Rachel Lonberg

June 1, 2014

Beyond Life vs. Choice

Reading: ten years ago - Eileen Moeller
Today, I will be preaching about sexuality, the sometimes difficult and sometimes easy decisions we
make about having children, and abortion. These issues touch all of our lives in intimate ways,
sometimes painful ways. I want to extend a special invitation to you to take care of yourself today. If
something is churned up for you and what you really need to do is leave the sanctuary for a drink of
water or go be in the beautiful memorial garden outside, go do that. Take care of yourself. If you need
someone to talk to, please give me a call. I urge you to take care of yourself and find people to talk to
every day, but I know today's topic is hard for some of us.
In November, Tennessee voters will vote on Amendment One to the State Constitution. It reads,
'Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an
abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to
enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of
pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.' If
Amendment One passes, it will likely become much more difficult to obtain an abortion in Tennessee.
In the months to come, the campaign around this issue will get underway. We know what a heated,
divisive election campaign is like. We have lived through them before. We will watch television
commercials that reduce this issue to 30 second arguments. We will see yard signs and bumper stickers
that reduce this issue to three or four word slogans. We will see images of medical proceduresor
images that purport to be medical procedures. We will hear arguments after argumentand maybe
some of us will participate in a few arguments ourselves. We will be told that there is only one right
way to think about abortion, only one moral position. We will be told whose side God is on. We will be
told that we have to choose between life and choice. We will hear insults hurled at those who disagree baby killer, murderer, woman-hater, American Taliban. Maybe we'll be the target of these insults.
I, for one, am not looking forward to all this sound and fury. As the campaigns unfold, may we
remember that this vote is not about abstractions or slogans or labels but about the lives of women and
their families, about choices that are sometimes clear and easy to make and carry out and sometimes
heartbreaking. What would it look like to take a step back from campaign politics and see the whole
story, the full lives of women and their partners and families as they make decisions about abortion?
Thirteenth century Persian poet, philosopher, and theologian Jalal al-Din Rumi wrote,
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about language, ideas,
even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense."1
What might it look like go out to the field beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing on this
issue? What is left when our world is too full to talk about language? What happens when we
remember the interconnected web of all existence and that none of us are as distinct, distanced,
1

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din. The Essential Rumi. Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry and Reynold Nicholson,
translators. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. page 36.

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June 1, 2014

different from each other as we might think? In that field, much would be different.
We would escape the labels pro-choice and pro-life. These labels are ineffective shorthand that create a
lot of confusion. If people given the option to support life or choicewithout knowing what they are
code words for most people choose life. Right now in this country, 70% of people support access to
abortion in at least some circumstances. Only 40% identify as pro- choice.2 In the field beyond the
ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, labels fall away and we have real conversations.
There are a lot of people who live in the field beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing. They know
that slogans and labels don't tell the full story about abortion, because they have lived the story. They
are the one in three American women who have at least one abortion during their lives and the
innumerable others who have pondered if abortion is the right choice for them. They are the partners,
family and friends whose lives are also impacted. We know these stories; they are our stories and the
stories of the people we love.
If out in this field beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing, people paused to tell stories, we would tell and
hear stories about broken condoms and forgotten birth control pills and the pregnancies that followed.
Stories about partners who had seemed reliable who became less so when told they were going to
become a parent. Stories about financial insecurity and the desire to provide for the children one
already has. There are also stories about assault and violation, rape and incest and struggling to grapple
with a pregnancy that results from a traumatic experience. In these stories, in these lives, some
decisions were easy to make and some were not.
An abortion story that intersected with my life and lives in my heart is that of a married woman in her
late 20s. She and her husband wanted to bring children into their family. They were overjoyed when
she became pregnant. When she was three months pregnant, she learned that she had cancer. She and
her husband were devastated. They had to decide between pursuing the cancer treatment that was
recommendedwhich would have required having an abortion, as the fetus would not survive
chemotherapyor delaying her medical treatment in order to carry the pregnancy to term.
Another story that lives in my heart is that of a nineteen year old who struggled with homelessness and
lived with mental illness. She turned to prostitution to make money. In the course of her mental health
care, she learns she is pregnant. She is unsure if she can care for herself and a baby. Her doctors tell her
that if she wants to carry the pregnancy to term, she needs to stop taking some of the medications that
help her manage her mental illness, as they will negatively impact the fetus. She is not sure if she can
function without her medication.
What is the right choice in these moments? What does it mean to support life when life is complicated?
Surely, the answers to these questions are too complex for bumper stickers or political campaigns.
Rev. Dr. Rebecca Ann Parker, the President of Starr King School for the Ministry, one of our Unitarian
Universalist seminaries, says that, "Our hope in an imperfect world is that we can engage in it as active,
creative participants. The power to choose is the power of life."3 Our world is imperfect. We see that in
the stories of women and families faced with decisions about abortion, decisions about having children
or not. But we also have hope that we can engage the world as active, creative participants.

