What is it with Christians being Pro-Life? (Part I)
All of this hullabo over the now deceased Terri has also echoed into the realm concerning life in general and what our response is to it. Having said that, I thought I would frame the next "FAQ" in my blog here about just that - the sanctity of life - including abortion, euthanasia and murder from the Christian and Biblical perspective.
I say both Christian and Biblical perspective because it is possible for CHristians to have views that are not Biblical. So in response to "WHat is it with Christians being pro-life?" my immediade answer is not all Christians are. Some Christians (I know a few) are pro-choice, when it comes to abortion, and are also for euthanasia (as we have already seen on this blog).
How then can we make sense of what the Bible says concerning these things when Christians seem to have contradictory views? And what does the Bible have to say to us? In light of the new age movement, and perhaps even before it, people tend to look at what they want to do and then come up with a philosophy to justify it rather then searching for the philosophy that is true and basing one's life around that. This behavior continues with Christians as well as non-believers (see Living in Eden Apart from God on this blog or, go right to the source, 2 Kings chapter 5) and is why some Christians hold that neither abortion nor euthanasia is wrong.
How is it that I am not believing what I want to and trying to, I don't know, "put women back into the stone age" with my pr-life perspective on abortion? Well, because at least from a Christian perspective, I want what I believe to match up with what the Bible says. I see no evidence for God saying it is permissible to commit abortion or euthanasia.
Let us define our terms:
Abortion - Termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus that is incapable of survival.
Any of various procedures that result in such termination and expulsion. Also called induced abortion.
The premature expulsion of a nonviable fetus from the uterus; a miscarriage.
Cessation of normal growth, especially of an organ or other body part, prior to full development or maturation.
An aborted organism.
Something malformed or incompletely developed; a monstrosity.
Euthanasia - The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment.
Living - Possessing life: famous living painters; transplanted living tissue
Kill -
To put to death.
To deprive of life
I have taken these definitions from the American Heritage Dictionary. Insofar as abortion is concerned, I am mainly interested in induced abortion, which is what people who want abortions go to clinics for.
On to Abortion. I remember back when I was a senior in high school doing a research project for my Ethics class to defend the pro-life perspective. Another classmate defended the pro-choice perpsective. The majority of people in class seemed to lean towards the pro-choice stance and we had already discussed the topic at some length, about how the fetus wasn't a human being, about how it was a woman's righ to choose what she did with her own body, etc. I passed around a few pictures showing aborted fetuses and a brief description of the manner used to abort each fetus, and many people felt quite nauseated or downright sick. I had to ask them "If these are not dead human beings you are looking at, and you maintain that they are not, why do you feel so disgusted?" Of course I put the actual question less eloquently.
If a fetus is not a human being, why do many mothers who have abortions struggle with feeling that they have? Or at the very least, are afraid that they might have? If a fetus is not a human being, why do many mothers seek out counseling after they have chosen to have an abortion in order to make sense of their choice and their lives now? Because they do not want to think of themselves as murderers and yet on a visceral level, they are aware that they are. For a greater discussion of the perspective of a woman having an abortion, I recommend this link: http://www.afterabortion.org/stetson.html
If you want to see the face of abortion, I recommend this link:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/resources/abortionimages/
To be perfectly honest, I could not bring myself to open the following links to see the pictures of aborted fetuses but I have seen such pictures before.
"Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' And he said, "I do not know. AM I my brother's keeper?' And He said, "What have you done? The voice f your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.'" Genesis 4:9-10
I say both Christian and Biblical perspective because it is possible for CHristians to have views that are not Biblical. So in response to "WHat is it with Christians being pro-life?" my immediade answer is not all Christians are. Some Christians (I know a few) are pro-choice, when it comes to abortion, and are also for euthanasia (as we have already seen on this blog).
