Christians and Abortion

Abortion. So what’s a fair legal definition of the point at

which life begins? We could apply the same principles we use as a society to
determine where life ends. In the hospitals, we use the standard of cessation
of brain activity. We don’t remove a patient from a respirator until obtaining
“three flat EEGs,” meaning that, even if the heart, kidneys and other systems
are functioning, we don’t deem a person to be “alive,” if there is no
meaningful electrical activity going on in the brain.

If you apply this at life’s beginning, its only fair to say
that, once a fetus has a complete brain and central nervous system, the fetus
is “alive,” and is not merely an extension of the mother. Medically, we know
that these and most other organs are pretty much formed near the end of the
first trimester of pregnancy, meaning just before the third month.

What does this mean practically for a pregnant mom-to-be? It
means you skip one period, and that’s maybe a false alarm. You skip a second
period, and you have a few days to do some real soul-searching, and whatever
you are going to do, then do it right away. But, by this reasoning, by the end
of the first trimester, you are legally carrying a life inside you, whether you
like it or not, and you should behave accordingly. By that reasoning, any girl,
be she 8 or 80, should be allowed to abort her fetus up to the beginning of the
third trimester, and after that, not at all.

There. That’s my opinion, something I could perhaps
reasonably expect society to abide by, if I happened to be the big boss of the
world, which I’m not. Oh, and I’ve sure I’ve said enough in there to offend
everybody, pro-lifers, pro-choice people, alike.

Now, my belief as a person who lives by the Bible is quite
different: Life begins at conception. Of course, we live in a nation of three
hundred million people, not all of whom live by the Bible, so I’d not expect
everyone to accept a Biblical point of reference. The notion that life begins
at conception is religious, not legal. In a free society, people are free to
believe that a fertilized egg is not necessarily a living thing. No matter how
deeply I believe in life-at-conception, there is no legal theory that allows me
to impose that on everyone else. If I
were to do so, I might as well advocate a law that all Americans must believe
that Jesus died for our sins. We have all kinds of people in this country, and every last
one of them has the same rights to make their judgments based on the principles
they hold. If I don’t like the opinions that they live by, then I can
go bang my head against the wall.

Whether I like it or not, abortion is for each woman to
decide. A woman can act accordingly regardless of the opinions of the men
around her. If it were to come down to
it, just like in the bad old days, a woman can get an abortion without anyone
knowing. If my faith teaches me that abortion is murder, there’s lots I can do
about that. I can work with women who are considering abortion and encourage
other choices. I can work to promote healthy relationships that don’t result in
disposable fetuses. Can I “stop” someone from getting an abortion by
encouraging a law that makes it illegal? No. Trying to do so might make me feel
like a very righteous person, but it won’t end abortion. If abortion is made
illegal, each woman would still
be the one deciding. It would then become a much more dangerous choice, but her
choice, nonetheless. No pastor or court justice is going to be in her bedroom
with her, voicing threats of incarceration or disapproval. If she decides to go
to an illegal clinic, skirt both law, personal morals and safety, it will be
her that will making that decision. Short of locking up all women of
child-bearing age, each individual female will make the choice to carry their
baby to term or not. By making abortions illegal, I’ve only raised the stakes
for women who seek them. I’m saying, “I’m so mad at you for not sharing my
belief in the Bible that I would rather you risk death than do this act that I
disapprove of.” Making abortion illegal
amounts to a temper tantrum. If a person really cares about the lives involved,
you wouldn’t finger-point, use words like “murderer,” throw a big hissy-fit and
pass some law that no one would obey anyway. Such a person is not motivated by
Christ’s love, only by anger at the fact they live in a society where people
are allowed to do things they disapprove of.

So, as a citizen of America, I’ve a societal obligation
to advocate laws that are fair and evenhanded with regard to all faiths,
understanding that not everyone will believe, as I do, that life begins at
conception. As a society, we make laws based on commonly applied principles
that work for everyone, no matter what a person’s religion is. I should use my
Christian influence to make those laws enlightened and fair, applying the best
of both compassion and justice, as we are taught. But, it is not Christian to
advocate laws that make everybody act like Christians. That’s what personal
conversion to Christ is for. Laws that force outward emulation of Christian morals only
serve to make Christians feel comfortable with their surroundings. Last time I
checked, the Bible said very clearly that Christians will not be comfortable
with their surroundings. We’ll be sheep among wolves, and so forth. We can make
believe that if we condemn society’s tolerance of bad acts, then the bad acts
will go away. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Personal conversion to Christ makes bad acts
go away, and nothing else.

