What is it with Christians being Pro-Life? (Part II)
"I've died and I'm going to Heaven, and as I go through the gates, I see what looks like this field of gently waving grass. When I look closely, it's babies, slowly undulating back and forth -- the babies I've shut off."
- B. D. Colen
It is bad enough that Cain should murder his brother Abel, but Cain's response to God does not only reveal a lie on his part, it also reveals rather callous indifference towards not only a fellow human being, but his brother. "Am I my brother's keeper?" translates very well into our Americanized attitude of every man for himself and our new lingo of letting people "do their own thing." By refusing to be our brother's keeper, we are refusing to look out for someone who might be doing something harmful to himself (or herself) or to others, and we turn a blind and indifferent eye towards everyone else.
This is the sin of all of us who did, and do, nothing. As someone posted on my little essay concerning Terri Schiavo, there are sins we commit by doing something, but there are also sins we commit by doing nothing. We are the keepers of the widows and orphans. We are the keepers of the unborn. We are the keepers of the infirm, the mentally deficient, anyone and everyone who is trod upon by the world ought to be able to find love and acceptance in Christians because we seek to emulate Christ who was counted among those trodden upon by the world. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich ( 2 Corinthians 8:9)."
Or at least, we are supposed to be the keepers of those who have none to keep and love them. That is why, I am willing to wager, why God holds nations accountable for the actions of individuals. We, as Americans (if not Westerners) look upon such judgements by God as totally unfair. But God intends for us to be actively involved in the lives of others, for their betterment and our own. That is also why it is unfair to blame God for the inquities of the world if we, ourselves, do nothing for the world either.
What makes our brothers (and sisters) so precious? The fact that every human being reflects the glory of God simply by existing and being human. "So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27)." Men and women are both made in the image of God, and are the only members of His creation to bear that image. So when we outright murder, or neglect murder, not only are we ending life but we are essentially destroying the most precious creation of a good and holy God who made everything. Think about that for a second. Out of all that has been created, God holds us (humanity) to be His special, unique creation - now bear that in mind with the depravity of humanity and the holiness of God!
Now some might argue that loving someone might mean that we attempt to end their suffering and pain for their own sake, and thus pull the plug at what seems to be the end of their life, or deny them the chance to feel any to begin with. For great coverage of both such phenomena, follow this link: http://web.syr.edu/~sndrake/hentoff.htm if you are interested at all in either abortion or euthenasia, I strongly encourage you to fopen that link and read the lengthy but powerful article.
But nowhere do I see the Bible advocating for the treatment of people in such a cavalier fashion. As Jesus isntructed his disciples "As you go, preach this message: the kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse thoswho have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:7-8)." Now, contextually speaking, Jesus is saying this to his disciples as they prepare to go to the people of Israel and preach the Kingdom of Heaven. And even though they are ascribed miraculous powers because of Jesus Christ, we all know that not everyone is immediately raised from the dead nor cleansed from sickness, but nowhere do we see Jesus advocating that we abandon such people to the weaknesses of their flesh, environment, or circumstances.
Later on in His ministry, Jesus speaks of when He will come again and how the people will be seperated. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?' When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me (Matthew 25:34-40)."
Why is it that whenever we care for someone, we show that care also for Jesus? Because as is stated in Genesis, people are made in the image of God. Jesus is showing the outworking and the ramifications of when we apply the belief that we are made in the image of God to our daily lives, and the consequences of what will happen. The God in the Old Testament does not love death and bloodshed anymore than Jesus does. Indeed, Jesus preaches more on Hell than anyone in the entire Bible! But more to the point, we see Jesus saying that when he was sick we cared for him, not that we pulled out his plug because it was inconvenient for us to care for him, or because he "would've wanted it that way."
The above mentioned link is a story concerning babies who, after they are born, are deliberately starved to death because of any reason from possibly mild retardation to spinal diffida and truly critical malformations and aberattions in the newborn. Doctors recommend death as the best treatment, denying the possible life any chance of "value." Indeed, Sir Francis Crick, 1962 Nobel Laureate says this "No newborn infant should be declared human until it has has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment and... if it fails these tests, it forfeits the right to live."
