I haven't written much on this blog about abortion, thinking that I couldn't add much to the discussion since it was an issue covered extensively elsewhere. But here are some observations.

Those people who support a woman's right to an abortion call their movement “Pro-Choice.” I've often thought that this name in itself was a clever “choice”, much better than say “Pro-Death” or “Anti-Life” or even “Pro-Terminating Unwanted Pregnancies.” The followers of this movement seem to defend it with a religious fervor. And it seems at times that the god of this movement is “Choice” itself. Choice is not to be questioned. Choice is paramount above all other things. Choice is Truth.

But perhaps this choice of “Pro-Choice” has some downsides.

Choice does not exist in nature outside a theological context. Choice is enabled by free will. God and the Angels and mankind have it. Nothing else does. Galaxies and planets and animals and plants do not choose, because they can not choose.

Mankind's free will is a gift, giving us the capablity of choosing good or evil actions. Free will is necessary to allow us to voluntarily choose good instead of evil. And Heaven is the voluntary abandonment of this gift of free will, offering it back to God, accepting His choices. Choice does enable us to choose "not God." But Heaven is unlikely to involve worshiping the very gift from God that allows us to choose "not God."

Adam and Eve, driven by Pride, and enabled by free will, chose. They chose poorly. That's the most elemental story of mankind. One of the First Things.

The Last Things involve Heaven and Hell. The Bible speaks of 2 different types of Hell. The first Hell is a temporary Hell, called Hades or Sheol, and is described as a place of oblivion, the netherworld, the abode of the dead, a temporary resting place until the last judgment.

The second, more serious, more permanent Hell was called Gehenna, a place of malediction, unquenchable fire, torment, and the consuming worm. The name originates as an actual location near Jerusalem, a valley where infants were sacrificed on an altar to a god who was not God.

What a connection.

Be careful what you choose to worship, and what that god requires of you. And be sure you don't choose "not God." Choice matters in the End.

Richard
www.nochimera.com