One day I was conducting a senior class in Religion and having to explain the moral issue of Abortion from a Catholic perspective. There are lots of very strong scriptural and moral arguments against abortion, but I wanted to highlight how every single Abortion as Pre-emptive Genocide reeks unbelievable consequences into the future.
Inspiration
You can call it an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but this teaching approach hit me like a light bulb switching on, as I began to speak.
Not even mentioning the topic of Abortion at the start of the lesson, I began this way:
Class Dialogue
Teacher: You see young Johnny here, looking all fit, eager and ready to learn.
Students: Mild laughter
Teacher: Have you ever wondered about the total astounding reality of how Johnny could be present in this classroom today? Think for a moment, an incredible amount of ancestral decision-making has been made in order for Johnny, in fact all of us, to be here today. Johnny’s Father and Mother found love, married, and conceived Johnny in a statistical lottery of immense proportions. Every one of his ancestors for countless generations, had to be born, live, eat, learn, work, fight, suffer, marry and have children. All of this had to occur so that Johnny could be with us today. Every personal decision of Johnny himself, also brought him to our classroom today, not mention every decision made around him during his lifetime.
We all live within this same incredible reality, and countless backstories to our own personal existence and presence here today. I mean the statistical odds are unreal!
Students: General response, very thoughtful and empathic without too much verbal response. Today’s students really connect to this personal human approach.
Let it hang briefly in silence, and then throw in the big punchline.
Teacher: And yet, one single abortion in that ancestral chain, could have prevented it all. No more Johnny!
Students: Dead silence and shocked looks are generally thrown around the classroom. Believe you me, you could hear a pin drop the first time I did this in a class. This stunned silence happens most of the time when you present the topic in this manner. Sadly, being mostly utilitarian in their thinking, this quantity argument has the desired effect in making people think about the topic in a more serious manner.
Hit the Genocide Decision Punchline
Teacher: You know every single Abortion is a form of pre-emptive Genocide. A branch of the human family tree is extinguished by the personal whim of an individual. All that possible descendant genetic DNA potential is lost forever.
Would you rather that decisional power being in your hands, or Gods’? Human life is that serious. Are you competent enough to guide, control, and predict human futures? Which Tree in the Garden of Eden have you chosen to pick from?