An individual who needs to be counted

An individual who needs to be counted

Lengthy earlier than any of us had been born, 13 turned an unfortunate quantity. I bear in mind when accommodations and complete neighborhoods averted utilizing that ominous quantity as a result of they could not lease rooms or promote homes defiled with these digits.

I am undecided why. Googling in all probability would inform us, however since I’ve by no means purchased into this senseless superstition, I’ve by no means taken time to analysis it.

It did catch my consideration, although, when wacky calendar creator Jeff Kacirk recalled a bizarre “13” occasion that occurred 300 years in the past in London. When Joseph Addison reported it, he defined that a number of British of us believed then that if 13 individuals ate on the identical desk, the primary one to go away could be headed for large bother.

Shelburne

Shelburne

Addison stated that when two women acquired as much as depart a dinner, a last-minute headcount got here out with 13. Panic struck. The ladies shortly sat again down and the entire diners started desperately looking for some approach to dodge the hoax.

They yelled for a neighbor to affix their get together so their visitor depend could be fourteen, however the neighbor was not at residence. Plan B was for all 13 of them to rise and depart on the identical time. Simply earlier than this mass exit, nevertheless, somebody observed that certainly one of their feminine companions was pregnant. Including in that unborn baby introduced their desk census to a secure fourteen.

Why am I telling you this unusual story? As a result of it substantiates the historic fact that till this newest technology after we discard fetuses as rubbish, individuals with Christian roots have all the time thought of an toddler in its mom’s womb to be an individual with heredity and rights — on this case, sufficient of an individual to interrupt the 13 dinner curse.

Verify the legal guidelines in most states and — even in states which have legalized the very best share of abortions per being pregnant — and you can find strict legal guidelines making it a criminal offense to hurt a pregnant lady’s unborn child in case you damage or kill her. I am undecided how any lawmaker or decide can resolve the contradictions in these fetal legal guidelines.

Within the early days of her personal being pregnant, Jesus’ mom Mary visited her six-month pregnant cousin. Elizabeth’s child (John the Baptist) jumped for pleasure in his mom’s womb. The infants in each girls had been already identifiable people. That is what the Bible has all the time taught us, however for half a century America’s abortion legal guidelines have ignored it.

Gene Shelburne is pastor emeritus of the Anna Road Church of Christ, 2310 Anna Road, Amarillo, Texas. Contact him at [email protected], or get his books and magazines at www.christianappeal.com. His column has run on the Religion web page for greater than three many years.

This text initially appeared on Amarillo Globe-Information: Shelburne column: An individual who needs to be counted