My Issues

I got some great responses from my little political blog post so I thought I'd go the extra mile and give you where I stand on a few hot issues and why.  Please know that I am not a political person by nature; discussing it is just not my thing and my remarks today have more to do with why I am a liberal as opposed to a conservative.  Please also know that I am always open to hear other thoughts and opinions as long as they are expressed with respect and I promise to give you the same.  I may not agree with you, I may not understand why you feel the way you do anymore than you can understand why I feel the way I do, but I would never tell you that you are wrong.  I feel that our experiences are our experiences and they are what shape of our views of the world and the issues of the world.  My experiences are going to be different from yours; that is simply a given.

Probably one of the hottest debates is the one that has been debated for years; the abortion issue.  In all honesty, though I am pro-choice, I am not always comfortable with that label.  I HATE when abortion is used as a means of birth control for careless people who do not want children but who want to have unprotected sex.  I think aborting these babies is wrong on every possible level.  Please understand this.

However.  I was just doing a little Googling and here is just one statement that I found:

But the number of people raped probably is much higher than what is reported to authorities. In 2005, only 38 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement officials nationally, according to the 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey. In 2005 at Truman, two rapes were reported to campus officials or DPS.

There could be any number of reasons why a woman would not report a rape.  Maybe she has been threatened.  Maybe the shame is too great.  Maybe she in some way feels responsible.  Whatever her reasons, the fact remains that she was raped and if a woman gets pregnant on account of a rape, I don't feel she should be forced to carry that child.  Now, people have said to me "but there will be exceptions for that."  I would for someone to explain to me how.  Are we going to tie these women up in a court of law to decide if they were raped and/or if they are permitted to abort the baby?  This would also open the door for any woman who wants to use abortion as a means for birth control to say "Well, I was raped."

In the event of rape, is the baby at fault?  Of course not. But neither is the mother.  I would like to think that if I were raped and got pregnant as a result of that rape that I would be strong enough to be able to carry the baby to term and then make the choice to give it up for adoption or keep it, but I cannot say that with any certainty.  I'd have to be in the position to know how I would react emotionally.  I admire any woman who was assaulted who is able to carry that baby to term, but I also know that not everyone is strong enough to do that; to have that reminder of a brutal attack where a choice was already taken from them.  No woman should have to face that for nine months; to be reminded in a physical way.

So it is because of those women that I have to label myself as pro-choice.  I could never take a second choice from them and I can not figure out a fool proof way to protect them. 

Then there is the whole homosexual issue and this one exhausts me.  Having done much community theater in the past, I have met and friended many gay men.  I have friendships with some of these men that go back to when we were 18 years old and when you go back that far and were that young, you are generally in the thick of some self discovery and acceptance.  I have sat with many of these young men at the time, when they had just "come out" to their parents.  I have sat with them while they told me, with tears in their eyes, how their parents said to them "I don't know why you would have chosen this."  And I sat there and listened as they looked at me in pure anguish and said "Kim, I never would have chosen this!  This isn't what I want to be."

So after many years of thinking about this, I realized that I had never "chosen" to be heterosexual.  I never woke up one morning and thought "Hmmm...men or women?"  So if I never chose, how can I think they did?  Also, can anyone deny the children that are born with sex organs from both sexes?  Or children who from the time they are very small are convinced that they are in the wrong body?  That they were "supposed" to be the opposite sex.  Now stay with me here for just a moment, okay?

No, I do not think homosexuality was originally what God had planned.  The Old Testament makes that clear.  I also don't think God intended cancer, birth defects, MS, polio, or any other number of things children can be born with.  But we live in an imperfect world and we have probably advanced ourselves beyond what is safe.  We use chemicals everyday, take medications for all different things, breathe in all sorts of fumes and toxins and pollutions.  How can we not think that these things in many ways do not have an impact on our heath or the health of our unborn children?  I think there comes a time where religion has to take common sense into consideration. 

The other thing that deeply disturbs me are the radical conservatives who will say "that person is gay and is going to hell."  Despite what the Old Testament says, Jesus came and made a new convenant with God's people.  He died for the sins of the world...so even if you insist on believing that homosexuality is a "sin" Jesus died for all sins, not the sins of the world except homosexuals.  There is just no way I can look at this and think that if you are gay, you are going to hell.  That goes against not only what life has taught me, but also against everything I believe to be true about God.

So there is my two cents on the two biggest issues I have with radical conservatives.  In many issues, I can see where the conservatives are coming from, but the radicals (like the chick on Facebook) just cannot see the rest of the picture.  We can't always see things black and white when we live in a gray world.  I'm just so thankful that God's wisdom is so much greater than me.