I take no part in religious debate but I am curious why, in a discussion of the catholic position on abortion, nobody has even mentioned ‘ensoulment’.The idea that ensoulment occurs on conception is relatively new. If people believe that such a foetus is a person, they must outlaw IVF, but not object to contraception.I see I've already missed most of the debate on the GOP and Christianity. In fairness it seems to have been quite civil. I now understand where Dax is coming from though I cannot agree with him; I think as has already been stated by others my own biggest issue is the dissociation of Trump from the discussion. IMO he is entirely material to the discussion because the Republican party is, at this moment, entirely in thrall to him and so to countenance and support a leader who is seemingly at great odds with the Christian values the GOP claims to represent and uphold seems untenable to me. It's a statistical fact that many more Republican's identify as Christians than do Democrats but that in itself is irrelevant to the question of spirituality, especially if it transpires they are following a false prophet.
Belfry's explanation that some churches see him as a Cyrus the Great type figure is interesting as I hadn't heard that before. It seems implausible to me though as, to the extent that scholars can discern, Cyrus's approach to conquered people's was one of tolerance and allowing freedom of expression and retention of rights; which doesn't feel very Donald-esque, though I acknowledge Trump probably doesn't care one iota about what religion in the US looks like as long as it serves his purposes.
When we get onto the Christian position on abortion it's complex and always has been, Personally I'm not sure you can state a single position as definitive. Even the Catholic Church which has had a reputation for constancy on this subject, once you scratch the surface, has fiercely debated and at times changed it's position throughout church history with different Church Fathers having different views. Anyway that is definitely one for another thread, certainly if we are digging down into things like the Didache and Barnabas etc.
By the same token, one has to ask why they oppose post miscarriage ‘abortion’ since there is no person extant.
I came to the conclusion many years ago that religious leaders are just conmen like Trump, making up ‘truths’ to enhance their own positions.
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