God give us our rights. . .

It seems that French President Emmanuel Macron has called for abortion to be added to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.  Speaking to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Jan. 19, Macron said that the rights charter needed to be revised.

“We must update this charter to be more explicit on the recognition of the right to abortion or on the protection of the environment,” he said.  He added: “Let us open up this debate freely with our fellow citizens ... to breathe new life into the pillar of law that forges this Europe of strong values.”

Macron may be reacting to what has happened in the US where the court decision establishing abortion has come under increasing attack and its point has been honed down by exception to Roe.  Or he could be acting to divert attention from the way COVID has been handled and the questions about the choices and decisions made in the management of the pandemic -- always a good political tool.  Or he could be sensing a moment with the prosecution of the Bible in Finland's trial for the words that dare not be spoken by God or anyone.  Perhaps none of these.  He could just be a true believer in the reproductive rights of women that allow a murder to protect an imagined sense of well-being.  Who knows?

What we do know is this.  The drive to protect abortion comes at a time in which Europe as a whole has been devastated by a low birthrate and the lack of young people to provide services, work in factories, and, dare I say it, take care of the aging populace.  The right to abortion has almost become a secondary issue to the predominant point of view that does not see either marriage or children as beneficial and certainly not essential.  You know the old expression.  When Europe gets an upset stomach, America gets gas.  So this discussion is not far from home for those who live on this side of the pond.  We have the same challenge.

Instead of serving a common cause, we claim individual rights, privileges, and benefits.  Instead of a social order, we seek places of refuge where we are insulated from harm, fear, threat, and challenge -- even by ideas.  Instead of a debate over issues, we find ourselves unable to speak without personal attack, ad hominem arguments, and straw men.  In the midst of all of this, the home and family has suffered greatly.  Marriage is no longer esteemed highly.  The majority of our children were not raised with both parents in their homes or in their lives.  Sex has become an amusement, relationships casual, and our most comfortable moments with our personal screens and ear buds.  I say this not to diminish the urgency with which we must address the drive to protect abortion rights but to warn against a larger battle over the heart and soul of our very humanity.  When we demand the right to murder the child in the womb on a whim and equate climate change with this cause, we have already made man an enemy to the creation God made for man, over which man was to exercise dominion.  Everyone with half a wit will admit that we have done nothing very well -- from the stewardship of the most precious gift of life to the management of God's good earth.  But that does not justify the right to extinguish ourselves to a footnote in the vast imagery of life nor does it excuse a rampant individualism that may turn society itself into an antiquated term.