But then there is Sondra Diamond, someone who is a self-proclaimed vegetable (she is unable to toilet, wash, or dress herself but has a career as a pshychologist and dictated a powerful letter to Newsweek concerning the fate of "vegetables") who, upon being admitted to a hospital for burnt reatment was almost denied care!
'"Four years later, in 1977, Sondra Diamond wrote an afterword in Human Life Review. She told of being taken to the hospital with third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body when she was in her early twenties. "The doctors felt that there was no point in treating me because I was disabled anyway, and could not lead a normal life," she reported. "They wanted to let me die. My parents, after a great deal of arguing, convinced the doctors that I was a junior in college and had been leading a normal life. However, they had to bring in pictures of me swimming and playing the piano."
The doctors were still reluctant to treat her, but Sondra Diamond's parents insisted. Once she was again living what she considered a normal life, Diamond observed: "To take the time and effort to expend medical expertise on a person who is physically disabled seems futile to many members of the medical profession. Their handiwork will come to naught, they think." Even so, she said, "I would not give up one moment of life in which I could have another cup of coffee, another cigarette, or another interaction with someone I love.'" (Taken from the link above).
"Not all physicians approve of withholding treatment for the parents' and the baby's own good. The New England Journal of Medicine, shortly after the Duff-Campbell report had appeared, published a letter from Dr. Joan L. Venes and Dr. Peter R. Huttenlocher, of the Yale University School of Medicine: As consultants to the newborn special-care unit, we wish to disassociate ourselves from the opinions expressed by [Duff and Campbell]. The "growing tendency to seek early death as a management option" that the authors referred to has been repeatedly called to the attention of those involved and has caused us deep concern. It is troubling to us to hear young pediatric interns ask first, "should we treat?" rather than "how do we treat?"
We are fearful that this feeling of nihilism may not remain restricted to the newborn special-care unit. To suggest that the financial and psychological stresses imposed upon a family with the birth of a handicapped child constitute sufficient justification for such a therapy of nihilism is untenable and allows us to escape what perhaps after all are the real issues--i.e., the obligation of an affluent society to provide financial support and the opportunity for a gainful life to its less fortunate citizens." (Also taken from the aforementioned link). This is the outworking of nihilistic philosophy! As someone once quipped (I believe it was Bonhoffer but I may be wrong) "The death camps and Auschwitz... were not made in some General's mind or war room, but rather in the classrooms and lecture halls of nihilistic doctors and philosophers." Ideas do have consequences - sometimes dangerous ones.
There is no conceivable religious, secular or medical argument that can be given to deny people medical treatment that avoids the simple fact that abortion and euthenasia are murder. As Judge Ralph Winter once said concerning allowing newborns to die because of medical ailments or retardation, it is not a bone fide argument to prevent someone medical treatment for being black, nor for being newborn.
There is no argument to be made from scripture (for Jews or Christians at the very least) that cannot escape murder in abortion or euthenasia. Any medical argument for preventing treatment misses the bound of medecine - it is not the right of doctors to decide who qualifies for treatment and who does not. It is not their job to determine which lives re worth living. The job of those in the medical profession is to sustain life! Not redefine its worth!
And any argument that revolves around a woman choosing what she gets to do with her own body misses the mark completely. It is not just her own body. There is a seperate and distinct organism growing inside her that, at best, strikes me as more correctly defined as a symbiotic relationship or even parasitic than equating the fetus, or embryo, or whatever we call it, as being merely part of the mother. Apart from which, insofar as allowing newborns to die, that baby is no longer even attached to the mother in any physical way (and perhaps, for the mother, not even in an appropriately emotional way).
