Ama Zenya Speaking about Abortion: At the Network of Spiritual Progressives’ Spiritual Activism Conference

NOVEM8ER/OECEMl3E.R. 2005 IVOJ.UME 20 NUMBER 6 ArnaZenyaSpeaking aboutAbortion at theNetwork ofSpiritual Progressives'Spiritual Activism Conference HAT WOULD a Spiritual Progressive perspective on abortion look like? I invite you to consider first that it will be pro-choice, not as a knee-jerk liberal stance, but because choice is a divinely given power. It's one ofthe sacred responsibilities for each ofus spiritual beings having this human experience. To deny women the power to choose what impacts our bodies is to deny our humanness, just as slavery or forced labor denies humanness by denyingpersonal sovereignty. Women, I invite you to enter a place of being deeply and spiritually pro-choice, fully affirming our divinely given power to respond to what by grace, nature , or circumstance happens in our bodies. And, men, in revolutionary, spiritual commitment against sexism-against tbe teaching that others should determine what happens in women's bodies- I encourage you to support women's choice. Transgender folks, do both. I believe that a spiritual politics calls me to move beyond the language of my rights and into the languageofthe sacred,the language oflove-both for myselfandfor the new and sacred life within me. At the center of many faith traditions is the practice ofsurrender , ofgiving up our rights for love. Islam is all about surrender, affirming that one's life belongs to God. I think ofthe Jewish prophetic tradition and those like Esther, who lefther right to be safe and secure in the palace and put her life at risk for the love for her people. I think ofthe Christian scriptures: Jesus could have just kept sitting at the right hand of God, but instead he emptied himselfand became the lefthand ofGod, thepresence, as Rabbi Lernersays, of compassion and love. In Buddhism, bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have the rightto move on beyond the cycles ofrebirth and pain because they have already woken up and become enlightened. They could just take off, but they make a commitment for love to keep being reborn into the world ofsuffering until all beings achieve liberation. These spiritual traditions move us beyond the language ofrights to the language oflove. And what I see in currentliberal politics is thatthere is no supportfor the woman that also honors the life within her and loves it. So abortion is talked about as though it is a purely practical, material decision. I've got to get my tooth pulled, usethejohn, and getan abortion. It'sjust a matter ofgetting something out ofme. On this issue, the Left hasjust completelybought the capitalist paradigm: What's good is whatever feels good to me. For most ofus, our reasons for getting an abortion are self-centered. What could a moral politics oflove regarding abortion look like? The word that has come to me about this breaks through the right-left barrier. It affirms a deeply spiritual principle, and it could be written on a bumper sticker. So here it is: Choose life! What ifwe had Choose Life Clinics that would talk lovingly and thoughtfully with pregnant women abouttheir options in a waythat affirmedthe sacredness ofboth the mother and the unborn child? What ifthese clinics were centers ofactivism for the policies that affirm life, for free pre- and post-natal healthcare and childcare, for livingwage, and affordable housing. What ifwe had Choose Life Retreats for young, pregnantwomen who wanted to go somewhere to be nurtured, blessed, and affirmed as they were pregnant and as they gave birth? What if Choose Life Chaplains were available to help women who chose abortion create time and ritual for mourning and grieving? MAY/JUNE 2006 I VOLUME 21, NUMBER 3 Jewish Renewal and American Spirituality byShaul Magid R EB ZALMAN [Schachter Shalomi, the spiritual leader ofthe Jewish Renewal movement] has said ofJudaism that "It can make ofGod no less than pantheism .... This is what I have in mind when I say, 'Nolessthan ...; that God canbe no lessthan pantheism . Ifpantheism is a given, what is already there as a minimum, then what else can we say about God?" The "what else" in this sentence is where monotheism either lives or dies. Reb Zalman is not that interested in monotheism for its own sake...