In the week before we left New Zealand, an issue grabbed the headlines.

Thousands of people occupied land in a place called Ihumātao, near the Auckland airport. It is land that is precious to our indigenous Māori people. Sadly, New Zealand has a history of stealing land and dishonouring treaties and so people gathered in solidarity, from all over the country, to say ‘enough is enough – this is a time for justice.’

The Guardian has done a good job with this story – here and here.

In the week after we left New Zealand, another issue grabbed the headlines.

A proposal to relax the abortion laws went before our Parliament. The idea is to move the issue of abortion away from ‘criminality’ to one of ‘well-being’. If the changes are adopted, then a baby this size can be killed without any questions asked – and it appears that a baby up to full-term can be killed, if the mother can convince a medical expert that her ‘well-being’ is at stake. Yikes! Won’t there always be a medical expert willing to make that assessment?

The local NZ media has had some heated conversations on this story – like here and here.

The point I want to make is a simple one.
It revolves around two sadnesses that I feel.

Within the world, so attuned as it is to justice and to the rights of human beings – especially the voiceless and vulnerable, like indigenous peoples – I’ve never quite understood how the most voiceless and vulnerable human being of all, the unborn baby, can be so easily overlooked. It seems such an anachronism, such a blindspot. Yes, this is about the mother – definitely … but, surely, it cannot be just about the mother? This is a new life, a new human being. How can its rights be so readily discarded in this very world so attuned to rights? I don’t get it. Never have. I feel so sad about it.

Within the church, how many people do you know who would join in the Ihumātao occupation, and then get a ride to the airport nearby, fly down to Wellington and join in the protest outside Parliament against these proposed changes to the abortion laws? I don’t know many, but I do know some and, interestingly, they tend to be people I admire so much.

Should it be that way?
Should the hearts and minds of believers be big enough to embrace both issues?

New Zealand, Canada, the USA – maybe even the UK – are all heading into an election season. The Christian community in these countries can be so frustrating at election time when it comes to ethical issues like these ones. Our hearts and minds are not big enough, that is the reality. So many believers seem to find it so easy to vote. Some make something like abortion to be the litmus issue, while others make something like the rights of indigenous peoples to be the litmus issue. Shouldn’t it be both? I don’t get it. Never have. I feel so sad about it. [Gee – I find it so difficult to vote, as I have posted about frequently – here, here, here and here!].

In my view, both of these issues should burden the hearts and minds of biblically-informed, Jesus-shaped Christians. Dare I say it, to be so burdened is integral to what it means to be an evangelical today (but maybe it is too late to make that observation, with that word having had its last rites administered to it).

nice chatting

Paul