it’s too bad that bigotry against gay people and prejudice about single people will take precedent over adoption advocacy in the minds of so many anti-abortion activists.

Emily,

Are you advocating adoption over abortion?

Only God could know if they would be constructive or destructive, yes?

Yes, only He could know in advance. Are we unable to trust His sovereign will in ordering every life, whether it may bring suffering into the world or prevent it? All have value to Him. Psalm 139. They are “potential” only in what they may accomplish if they are allowed to live. They are “lives” every step of the way in the womb, of course.

There is a grave danger in trying to predetermine God’s will or select for Him who is worthy to live and who is not. If He takes care of every sparrow, is He not able to take care of every human being? Eliminating so many of the unborn has not eliminated suffering or crime or poverty, has it? It has enhanced another category of crime. Just one of those never born may have been a visionary who could have grown up to make an inestimable contribution to the world, perhaps to lessen suffering in some way. Another may have ushered in a much-needed moral awakening.

We have failed to heed the lessons of old. Look what happened because Sarah and Abraham did not wait on God and believe His promise of an heir. Ishmael and his progeny came into the world, followed later by Isaac, through whom God’s covenant was to be fulfilled. But God had to deal with Ishmael, too. He also was permitted to beget a great nation. And the two remain at war with each other to this day.

Most of us would prefer to see a capable single person raising a child rather than see that child bounce among foster homes. I am sure there are more than a few loving gay couples longing to raise some of these children, as well. That is still a problematic proposition in the minds of many. No easy solutions. The ship has been on its course for too long to turn it around without a great deal of effort. And each side is entrenched, as you say, Emily.

The kibbutz I visited in Israel was run by Holocaust survivors and their descendants and Israeli Arabs. And when Israel was first established, there was hardly a monolithic bastion of Muslims opposing it. Tel Aviv was established decades before the State of Israel existed. So I quite disagree that “Ishmael” and “Israel” are made to be enemies. Rather, we are more like cousins.

Most of us would prefer to see a capable single person raising a child rather than see that child bounce among foster homes. I am sure there are more than a few loving gay couples longing to raise some of these children, as well. That is still a problematic proposition in the minds of many.

Ah. well, it’s too bad that bigotry against gay people and prejudice about single people will take precedent over adoption advocacy in the minds of so many anti-abortion activists.

But this is straying off-topic. More to the topic is your last point. It is bigotry against gay people that drives some people to reject them as adoptive parents. But that’s not the reason everyone objects, or at least counsel caution in order to examine the bigger picture.

The best thing is for mothers and fathers to marry and raise the children they conceive. Our culture is not fostering that, however. We’ve wrongly accepted as a given that it can’t happen, so we look for other options, the easiest of which is to simply eradicate the children in the womb. “Take care of the unwanted child problem.” Sounds like what a certain country discussed frequently here wants to do with its gay problem in some ways, no?

Isn’t it interesting that we could even think of such an irregularity at an abortion clinic as a “dirty little secret” when the real horror of what abortion entails is a secret PPFA and others try to keep from getting out. I am not aware of any so-called right-wing horror that could even touch it.