Church Going (134 words)

[Bewlay Brother]

The most wonderful thing about the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen is that I don’t know what color they were. I do not know the circumstances either.

I went to mass and could not believe the frankness with which the priest spoke. He chose the hardest subject - abortion. Yes, Catholicism does have official stances on subjects, but surely there are some who do not fall in line. I know there are because I watched them leave with red faces.

There was a mother in front of me with her son. I noticed them at the beginning of mass because I noticed how chubby he was and how rosy his cheeks were. During the priest’s sermon she pulled him close and the way she looked at him is something I will never forget.

[Darcy88]

Its well-written and gets your point across with almost tweet-like brevity.

I suppose Bewlay you hang out outside abortion clinics offering to pay the cost of raising the babies the women there do not want to or cannot have. I suppose you also go out at closing time to bars handing out condoms to drunk lusty patrons.

[Bewlay Brother]

Its well-written and gets your point across with almost tweet-like brevity.

I suppose Bewlay you hang out outside abortion clinics offering to pay the cost of raising the babies the women there do not want to or cannot have. I suppose you also go out at closing time to bars handing out condoms to drunk lusty patrons.

It is not really about abortion man. Actually, originally I didn't even say the word abortion. The sentence just went "He chose the hardest subject." But I got complaints that nobody knew what it was about and couldn't follow it.

Regardless of your feelings about abortion, do you acknowledge that a mother who might have considered abortion but didn't have one might later be very happy she didn't make the decision? The story is about the look of not being able to imagine your life without somebody. It takes no stance on abortion.

[BienvenuJDC]

Its well-written and gets your point across with almost tweet-like brevity.

I suppose Bewlay you hang out outside abortion clinics offering to pay the cost of raising the babies the women there do not want to or cannot have. I suppose you also go out at closing time to bars handing out condoms to drunk lusty patrons.

Personal responsibility is just that...personal...

[Bewlay Brother]

Personal responsibility is just that...personal...

And yes, this is an excellent response.

Also, does adoption exist? I'm confused. Am I missing something? Isn't there a thing called adoption? I swear I really thought there was. Wouldn't that be an option to "pay the cost of raising the babies the women there do not want"?

And about handing out condoms to drunk people at bars... I am all in favor of putting condom dispensers in bathrooms of public high schools.

Again though, the short story isn't about abortion the political issue. Your response though, is a bit too outrageous to ignore.

[Charles Darnay]

Bewlay, I think your story treats the issue very well, in that, rather than take a stance you present a scene as it realistically can happen. I would suggest removing the line "Yes, Catholicism does have official stances on subjects, but surely there are some who do not fall in line." - or reworking it and just getting the point across that there were people who left. This line sticks out as editorializing in a piece that does not do so.

[Darcy88]

And yes, this is an excellent response.

Also, does adoption exist? I'm confused. Am I missing something? Isn't there a thing called adoption? I swear I really thought there was. Wouldn't that be an option to "pay the cost of raising the babies the women there do not want"?

And about handing out condoms to drunk people at bars... I am all in favor of putting condom dispensers in bathrooms of public high schools.

Again though, the short story isn't about abortion the political issue. Your response though, is a bit too outrageous to ignore.

Oh come on now Bewlay my man. This story is as political as a Wolf Larsen story. Most of your threads are about abortion. Your first post in this forum, or one of your first, was about abortion. It is obviously an anti-abortion or anti-choice inspired tale. I actually liked it quite a bit, despite my stance on the issue. It achieves making its point in so short a space and in a simplistic but compelling way.

Its really hard to speak of personal responsibility when referring to the tipsy 15 year old girl pressured into sex by her older boyfriend, which was the case with an ex of mine who had an abortion a few years earlier. Or its hard to blame another ex of mine who was with an abusive dead-beat drunk at age 17, without parents in her life, madly and irrationally in love with the guy, wholly unable to be the one to bring another life into this world. Heck, I have heard of women being impregnated when the condom broke. Unless you believe people should just stop having sex before they are prepared to have children the rational thing is to allow women their choice in the matter. In instances like those the responsible thing is to not have the child. If you don't believe life begins at conception it is arguably an easier thing to have an abortion than it is to bear a fetus in your body for months and months and months and then send it away like returning a video to blockbuster. I also love how its so often the men who are the most outspoken against a woman's right to choose.

And if its about personal responsibility then if abortion is ever made illegal people like you and other anti-choice people should go around gathering newborn babies from all the destitute or drug-addicted or just generally emotionally overwhelmed women out there who were forced to bear those children because of the pressure put on legislators by people like you. That would be the personally responsible thing to do.

But of course it wasn't a political story. Its only a story about a sermon on abortion in which a mother pulls her cute son close to her and looks at him with a look "you will never forget." I'm imagining things. No message implicit there. My apologies.

[Darcy88]

A story plainly presenting a stance on the most polarizing issue in American politics - nope, not a political story.