Rob Keithan, Director of Public Policy, The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Personal Conversation. May 7,
2014.
3

Parker, Rebecca Ann. 'For All That is our Life.' Sermon preached April 25, 2004 at All Souls Church, Washington DC.
Retrieved from http://www.sksm.edu/research/sermons/DCsermon.pdf. Page 7.

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June 1, 2014

What are the resources that Unitarian Universalism brings to this conversation, to the field beyond
rightdoing and wrongdoing where our souls lie down and the world might be too full to talk about
language and ideas? We bring our core commitments, including the sacredness of sexuality, reverence
for life, and the right of conscience.4
As Unitarian Universalists, we believe that sexuality is good. It is a powerful and sacred gift. We
believe that it should be celebrated and understood in its complexity and diversity. We know that
sexuality can cause pain and exploitation, which is why you teach the young people in this
congregation to be good stewards of their sexuality, to use it as a tool to bring more love, intimacy, and
joy into their lives and into the world. You do this through the Our Whole Lives comprehensive
sexuality education program that is offered here every few years. Our Whole Lives is a program
developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ that includes
curricula for people of all ages, from kindergarten to older adult. It is rooted in the values of self-worth,
sexual health, responsibility, justice, and inclusivity. I am trained to lead the adult program and hope
we can offer it here during my time as your interim minister.
Unitarian Universalists believe in reverence for life. Most of us believe that this one life is all we are
sure of. We strive to live out our highest ideals in this life, to make a heaven on earth, as most of us are
uncertain about the afterlife. We believe that each person's life is valuable. We are called to be
responsible and wise participants in the interdependent web of all existence. We do not agree on when
life begins, but we do agree that all beings should live abundant lives.
The structures of our society and public policy should work to alleviate suffering in the lives of all.
Unitarian Universalists believe in the right of conscience. We believe that each person searches for
what is right and true in life. We believe that each person has access to sacred truths that inform their
decision-making. A UU activist writes "we carry the wisdom from our religious ancestors that
coercion, particularly over the most precious and intimate circumstances of our lives, is not only
wrong, but also breeds hatred and bitterness."55 Each person has the right and responsibility to make
their own decisions about what is most important to them.
Sadly, we cannot always be in the field beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing. When we return from
Rumi's field to the real world with its labels and slogans and rhetoric, how might we find a place for
ourselves where we can speak to the fullness of our values, the fullness of our commitments, and the
complexity of our stories?

Many Unitarian Universalists are turning toward the reproductive justice movement as a more holistic
way to engage issues of sexuality, abortion, and the decision to have or not have children. The
Unitarian Universalist Association's General Assembly has named reproductive justice our
congregational study action issue for 2012 to 2016, encouraging congregations to educate themselves
and act on this issue. What is reproductive justice? It is a framework that comes out of the lived
experience of women of color, women who believed that the abortion rights movement's nearly
exclusive focus on abortion access did not address all of the factors that impact women and family's
decision-making about having children or not. Sistersong, a partner of the Unitarian Universalist
Association on this issue, defines reproductive justice as 'the right to have children, not to have

Halperin, Jessica. Reproductive Justice: Expanding Our Social Justice Calling. Retrieved from
http://www.uua.org/documents/washingtonoffice/reproductivejustice/curriculum/uuacurr iculumrjcombined.pdf page 15.
5

Halperin, page 16

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June 1, 2014

children, and to parent the children we have in safe and healthy environments.'6
Reproductive justice recognizes that we do not live single-issue lives. Our lives are complex and we
need a host of rights to live the meaningful lives we desire. Reproductive justice includes economic
rights, like access to safe and affordable childcare for working parents. Reproductive justice includes
environmental justice, including addressing the higher childhood asthma rates in poor communities.
Reproductive justice includes the right to healthcare and rectifying the unequal health outcomes
experienced by people of color. Reproductive justice includes education access and the need of all
people to receive the comprehensive sexuality education this congregation offers to its children.
As the conversation about abortion becomes dominated by vitriol in the coming months, I urge you to
step into the field beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing, to linger with your stories and others' stories in
all their complexity, to ponder your core commitments and hesitate to assign labels.

"Our hope in an imperfect world is that we can engage in it as active, creative participants. The power
to choose is the power of life."
May we engage this imperfect world as active, creative participants. May we have the power to choose.
May we have the power of life.
May it be so. May we make it so. Amen.
Benediction:
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about
language, ideas, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense."
Go in peace and go in love.

SisterSong. Why is Reproductive Justice Important for Women of Color? Retrieved from
http://sistersong.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141&Itemid=81