lady," the instructor warned, "you are not going to be able to dance in the Nutcracker this season if you continue to put on such weight. You are to stop eating bananas and milk shakes at once!"

Is a diet of bananas and milk shakes "good" or "bad?" It depends on what you are trying to do.

A woman was arrested in Omaha, Nebraska recently for doing exactly what she'd done in Reno, Nevada, only a week before. A professional prostitute, she found out, much to her dismay, that there was nothing "wrong" with prostitution per se , but that it was the locale which made a thing "right" or "wrong."

"Right" and "wrong" also depend on what time it is. In New England not all that many years ago, burning witches at the stake was considered "good," and quite legal. Today it is considered "bad," and is quite illegal. What has changed? Nothing but the time.

For centuries, the Most Holy Roman Catholic Church said that eating meat on Friday was a sin. Then, in 1952, or somewhere thereabouts, a declaration was made by the Pope. From then on and forever more, eating meat on Friday was no longer "bad." Thus we see that "good" and "bad," "right" and "wrong" are a product of time and geography.

Is abortion "wrong?" From an objective point of view, no. Does it represent to our highest good? That all depends on what we are trying to do. Are we saving the life of the mother? Are we changing the outcome of an act of violence? Are we using abortion as a means of birth control? Our answers differ from case to case, and from person to person. With each decision we make in our lives, we create and express who we really are, and what we think of ourselves -- as individuals and as a nation; as a society, and as an entire race of beings. We are in the constant process of defining ourselves. Every choice is, in fact, a definition. Every decision is a creation. And the creation is us.

Now, so as not to escape your straightforward question, my own views on abortion are these: I would not choose to use abortion as a means of birth control. I would choose for the child to be born, and then, if I did not feel I could raise the child, or that I simply could not afford it, and thus could not give the child a good life, I would seek to give the child up for adoption. On the other hand, if the choice was between aborting a birth or watching a mother die, I would opt for terminating the pregnancy. If my daughter was brutally raped at the age of 13 and became pregnant, I would similarly not require that the pregnancy be brought to term. There are other instances, as well, in which I believe I would find abortion acceptable.

I understand that it is easy for me to sit here and make these observations. For one thing, I am not a woman, and do not therefore have the same perspective as a woman, nor can I. I can only define who I am. I cannot define--nor should I seek to define--another.

Yet all laws do exactly that. We define ourselves as a society by our laws. Yet ought we? I believe the answer is no. All laws are unnatural, in that they seek to impose on others the views which only a particular person (or a particular group) may hold. A law is a way to produce an unnatural consequence, when the natural consequence of any action ought to have been enough.

In our society, natural consequences are not enough, and that is because we are barbarians. Watching someone die, seeing their life expire right in front of our eyes, is not enough to stop us from killing people. Indeed, our primitive society glorifies this watching of life expire, putting it on huge screens in living color, and bringing it right into our living rooms. The act of love, however, is not allowed on those screens in nearly such explicit detail, and when it does appear there in that way, half the country screams bloody murder. Because it is bloody murder they can live with in their movies, but not, for God's sake, s-e-x.

In truly enlightened kingdoms and societies, laws are nonexistent. All regulation is self-regulation, all definitions are self-definitions.

This is difficult for most people to accept. Still, it is how it is on enlightened worlds. And there are such worlds in our universe (see CwG, Book 3 ).

I don't know if this is the sort of answer you expected or sought, Jacqueline, but it is what comes up for me when I look at your question.

hugs,