by Rev. Dr. Barb Doerrer-Peacock
I wasn’t sure whether this writing wanted to be a poem or an essay. So, I just wrote. This is the result: my thoughts/feelings about the current threat to women’s reproductive rights.
They would like us to think it’s about
Sanctity vs. sacrilege
Life vs. death
Federal vs state
Truth vs. lies
Constitution vs. changeable laws
Protection of one vs. another
A woman’s issue, and not a man’s
A womb and not a penis
A fetus and not a whole human life
A private decision and not
a whole human culture.
They would like us to think it’s about
when life begins and when it ends,
and whether it is a God
or a human decision.
whether it is male or female
conservative or liberal
Biblical or profane
pro-choice or pro-life.
They would like us to think…
but not really.
They would like us to react.
The tyranny of the binary
creates knee-jerk reactions,
reactions create polarizing gulfs,
gulfs create intractable division:
Us or Them
Other or Self
Win or Lose.
The authority of the binary
creates warring clans and tribes
Us vs. Them
Loyalty vs Disloyalty
Good vs Evil
Right vs. Wrong
Security vs. Fear.
The power of the binary is
dominance of definition
over ambiguity
privilege of power
over powerlessness,
control of cultural commonality
over difference and diversity.
They would like us to think that
this is what it’s all about.
It is not.
It is only yet another mask of
Either/Or
the binary.
A continuing incarnation of something
rather small and insidious,
like a worm that burrows unnoticed
into an orifice and lays its eggs
waiting, growing in the dark
to ultimately take over its host
with fear and madness.
But Life AND Choice are united.
The two entwining, eternal lovers of
God’s Good Creation.
Holiest Gifts
out of which everything is born.
Without Choice – there is no Life.
All is dead.
Without Life – Choice ceases to exist,
All is inanimate.
I refuse the binary trap.
Instead, I CHOOSE LIFE
Together, both, whole.
I choose to believe
life has no beginning
or end – all is in the presence of God
who was, and is,
and forever will be.
I choose to believe
sanctity can be manifest
In all soul-wrestling,
anguished decisions:
to end a pregnancy, AND
to continue a pregnancy
despite all odds, AND
a myriad of other
LIFE CHOOSE-INGS.
All are in the presence of God.
Sanctity evaporates
and the presence of God dims
when
our capacity to
CHOOSE LIFE
Is stolen.
So today,
I CHOOSE LIFE.
And I denounce
those who would be its
thieves.