While I do not chase the headlines, when something captures the attention of our whole nation or world, I try to share at least some biblical insights for thinking Christianly about the matter.
If others want to listen in, that’s fine, but today I’m speaking with you, my favorite people at Second Presbyterian, regarding the future of two landmark decisions legalizing abortion: Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
As your pastor, let me make five suggestions.
- Learn the facts.
“Be honest and speak the truth, so that you bring back truthful reports to those you serve” (Proverbs 22:21).
What is this all about and what will be the impact? Some is old, some is new, and no one knows what the impact will be. While January 23, 2023 will mark 50 years of legalized abortion in America, the current tumultuous debate has been provoked by the leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion on a case before the Supreme Court, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The SCOTUSBlog opines, “It’s impossible to overstate the earthquake this will cause inside the Court, in terms of the destruction of trust among the Justices and staff. This leak is the gravest, most unforgivable sin.” Representing an apparent majority of the Justices, Alito strongly condemns Roe and Casey as bad law, and asserts both should be overturned because the Constitution does not mention abortion as a right. He adds:
Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives...
We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to today’s decision overruling Roe and Casey. And even if we could foresee what will happen, we would have no authority to let that knowledge influence our decision. We can only do our job, which is to interpret the law, apply longstanding principles of stare decisis, and decide this case accordingly. We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.
There is a lot not known. We don’t know yet who leaked the brief or whether the guilty party was a conservative or liberal on the matter of abortion. Neither do we know what the High Court’s final decision will be until it is released publicly sometime in June. And even if SCOTUS decides to overturn Roe and Casey, that would only return the matter to each state to decide the legality of abortion; it would not prohibit abortion nationally. So pursue the way of wisdom and learn the facts rather than allow pundits to create an alternate reality for you.
- Commit to the biblical idea of personhood.
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
The Bible is clear not only that life begins at conception, but also that every human being has inherent dignity as one who bears the image of God. That conviction is reinforced by the prescription of capital punishment for anyone who takes the life of an unborn child (Exodus 21:23-25) and the threat of God’s fiercest judgment on those who harm children (Leviticus 18:21; 20:1-5; Deuteronomy 12:31; Jeremiah 7:30-34; Ezekiel 16:20, 21, 36-38; 20:31; 2 Kings 21:2-6; Jeremiah 15:3, 4).
Over the last 50 years, the justification for abortion has become more hostile toward the personhood of an unborn baby. Non-therapeutic abortion was originally introduced through the Supreme Court because it was thought impossible to determine beyond a reasonable doubt the unborn was a person. Even Justice Harry Blackmun who wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade said, "If the suggestion of personhood [of the unborn] is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [Fourteenth Amendment]."
As a result, those defending life labored to prove the personhood of a fetus. However, as the culture’s definition of personhood continued to devolve (a slide that began dramatically with the Romantics), proponents of abortion became more brazened in their conviction that one person has a right to stop another from living. As early as 1971, MIT philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson argued it doesn't matter if the fetus is a human person or not. The mother is no more obligated to sustain its life with her organs than she is to donate her kidney to a next-door neighbor who will die without it. By 1986 her article had become the most widely reprinted essay in contemporary philosophy. By 1992, that rationale took hold in the Supreme Court as reflected in its Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision. The majority argued a woman’s right to choose to abort her child is necessary in order "to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."
Since then, several law professors have continued to appeal to Ms. Thomson's argument before the Court. For instance, in 1993, Stephen Carter, of Yale Law School, said:
As many theorists have recognized, the right to choose abortion, if indeed it survives, must be based on an approach that allows abortion even if the fetus is human (emphasis in original).
Even if one rejects the Bible’s definition of personhood, the idea that anyone in pursuit of their own meaning has a right to kill another should be frightening. It became so for one of the most influential champions of abortion rights, Elizabeth Foxe-Genovese. The legendary founder of the first graduate school of women studies at Emory was for most of her career a Marxist feminist. However, as she was researching and writing in defense of abortion because it freed women to pursue their studies and careers uninterrupted by pregnancy, she realized she was heading down a dangerous road. She realized that one person’s moral relativism allowing her to determine her child had no right to live would inevitably clash with another’s who felt weak life should be protected. To her horror she concluded she was promoting a morality without just protections for the most vulnerable which would lead to a society of violence. It could even lead to a “morality” in which one person could determine she should not live! The conclusion drove her in desperation to convert to Christianity with its concept of a transcendent morality grounded in the justice and mercy of God.
- Pursue flourishing for all life.
“Whoever spoke well of me, and those who saw me, commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them, the one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing ... I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth” (Job 29:11-17).