How then can we make sense of what the Bible says concerning these things when Christians seem to have contradictory views? And what does the Bible have to say to us? In light of the new age movement, and perhaps even before it, people tend to look at what they want to do and then come up with a philosophy to justify it rather then searching for the philosophy that is true and basing one's life around that. This behavior continues with Christians as well as non-believers (see Living in Eden Apart from God on this blog or, go right to the source, 2 Kings chapter 5) and is why some Christians hold that neither abortion nor euthanasia is wrong.
How is it that I am not believing what I want to and trying to, I don't know, "put women back into the stone age" with my pr-life perspective on abortion? Well, because at least from a Christian perspective, I want what I believe to match up with what the Bible says. I see no evidence for God saying it is permissible to commit abortion or euthanasia.
Let us define our terms:
Abortion - Termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus that is incapable of survival.
Any of various procedures that result in such termination and expulsion. Also called induced abortion.
The premature expulsion of a nonviable fetus from the uterus; a miscarriage.
Cessation of normal growth, especially of an organ or other body part, prior to full development or maturation.
An aborted organism.
Something malformed or incompletely developed; a monstrosity.
Euthanasia - The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment.
Living - Possessing life: famous living painters; transplanted living tissue
Kill -
To put to death.
To deprive of life
I have taken these definitions from the American Heritage Dictionary. Insofar as abortion is concerned, I am mainly interested in induced abortion, which is what people who want abortions go to clinics for.
On to Abortion. I remember back when I was a senior in high school doing a research project for my Ethics class to defend the pro-life perspective. Another classmate defended the pro-choice perpsective. The majority of people in class seemed to lean towards the pro-choice stance and we had already discussed the topic at some length, about how the fetus wasn't a human being, about how it was a woman's righ to choose what she did with her own body, etc. I passed around a few pictures showing aborted fetuses and a brief description of the manner used to abort each fetus, and many people felt quite nauseated or downright sick. I had to ask them "If these are not dead human beings you are looking at, and you maintain that they are not, why do you feel so disgusted?" Of course I put the actual question less eloquently.
If a fetus is not a human being, why do many mothers who have abortions struggle with feeling that they have? Or at the very least, are afraid that they might have? If a fetus is not a human being, why do many mothers seek out counseling after they have chosen to have an abortion in order to make sense of their choice and their lives now? Because they do not want to think of themselves as murderers and yet on a visceral level, they are aware that they are. For a greater discussion of the perspective of a woman having an abortion, I recommend this link: http://www.afterabortion.org/stetson.html
If you want to see the face of abortion, I recommend this link:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/resources/abortionimages/
To be perfectly honest, I could not bring myself to open the following links to see the pictures of aborted fetuses but I have seen such pictures before.
"Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' And he said, "I do not know. AM I my brother's keeper?' And He said, "What have you done? The voice f your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.'" Genesis 4:9-10
posted by Brian at 7:30 AM
2 Comments:
That was a powerful post. I too couldn't bring myself to look at those photos, because what you see there is really quite disturbing. I had an abortion when I was in middle school. For me, there seemed to be no other option...I couldn't tell my parents that my boyfriend raped me, and my boyfriend would've been so mad he could've killed me if he found out. On of my friends told me it was okay, because that tiny clump of cells wasn't alive. That's what she'd been told when she had an abortion, but you could still see the pain and sadness in her eyes. But I saw no other choice. I was so scared going in, and I was even more scared coming out after the procedure was done. I didn't know how I could possibly live with myself, but with time & God's healing, I've been able to forgive myself. Don't believe it when you hear people tell you a fetus isn't a live human being. Because lying there on that table, it wasn't just a little piece of my life that was being sucked out of me, it was another life, with infinite potential and a chance at becoming something great, a wonderful & loving person.
I won't try to extrapolate anything you said in your post to point to some greater philosophical or theological truth - because you have done that quite powerfully yourself.
I am sorry to hear that such an awful string of events happened in your life. And I am very thankful for your willingness to share those events with us. The problem with a media such as this forum is that even my words may come across as cold professionalism or a mere "clap on the shoulder."
Thank you for speaking a very painful truth.
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