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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Can we make progress?
Message-ID: <430@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Sep-85 09:13:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.430
Posted: Wed Sep 11 09:13:59 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Sep-85 09:09:30 EDT
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> B. M. Thomas
> > ME 
> >No article I have seen advocates teen people ruled by their bodies. I feel
> >it much healthier when teenagers determine their sex life because of informed
> >choices, and not on orders from third parties. I feel it is much healthier
> >when teenagers understand the signals their bodies send them and choose
> >to take or not take action accordingly. I feel it is *not* healthy when they
> >don't understand what is happening or worse, have false ideas about their
> >sexuality and thus make bad choices.
>
> You just did advocate it.  Yes, you're right about making bad choices.  What
> you and they don't seem to understand is that outside of marriage it's a
> bad choice, whether it agrees with your religion or not.
> 
No, Mr. Thomas, I did not advocate that. I am not interested in arguing
morality with you or anyone. I am interested in helping people make informed
choices. People WILL make decisions on the conduct of their lives. All parents,
counselors and other third parties can do is give them the facts they need to
make the choices that are right *for them*. You are interested in telling
people what is right and wrong.  That is your right, but absolutes have little
to do with the real world, where not everyone shares your idea of right and wrong.
You will say 'well *I* am right' and I am sure you are quite sincere in saying so.
Please understand that reasonable people can take the same data and arrive at
different conclusions where subjective matters are concerned.

> [What] you ... don't seem to understand is that outside of marriage [sex]'s a
> bad choice, whether it agrees with your religion or not.
> ... 
>                                 The thing that kids need most to know is
> not how to do it, but how to keep from doing it.  You're still missing the
> point.  It is NOT good for young people to experiment with sex.  I'm not
> trying to make anyone unhappy, just point out the *F*A*C*T* that casual sex
> is not good for anyone, whether they agree or not.
> ... 
>                   ... [Sex] may feel good now, son, but afterwards it will do
> you harm.  Just like lots of other things that I've taught you that seem good
> at the time but later get you into trouble.  Like eating too much ice cream.
> 
Would you care to back these assertions with some facts? Cite the
"practical reasons" why sex before marriage causes harm? Explain how come there
are millions of sexually active singles who are reasonably well adjusted?

> >                                                         Then those
> >who don't share your faith will be forgiven if they reach different
> >conclusions, yes?
> 
> Not my department.  I can forgive them, but the question is, is it right?
> My purpose is not to judge, but to warn of danger, and to plead the cause
> of righteousness.

Are you saying that those who don't share your faith are indanger, just
because they don't share it, Mr. Thomas? You don't call that judging?

> >      ...  [A]bortion was a legal, accepted and not immoral option 
> >throughout the 18th and early part of the 19th centuries.
>
> "Not immoral"?  Says who?  You?  Pharaoh commanded the Jewish midwives to
> kill male Jewish babies too.  That was legal, since Pharaoh WAS the law.
> Was that "not immoral"?

Not me, U.S. society. Which just goes to show that morality changes with
people, rather than being a rigid code of conduct for all times.

>                   ... It is the wrongdoing itself, not someone else's calling
> it wrong, that causes guilt, sickness, and death.  Extramarital sex is wrong-
> doing, and the fact that your religion doesn't recognize that is a judgement
> on your religion and doesn't change the truth.
> 
I see. Your religion has a lock on the truth, and such folks, religious
or otherwise, who don't share your religion's idea of the truth are heathens
engaged in wrongdoing. The word for this mindset is "intolerance," Mr Thomas.

Marcel Simon