Blog for Choice

Today is the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the 5th Annual Blog for Choice Day. This year's question, as posed by NARAL, is What does Trust Women mean to you?,in reference to the pin that Dr. Tiller often wore.



Abortion aside, choice is something that is very important to me. I like knowing that I am in charge of my life, both in the moment and in terms of my future path.

I've made a lot of choices in recent years. I chose to go to Syracuse University, where I chose to major in International Relations and Political Science, and I chose to be involved with Res Life, The Vagina Monologues, Alpha Phi Omega, and Habitat. I have chosen to have long hair, to have six piercings in my ears, and to wear contact lenses. And I made all of those choices because someone let me.

Why was I allowed? Because I was trusted to do what was right for my own life. Did I make mistakes? Hell yes! But my decisions were respected. The respect from my family, my friends, my society, and my government gave me the opportunity to paint my own picture.

As an adult, I am respected enough to be able to choose my own career, car, home. And I am glad that right now my decisions about my body are respected. It says that I am acknowledged as an intelligent person, one with the ability to understand my situation and choose the best path.

I am very confident in my own decision making skills. I think I'm able to look at my own situation, understand the problem and possible solutions, and choose the best course of action.

So what does it mean when people try to restrict access to abortion? It means they don't trust us, which means they don't respect our intelligence and our ability to do the right thing. And that makes me angry.

To trust us is to respect us, to let us make the decisions about our own lives, to let us choose.

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It

Part of my job with Volunteer Services includes faith outreach. In fact, that's a major reason why I applied for and picked this position. But having been there for several months now, I've come to realize that while the intentions are there, the money isn't, so I haven't done a whole lot of actual reaching out to new faith groups. However, every now and then, they reach out to me.

Last a week I was forwarded an email from a woman from United Methodist Church who is organizing a District Youth Retreat for this spring. As she explained, "Our theme for the retreat is So You Think You Can Praise?!. We will be doing various workshops on different ways to praise the Lord, and it was suggested that one of the workshops be on praising the Lord through mission work."

Cool, I thought. I really identified with the designated theme because I believe wholeheartedly that there are so many different ways to express faith. Personally, I express my faith through what Hinduism calls Karma Yoga, basically, community service. And that's exactly what Habitat's mission is.

Habitat is a partnership founded on common ground -- bridging theological differences by putting love into action. Everyone can use the hammer as an instrument to manifest God's love.

Habitat founder Millard Fuller calls this concept "the theology of the hammer," explaining, "we may disagree on all sorts of other things... but we can agree on the idea of building homes with God's people in need, and in doing so using biblical economics: no profit and no interest.

Habitat for Humanity welcomes all people to build with us in partnership. "The Bible teaches that God is the God of the whole crowd," explains Fuller. "God's love leaves nobody out, and my love should not either. This understanding drives 'the theology of the hammer' around the world, steadily building more and more houses in more and more countries.

I'm pretty familiar with the concept of The Theology of the Hammer. I identify with it strongly and continue to work with Habitat because of it. I've written several applications and essays on the topic. I even did a presentation on it en español for a class in college. So I was pretty surprised when my boss turned around and asked me

Are you comfortable doing this?

At first I didn't understand her. I do speaking engagements all the time! At least a couple of times a week I'm out on the worksite in the morning giving a speech to a volunteer group. I've made presentations at many companies and schools, speaking to people of all ages. I couldn't figure out why she thought it might make me uncomfortable.

And then it dawned on me. I'm not a Methodist. I'm not even Christian. She wasn't asking if I would have stage fright; she was asking if I was even capable of speaking to Methodist youth about mission work.

Well, I think I am. They may do it in the name of God and Christ, and I may do it in the name of human spirit, but we're still all doing the same thing with the same purpose: service to our human family is the right thing to do. It's what strengthens us as individuals and as a group. It's the ground that Habitat stands on. It's why I'm an AmeriCorps member. It's the common thread that runs through most people.

So, yes, I will be speaking to a group of people about a principle of the faith that they hold and I do not. But the fact remains: the Theology of the Hammer binds us all.