When the PostSecret app came available for the iPhone I decided that I had to have it. The app is different from the Sunday Secrets in that you can post anytime, you can heart secrets that you like, and most importantly you can reply to secrets. I've had the app for probably three months now and a few things that I have learned are:
- So many women have been raped and subsequently become pregnant that it is unreal
- Men love to show their penis
- Teenagers are being bullied more than you think
- Politics will always be a hot-button issue
- Not a lot of Europeans like Americans
- Australians and Canadians are the most encouraging
- Most woman love masturbating to lesbian porn
- Women either really love giving head or really hate it
- A lot of relationships have ended because the man wanted the woman to abort
- There are tons of abused people out there that are slowly getting help
- The Suicide Hotline puts people on hold
I think one of the most shocking things I have learned from this app is that a lot of the Pro-Life group of people are completely intolerant of the Pro-Choice group.
What I have learned about the Pro-Life segment is that they feel life starts at conception. As an almost scientist there are tons of facts I can relay to you that prove that is wrong. However, that is not the point of this entry today. The point is that most of the Pro-Lifers out there think that all Pro-Chioce people are godless, soulless people that are uneducated sluts that were asking to get pregnant. They do not take into account the women that were raped by a stranger, friend, family member, or spouse/significant other. They do not take into account the cases where it was a medical risk for the woman to carry the child to term. To them it's just a selfish whore that spread her legs and is taking the easy way out.
I had an exchange with a Pro-Lifer on the PostSecret app a couple of weeks ago. It started when I responded to a persons post about how Pro-Choice does not automatically make a person Pro-Abortion. To me it means that it is the woman's right to choose what happens to her body. Not the government or the church. And definitely not the judgmental Pro-Life people on the app. A person responded to my post by saying that as a society we have an obligation to make judgements about actions. They went on to say that murder, stealing, child abuse and abortion is wrong. The person said that, "To be Pro-Choice means that you are complicit in the murder of unborn children whether or not you would ever have one." And then they gave me a link to a Youtube video in order to persuade me to leave my Pro-Choice heathen lifestyle behind. My response was to ask how a society that claims to be Christians can judge another person? That the last time I read the Bible it said that it is not our place to judge. And then I made a sarcastic comment about how I had completely changed my views because of the Youtube video. A few hours later the person responded to me again by saying that they can't judge a person's heart, motivation, or intentions but they can judge an action. They justified it by saying we as a society do it every single day when we say that something is illegal.
I've always thought that a persons actions take place because of their heart, motivation and intentions. I guess the person didn't like my response or they were tired of discussing the subject with me because they stopped responding.
Saying something is illegal does not mean the same as morally wrong. Every society has their own moral code. What is socially acceptable in Alabama might be completely unacceptable in Madagascar. The norms that make a society vary from place to place and even from generation to generation. As a person with questionable faith, I find it hard to talk to anyone in the non-secular world about the topic of abortion. Abortion is not a strictly black or white topic. There are so many shades of grey.
I think the biggest lesson I learned is that I have no idea what led someone to the path they are on. There is nothing written on their face or in the way they walk that can tell me if they were raped. There is nothing in their actions that can tell me if they had to have a therapeutic abortion. The only way I can learn those answers is by having an honest conversation with that person.
And once that conversation is over, I still do not have the right to judge her.
Because I am not God or Buddha or Allah or whatever other entity is out there.
I think that is the one thing I wish the Pro-Life PostSecret users would learn from the app. That no one has the right to judge another. Ever.