By the way, God does value the unborn. Although I do not think that God is speaking specifically against abortion in these verses, they do remind us that God knows us even before we know ourselves, and counts us among His creation.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." - Psalm 139:13
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." - Jeremiah 1:5
- B. D. Colen
It is bad enough that Cain should murder his brother Abel, but Cain's response to God does not only reveal a lie on his part, it also reveals rather callous indifference towards not only a fellow human being, but his brother. "Am I my brother's keeper?" translates very well into our Americanized attitude of every man for himself and our new lingo of letting people "do their own thing." By refusing to be our brother's keeper, we are refusing to look out for someone who might be doing something harmful to himself (or herself) or to others, and we turn a blind and indifferent eye towards everyone else.
This is the sin of all of us who did, and do, nothing. As someone posted on my little essay concerning Terri Schiavo, there are sins we commit by doing something, but there are also sins we commit by doing nothing. We are the keepers of the widows and orphans. We are the keepers of the unborn. We are the keepers of the infirm, the mentally deficient, anyone and everyone who is trod upon by the world ought to be able to find love and acceptance in Christians because we seek to emulate Christ who was counted among those trodden upon by the world. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich ( 2 Corinthians 8:9)."
Or at least, we are supposed to be the keepers of those who have none to keep and love them. That is why, I am willing to wager, why God holds nations accountable for the actions of individuals. We, as Americans (if not Westerners) look upon such judgements by God as totally unfair. But God intends for us to be actively involved in the lives of others, for their betterment and our own. That is also why it is unfair to blame God for the inquities of the world if we, ourselves, do nothing for the world either.
What makes our brothers (and sisters) so precious? The fact that every human being reflects the glory of God simply by existing and being human. "So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27)." Men and women are both made in the image of God, and are the only members of His creation to bear that image. So when we outright murder, or neglect murder, not only are we ending life but we are essentially destroying the most precious creation of a good and holy God who made everything. Think about that for a second. Out of all that has been created, God holds us (humanity) to be His special, unique creation - now bear that in mind with the depravity of humanity and the holiness of God!
Now some might argue that loving someone might mean that we attempt to end their suffering and pain for their own sake, and thus pull the plug at what seems to be the end of their life, or deny them the chance to feel any to begin with. For great coverage of both such phenomena, follow this link: http://web.syr.edu/~sndrake/hentoff.htm if you are interested at all in either abortion or euthenasia, I strongly encourage you to fopen that link and read the lengthy but powerful article.
But nowhere do I see the Bible advocating for the treatment of people in such a cavalier fashion. As Jesus isntructed his disciples "As you go, preach this message: the kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse thoswho have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:7-8)." Now, contextually speaking, Jesus is saying this to his disciples as they prepare to go to the people of Israel and preach the Kingdom of Heaven. And even though they are ascribed miraculous powers because of Jesus Christ, we all know that not everyone is immediately raised from the dead nor cleansed from sickness, but nowhere do we see Jesus advocating that we abandon such people to the weaknesses of their flesh, environment, or circumstances.
Later on in His ministry, Jesus speaks of when He will come again and how the people will be seperated. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?' When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me (Matthew 25:34-40)."
Why is it that whenever we care for someone, we show that care also for Jesus? Because as is stated in Genesis, people are made in the image of God. Jesus is showing the outworking and the ramifications of when we apply the belief that we are made in the image of God to our daily lives, and the consequences of what will happen. The God in the Old Testament does not love death and bloodshed anymore than Jesus does. Indeed, Jesus preaches more on Hell than anyone in the entire Bible! But more to the point, we see Jesus saying that when he was sick we cared for him, not that we pulled out his plug because it was inconvenient for us to care for him, or because he "would've wanted it that way."
The above mentioned link is a story concerning babies who, after they are born, are deliberately starved to death because of any reason from possibly mild retardation to spinal diffida and truly critical malformations and aberattions in the newborn. Doctors recommend death as the best treatment, denying the possible life any chance of "value." Indeed, Sir Francis Crick, 1962 Nobel Laureate says this "No newborn infant should be declared human until it has has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment and... if it fails these tests, it forfeits the right to live."
