Morality

     I think too many people in the world today are confusing legal with moral.  What is the difference?  Legal means allowed by law.  Moral refers to what is right and good.  Aren't all things allowed by law moral?  Not in the eyes of God.  Yes, I am a religious person and as my blog states, "I Just Want to be Me."  I will not hide the fact that I am religious.  Nor will I hide the fact that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

      I wiser person than me recently stated, "Man's laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral." (Dallin H. Oaks Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  October 5, 2013)  In other words, something that is legal isn't necessarily right or good.  Take abortion for example.

     Many people think abortion is okay since it's a woman's body it should be her choice whether to allow a pregnancy to continue.  In fact, abortion is far too common in some places where boys are favored over girls.  Morally, abortion in all but a few extraordinary circumstances is wrong.  As for the argument that it is the woman's choice she made her choice when she had sex, knowing that sex can often result in pregnancy.       What about rape/incest victims?  Well, that falls into the extraordinary circumstances category that I mentioned earlier. Gordon B. Hinckley in an October 1998 General Conference address stated: Abortion is an ugly thing, a debasing thing, a thing which inevitably brings remorse and sorrow and regret. While we denounce it, we make allowance in such circumstances as when pregnancy is the result of incest or rape, when the life or health of the mother is judged by competent medical authority to be in serious jeopardy, or when the fetus is known by competent medical authority to have serious defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. (Nov.1998 Ensign)

   He goes on to state that such circumstances are rare. I found a website that listed some stats on rape pregnancies. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8765248 I was surprised to see that only 50% of the women studied chose to abort the baby. Some had spontaneous abortions which I believe means miscarriage but many chose to allow the pregnancy to continue. These women chose to either keep the baby or place it for adoption. I was surprised at how many chose to keep the baby.
     So if a woman who was forced to have sex can decide to let her baby live, why can't a woman who willingly had sex? Legal does not mean moral. I think it's time people stopped confusing the two.