Julia Sweeney. Is there a better Irish Catholic name that this? (Well, maybe Bridget O'Flynn.) And who as a better tradition of reverent, unrepentant Catholicism than the Irish? The Irish who have fought the bloody English in defense of their faith since the days of the eighth Henry? And here in this video is this Irish Catholic girl/woman, literally soaked in Catholic theology for the first 40 years of her life, publicly letting go of God in front of God and everybody, including her still very Irish Catholic parents and the congregation of the Catholic Church she had grown up in.
How brave is that?!?
I think this is the bravest, most remarkable, most intelligent, both poignent and humorous works I have ever seen.
I have a lot in common with Julia Sweeney. I let go of God at age 12 when after reading the sermon on the mount for 30 nights at my Methodist mother's direction, I let go of God, even though I didn't let go of my church until I was 50, even older than Julia.
After reading the Bible starting at the first chapter of Genesis and ending at the last word of Revelation, my eyes almost popped out, and I did it again. After this eye popping experience, to paraphrase my very favorite biologist, Harvard's E.O. Wilson, I didn't know what I was, but I knew I was no longer a Christian. And unlike Julia, I never got the courage to tell my mother this until I was 50 years old and my father had been dead several years. And like her, I continued the pray for all sorts of things, though I became more and more sure as time went by that there was no one out there listening to prayers and taking notes. Or at least if there were someone taking notes, he/she/it was writing them down only to tear most of them up almost as soon as they were received.
How did I get the courage to tell my mother and leave the church? I give credit to the abortion controversy that began spread like wildfire in Fayetteville after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. And by Oct, 1984, when it looked like Reagan would actually be elected again, I wrote a 2000 + word essay about all the harm RR had already done this country and that to come. In this essay, I said that I provided abortion care as a routine part of my ObGyn practice and explained exactly why I felt it was so important that I continue. I sent this to the then very liberal statewide Arkansas Gazette, whose new editor chose to eliminate every part of it except the portion about why I did abortions and published it as an 800 word column on Jan. 12, 1985.
By this time, I had mostly stopped going to church except for when I went with my mother to take her. I am sure that she must have noticed I never said the creeds, which were repeated in unison every week in our church. I had decided when I left home as a teenager that, that while I would continue to attend church with my family (this stopped after my children left home), I would no longer say anything I didn't believe.
The abortion controversy, though it presented a lot of problems for my family, my practice and my patients, have a very large personal benefit for me. I became much more introspective, less lousy-goosy, happy go lucky which had always been my personalty with people I knew well. I also decided that if I were to continue to provide abortion care, I had to know a lot more about a lot of things, not just pregnancy abortion, than those with whom I was forced to constantly publicly debate on the issue.
And the first person I had to speak with concerning abortion was my mother and her older sister who was then living with her.
My edited essay appeared in the statewide newspaper on a Wednesday morning, my day off. I get up very early, read the paper, and do my rounds at the hospital and what ever I have to do for the rest of the day. That morning after reading the paper,I knew the rest of my day would be filled.
My mother and her sister also got up early and read the paper. My mother lived only a few dozen yards from my home, and when I walked over and knocked on the door, I knew by the expressions on both faces that they had already read the paper. I almost laughed when I saw how distressed were their faces, and that I could relieve of their distress. I just didn't know how long it would take to relieve it.
It turned out, that it took most of my and their day. And it was one of the highlights of my life.
Even though I was 50 years old, I had always deferred to my mother and father on many issue. At least, I didn't disagree to their face. But my mother and I came to not only love one another, but to have great respect one for the other. I had never before seen my mother as anything but my mother. And she had never before seen me as anything other than her beloved and obedient son. That all changed that day. After this, though she was still my mother, I could now see her and treat her as an individual, a woman whose life had started some time before I or my brother and sisters had been born. She had been a mother for 10 years before I became her son. And she came to see me as not just her son, but as the highly respected man I had become. And like so many whose opinions had been formed by "conventional wisdom" (CW) she came to realized that there was just a whole lot about abortion care that CW had never taken into consideration.
My mother came to understand that, like the Episcopal priest, Rev. Kathrine Ragsdale famously said in a speech in Alabama a couple of years ago,
"Abortion is not a tragedy. Safe, legal abortion is a blessing."
Here is Rev. Ragsdale's exact quote: "Let's be very clear about this: when a woman finds herself pregnant due to violence and chooses an abortion, it is the violence that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing."
I had hundreds of these stories to chose from.
"When a woman finds that the fetus she is carrying has anomalies incompatible with life, that it will not live and that she requires an abortion — often a late-term abortion — to protect her life, her health, or her fertility, it is the shattering of her hopes and dreams for that pregnancy that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing."
I had score of these many of which I told.
"When a woman wants a child but can't afford one because she hasn't the
education necessary for a sustainable job, or access to health care, or day care, or adequate food, it is the abysmal priorities of our nation, the lack of social supports, the absence of justice that are the tragedies; the abortion is a blessing."
I had thousands of these I could tell.
"And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion — there is not a tragedy in sight — only blessing. The ability to enjoy God's good gift of sexuality without compromising one's education, life's work, or ability to put to use God's gifts and call is simply blessing."
And I have many other thousands of these I could use.
"These are the two things I want you, please, to remember — abortion is a
blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a
blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done."
Also because of the abortion debate, I felt compelled to complete my edutation, to learn some of the myriad of things that I had not learned in school. Like Julia Sweeney, I became a truly educated person. These were just some of the blessings that I received from my practice.
Now say it with me and Rev Ragsdale: "Abortion is a blessing, and our work is not done!" and say it again, "Abortion is a blessing, and our work is not done!"
And any woman or family who has ever gone through this,knoe the