But then there is Sondra Diamond, someone who is a self-proclaimed vegetable (she is unable to toilet, wash, or dress herself but has a career as a pshychologist and dictated a powerful letter to Newsweek concerning the fate of "vegetables") who, upon being admitted to a hospital for burnt reatment was almost denied care!
'"Four years later, in 1977, Sondra Diamond wrote an afterword in Human Life Review. She told of being taken to the hospital with third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body when she was in her early twenties. "The doctors felt that there was no point in treating me because I was disabled anyway, and could not lead a normal life," she reported. "They wanted to let me die. My parents, after a great deal of arguing, convinced the doctors that I was a junior in college and had been leading a normal life. However, they had to bring in pictures of me swimming and playing the piano."
The doctors were still reluctant to treat her, but Sondra Diamond's parents insisted. Once she was again living what she considered a normal life, Diamond observed: "To take the time and effort to expend medical expertise on a person who is physically disabled seems futile to many members of the medical profession. Their handiwork will come to naught, they think." Even so, she said, "I would not give up one moment of life in which I could have another cup of coffee, another cigarette, or another interaction with someone I love.'" (Taken from the link above).
"Not all physicians approve of withholding treatment for the parents' and the baby's own good. The New England Journal of Medicine, shortly after the Duff-Campbell report had appeared, published a letter from Dr. Joan L. Venes and Dr. Peter R. Huttenlocher, of the Yale University School of Medicine: As consultants to the newborn special-care unit, we wish to disassociate ourselves from the opinions expressed by [Duff and Campbell]. The "growing tendency to seek early death as a management option" that the authors referred to has been repeatedly called to the attention of those involved and has caused us deep concern. It is troubling to us to hear young pediatric interns ask first, "should we treat?" rather than "how do we treat?"
We are fearful that this feeling of nihilism may not remain restricted to the newborn special-care unit. To suggest that the financial and psychological stresses imposed upon a family with the birth of a handicapped child constitute sufficient justification for such a therapy of nihilism is untenable and allows us to escape what perhaps after all are the real issues--i.e., the obligation of an affluent society to provide financial support and the opportunity for a gainful life to its less fortunate citizens." (Also taken from the aforementioned link). This is the outworking of nihilistic philosophy! As someone once quipped (I believe it was Bonhoffer but I may be wrong) "The death camps and Auschwitz... were not made in some General's mind or war room, but rather in the classrooms and lecture halls of nihilistic doctors and philosophers." Ideas do have consequences - sometimes dangerous ones.
There is no conceivable religious, secular or medical argument that can be given to deny people medical treatment that avoids the simple fact that abortion and euthenasia are murder. As Judge Ralph Winter once said concerning allowing newborns to die because of medical ailments or retardation, it is not a bone fide argument to prevent someone medical treatment for being black, nor for being newborn.
There is no argument to be made from scripture (for Jews or Christians at the very least) that cannot escape murder in abortion or euthenasia. Any medical argument for preventing treatment misses the bound of medecine - it is not the right of doctors to decide who qualifies for treatment and who does not. It is not their job to determine which lives re worth living. The job of those in the medical profession is to sustain life! Not redefine its worth!
And any argument that revolves around a woman choosing what she gets to do with her own body misses the mark completely. It is not just her own body. There is a seperate and distinct organism growing inside her that, at best, strikes me as more correctly defined as a symbiotic relationship or even parasitic than equating the fetus, or embryo, or whatever we call it, as being merely part of the mother. Apart from which, insofar as allowing newborns to die, that baby is no longer even attached to the mother in any physical way (and perhaps, for the mother, not even in an appropriately emotional way).
By the way, God does value the unborn. Although I do not think that God is speaking specifically against abortion in these verses, they do remind us that God knows us even before we know ourselves, and counts us among His creation.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." - Psalm 139:13
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." - Jeremiah 1:5
posted by Brian at 9:08 AM
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