I wish to congratulate my friend Michael Abrahams on his well-argued Gleaner column on Monday, May 30 about the treatment of unmarried pregnant women in the workplace. I offer a few thoughts in support of his general argument.
First, Christians and other religious folk need to cleanse their minds of the obsession with treating sexual sin as worse than the other and often more cancerous sins in our congregations (see Galatians 5:19-21) like social sin: (envy, malice keeping, rumour-mongering, backbiting, dislike and hatred, classism, etc.); ritual sins:(idolatry, witchcraft, horoscope dependence, dabbling with tarot card and palm readers, etc.)
It is not in the Galatians list but pride in your superior spirituality is a peculiar and very subtle sin that ought to be confessed and repented of. I am talking about Christians who believe they are so spiritual that they could almost qualify as “the 4th member of the trinity”. (My Apostolic brethren will pardon and modify in keeping with their doctrinal view)
With reference to companies or institutions owned and operated by a church we need to show due regard for business law while remembering that judgment on some sins have to be left up to God ultimately.
It should not be difficult to argue that having a baby in your womb as an unmarried female is not itself a sin (as I strongly argued in defence of a young lady in our youth fellowship while I was a teenager and Christian at the time), how the baby got there is the issue requiring sensitivity and care.
Lest some of us don’t know, reproductive technologies are so advanced now and available in Barbados I gather and perhaps here too that we dare not presume that an unmarried pregnant female has committed fornication or adultery. A female can now become pregnant without having had sexual intercourse.
The Rev. Eron Henry’s novel Reverend Mother may open some minds and heart and help churches and church-owned organisations avoid law suits arising from their unfounded presumption and action in this regard.
He that has an ear…