Tuesday, October 21, 2008

In preparing my next political post (which is about abortion) I'm in the process of reading a lecture given by Stanely Hauerwas (professor of Ethics at Duke) in 1990 to the North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.  This is indirectly related to the topic of abortion and was a quote I just had to share.  He's addressing Christian ethics in general here and how, as Christians, we cannot think in terms of "Americana Inalienable Rights" because that doesn't fit with our Christian ethics: 

Christians, to be more specific, do not believe that we have a right to do with our bodies whatever we want. We do not believe that we have a right to our bodies because when we are baptized we become members of one another; then we can tell one another what it is that we should, and should not, do with our bodies. I had a colleague at the University of Notre Dame who taught Judaica. He was Jewish and always said that any religion that does not tell you what to do with your genitals and pots and pans cannot be interesting. That is exactly true. In the church we tell you what you can and cannot do with your genitals. They are not your own. They are not private. That means that you cannot commit adultery. If you do, you are no longer a member of "us." Of course pots and pans are equally important.

2 comments:

lhassler said...

Hey Ryan, not sure if Jeff sent you the link, but he posted his "One and Only One" election post on his own blog. He gave you a h/t. http://xanga.com/scvjefe

Jeff H said...

So, about those political posts...