Okay, I follow some religious blogs. I also have several friends and family members that are religious and would describe themselves as politically conservative. Most of the people I know would describe themselves this way and they aren’t shy about it. (A big city in Texas is still in Texas.) My personal Facebook brought a particularly troubling blog to my attention. Normally, I wouldn’t even give people online like this the time of day. I don’t know them and I’m not going to influence their lives or opinions, it isn’t worth my time. But this post troubled me deeply.

The post is entitled ‘This Is Why I’m Pro-Life Now’ and the blog is called Chicks on the Right — Because Conservatism Needs a Makeover. I really have no desire to link to it so feel free to Google it if you want to see the original article. It won’t be hard to find. One of the two main bloggers discusses how she used to be pro-choice mostly because she never really thought about it. She talks about how after she started the blog, she began to inform herself. Her research isn’t what changed her mind though.

It was her pregnancies, two of which ended in miscarriage. As a woman that has experienced miscarriage twice myself (rather early on mind you), I feel for her. Regardless of how you feel about abortion, if you are a mother-to-be that has formed an emotional attachment to your would-be child and had it taken away, miscarriage is devastating. However, there is a sentence that keeps playing on repeat in my conscience, “And the silver lining in those lost pregnancies is that divine intervention and life itself is kind of unbelievably awesome that way — it sometimes has to slap you around to make you realize certain things and see things in a clear light that were obvious all along but you were just too FREAKINBLIND TO SEE.”
(I bolded.)

This sentence makes me so completely sad. I try to accept religiosity in those that I care about because I have to believe that it is giving them hope. It is giving them something to hold on to and help them make it through the perils of life. Unfortunately, as often as religion offers comfort, it fills believers with plenty of guilt and shame. This woman, Daisy, believes that there is a deity that took her unborn children away from her to prove that abortion is immoral.

Never mind the fact that if God had forced her miscarriages, he was in effect aborting those babies. Never mind the fact that up to 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, meaning that God would be performing the most abortions. Never mind the dozens of reasons that women choose to abort and why they should have that choice. Right now, it isn’t what concerns me.

Right now, I’m devastated that there are countless people that believe that God is punishing them for their “immoral” thoughts or actions. The only saving grace of religion is its ability to bring peace to individuals, to make them feel safe. It is clear to me that the negative outweighs the positive.

For every ounce of hope, believers are given a pound of guilt. For each peaceful scripture, there is a verse preaching hate. Every prayer offered is answered with only silence. If their vengeful God does exist, he is unworthy of my praise.