Yesterday, a sincere supporter of gay rights related a story to me about a woman who was fighting against the legalization of gay marriage. She was appalled that the mother of a gay man had told him, “After seeing what you’ve become, I wish I’d had an abortion.”
Many see that statement as a typical example of homophobic harshness. I must admit that was my first reaction. In fact, I was haunted by it, and it slowly came to me that there was another interpretation.
We may consider that a mother who’d make such a statement is a woman of great faith who’s aware and fearful of the agonies suffered by the souls in hell. Such believers are often pro-life. They believe that voluntarily participating in an abortion is cause for automatic excommunication, according to The Church that holds the keys passed on from the disciple to whom they were given and the denominations following that tradition.
What she may be saying is, “I love my son so much that I would rather have damned myself to hell for an agonizing eternity so that the soul of my unborn son would not be.”
This would not be the first time that someone made a statement expressing their willingness to sacrifice their own salvation because of their great love for others. Romans, 9;3 quotes St. Paul: “. . . my sorrow is so great, my mental anguish so endless, I would willingly be condemned and be cut off from Christ if it could help my brothers of Israel, my own flesh and blood (to be saved).”
