Summary
Syracuse City Court Judge Felicia Pitts Davis refused to officiate a same-sex wedding, citing religious beliefs.
Another judge, Mary Anne Doherty, performed the ceremony.
Pitts Davis’ actions, considered discriminatory under New York judicial ethics and the Marriage Equality Act, are under review by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct
As a pro-choice guy, where in the Bible is this little gold nugget?
It’s true on a technicality. The idea was if a woman is accused of adultery, they had her drink magical abortion water, and it would only work if she had actually cheated.
I’m not sure what you mean “on a technicality” instead of merely “It is true”.
I’d say “technically” because there’s no such thing as magical water and because this is only a ceremony to give an appearance of leaving it up to divinity, not a way for people to actually have an abortion. This doesn’t look to me like it helps pro-choice arguments at all since anyone arguing the other side is going to be able to say, “See, it’s in God’s hands.”
Wow, so a biblical description to specifically cause an abortion in case of adultery, is not an argument for pro choice among Christians?
Just wow???
The thing is it’s not a “hey, need an abortion? just do this.” Look at what it’s saying: if you drink the bitter water and God judges you guilty, it will cause an abortion, and that’s how we’ll know whether you’re guilty or not.
Religious POV: No human has any choice in the matter. Drink the water, God decides. Zero choice.
Non-religious POV: I see a few possible explanations.
One is the person administering the “bitter water” might actually have some concoction that worked, but if it did work, that would signal to the community that the would-be mother was guilty under their harsh law. Not good for her, not really a choice.
Another possibility is that it’s a ritual designed to let people move past perceived adultery. Drinking the magic water shows your faith and innocence because you would have believed you were poisoning your baby if you knew you were guilty. In reality, maybe not, but that’s what the ritual presents on the surface. You drink the magic water, everyone feels better that God either didn’t judge you guilty or forgave you, everyone goes on with life. Everyone’s happy except if the mother was so desperate she would rather have been punished by the law than have that baby. Still no real choice.
Everything in the bible is superstition and magic thinking. This is no different, and counts as much as everything else.
Numbers 5 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[d] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”
“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”
It’s in response to a woman being unfaithful to her husband.
Of course, in reality the concoction does nothing, but the point of the Bible passage is literally an abortion.
Hosea 13:16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”