Several years ago, when I pastored in another place, I was invited by a medical school to represent the pro-life position on a panel of ministers who mostly advocated for abortion. This is an excerpt of how I explained the gospel’s call to be pro-life for all of life:
Let me briefly outline a few ways a church may attempt to advocate for all of life. We are far from perfect so our efforts are flawed with many inadequacies but we are trying at least to do something. To start, we have structured ourselves to provide intensely personal life-on-life help to the smallest, weakest, and most forgotten of our community. Here are a few examples of what an expression of a faith-commitment to be pro-life for all of life may look like:
- Care for children: The structure and programming of our church is prejudicially bent toward extending holistic and community-wide nurture to the children of our church. But we also feel a burden for children outside of our church who are in need of this same culture of grace. Our people have adopted minority children, special needs children, international children, and international children with special needs. We provide support for families of children with special needs. In one instance, our families helped dignify a child with a severe chromosomal defect by praying for him by name, celebrating his life in the womb through worship, and providing a memorial service for him upon his death.
- Care for women: Like Jesus, we desire to be committed to women especially in need. In cases where women’s lives have been compromised by an unwed pregnancy, or rape, or poverty, our people have mobilized with networks of men, women, healthcare professionals, jobs, support for job training, legal advocacy, and showers for supplies. Some of our physicians offer healthcare to prostitutes and dancers and coordinate to provide a way out of those degrading lifestyles. Teen mothers have been taken into our homes, provided with transportation, and assisted with GEDs. And given that poor education is often named as a factor for unwed pregnancies, our people have led the way with establishing excellent educational and tutoring ministries.
- Dignity accorded to women: Contrary to accusations, we believe the women of our congregation must be honored in the name of Christ and as ones specially crafted by God in the beginning. We have staff dedicated to the development of support networks for women in all stages of life: single, married, motherhood and widowed. Our women are some of the most influential leaders and many key leadership roles in our church are occupied by women.
- Care for the elderly and infirm: We give prominence and honor to our elderly and provide social networking ministries that encourage them to stay active and keep using their gifts. A number of our healthcare professionals act as de-facto “parish health providers” by caring for minor needs in the homes of the elderly. And household or financial needs are addressed by teams within our parishes.
- Care for mentally ill or indigent: Our people have organized themselves into armies of dozens at times to care for one bi-polar person. We support ministries who serve thousands of uninsured patients every year with expert compassionate care for body and soul. We have mainstreamed special needs children in our educational ministries.
This is not to mention the numerous counseling sessions we conduct with the sexually and physically abused, women who have had abortions, and those with chemical, sexual, or homosexual addictions.
Everything we do is to declare that the gospel is good news for everyone and every category of persons, especially the “least” of these, “Christ’s brethren.” To specifically address the focus of this forum today, we oppose abortion because it is bad news for people made in the image of God. The gospel is good news for any child because it tells her that she is inherently dignified by God and loved by Jesus. Abortion is bad news because it says the child is a nuisance or not worth living because of her limitations. To justify a mother’s right to choose the death of her child based on her whims is to provide a relativity to all of life that leaves all those not able to defend themselves in jeopardy.
And abortion is bad news for women because abortion is harmful to their physical and emotional health. Until recently, about a dozen deaths per year were attributed by the CDC to complications from legal abortions. The latest statistics for American women having abortions show that there is a 154 percent higher risk of suicide and an 82 percent higher risk of death from accidental injuries.
As a pastor, I can tell you that abortion is bad news for fathers, too. Unless he has developed a seared conscience, abortion has never “solved the problem” for a father. It will haunt his conscience for the rest of his life.
At the last day Jesus will ask what we did for the “least of these.” Some will claim to have done miracles in his name but Jesus will deny knowing them because his sheep are those who, out of love for him and his redemptive work, pursue and care for the most wounded of sheep. Jesus said he came to bring abundant life to the world. That is why we are pro-life.
At the conclusion of the event, the moderator, a self-proclaimed atheistic Jew, had this to say: “Your church seems to be the only one offering resources for women in desperate situations. Since we have no such services to offer at the Medical School, may I refer my patients to your church when they are in need?”
- Speak the gospel of grace to those victimized by abortion in any way.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him (Psalm 103:8-13).
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgressions of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:18-19).
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
- Speak with grace to persuade, not merely to win an argument.
(Colossians 4:6; James 5:20)
Engaging in harsh, sarcastic, and cynical speech only confirms the caricature of hateful and false representatives of biblical truth. When people refer to the local abortion clinic as "Reproductive Death Services" and print "Wanted" posters for abortion doctors, they only confirm the impression one major newspaper had of us pro-life advocates: "poor, uneducated, and easily manipulated."
Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, who revoked his previously acerbic pursuit of a political solution to America’s moral problems, once challenged Christians this way:
For too long, traditional Christians have been comfortable in their own cultural catacombs. They have their own radio and television stations, their own publishing companies, their own magazines and bookstores, their own jargon. They need to come back into the mainstream and win back the culture and the nation by the superior power of their ideas. They should be demonstrating with their lives, as well as their voices, why their ideas are better than those now holding sway.
If Christians will begin living what they claim to believe—loving their enemies, praying for those who persecute them, becoming a friend to "sinners" (even pro-choicers and hated liberals)—a new kind of power would be unleashed on the land. It would be a power that no one could stop.
Regardless of what happens legislatively or politically let us woo those in a culture of death to a kingdom of love, joy, and peace, not with words only but with deeds and truth (1 John 3:18).