Same thing with the gay lifestyle. We can raise or lower the
stakes, strong-arm our society into condemning such behavior on any level, then
go home to our churches and make-believe we’ve really won one for Christ. But
we’ve done nothing except exercise political strength at someone else’s
expense. Because ultimately, each person will express, on their own, of their
own choice, what their sexual orientation is. It’s not the job of society as a whole to express some sort of
collective displeasure with the choices that those individuals make. As
individuals, we can fold our arms and pout and say, "This is a Christian
nation. You're not allowed to be gay." But those individuals will
still be gay.

But not all political choice is about individuals, and this
is where Christians can have more impact: You see, an individual cannot decide
to go to war. Nations go to war. . . all of us weigh in on that decision. America, as a collective group,
lends is voice, money, gives its young men and woman, and provides support for
a war. We are not just lending our opinion. Our collective support is essential
to the war itself.

Our use of language fools us on this point, because our
president does not go to war. Last time I checked, Mr. Bush was not out in the
streets of Baghdad,
fighting and dying. Rather, America
as a group has empowered and trusted this man to harness our collective
resources, and determine, with our consent, when war is necessary. Thus, while
we cannot make a girl not get an abortion, we can force a nation not to go to
war. The difference is this: If we, as a nation, do not lend our support and
complicity, a woman can still get an abortion, regardless of anything we do.
But if we withdraw our support and complicity, Bush Jr. cannot go to war,
unless he puts on his flight jacket, gets in a plane and starts doing the
bombing himself. I find that unlikely.

Same thing with other ways we spend our public dollar. We
all decide how the nation treats homeless people. We all decide how we, as a
people, respond when poor people get sick. Do we put our heads in the sand and
pretend that diseases will stay on the poor side of town, or do we provide
health care for all? Those are national choices.

So. . . you don’t like abortion? Don’t approve of the gay
lifestyle? Fine. Sit down with people within your individual sphere of influence
and help them make good choices. But a person is not winning anyone to Christ
by legislating their spiritual preferences. No one facing an abortion or a
choice of “coming out” is going to be saying, “Look at all these people passing
laws against me. Gee, I sure want to join that church.” There’s nothing of the
love of Christ in actions like that. Voting according to those impulses only
makes Christians feel more politically powerful and comfy-cozy in the world.
Last time I read John 15-17, Jesus made it very clear not to expect that.

Abortion. So what’s a fair legal definition of the point at
which life begins? We may apply the same principles we use as a society to
determine where life ends. In the hospitals, we use the standard of cessation
of brain activity. We don’t remove a patient from a respirator until obtaining
“three flat EEGs,” meaning that, even if the heart, kidneys and other systems
are functioning, we don’t deem a person to be “alive,” if there is no
meaningful electrical activity going on in the brain.

If you apply this at life’s beginning, its only fair to say
that, once a fetus has a complete brain and central nervous system, the fetus
is “alive,” and is not merely an extension of the mother. Medically, we know
that these and most other organs are pretty much formed near the end of the
first trimester of pregnancy, meaning just before the third month. 

What does this mean practically for a pregnant mom-to-be? It
means you skip one period, and that’s maybe a false alarm. You skip a second
period, and you have a few days to do some real soul-searching, and whatever
you are going to do, then do it right away. But, by this reasoning, by the end
of the first trimester, you are legally carrying a life inside you, whether you
like it or not, and you should behave accordingly. By that reasoning, any girl,
be she 8 or 80, should be allowed to abort her fetus up to the beginning of the
third trimester, and after that, not at all.

There. That’s my opinion, something I could perhaps
reasonably expect society to abide by, if I happened to be the big boss of the
world, which I’m not. Oh, and I’ve sure I’ve said enough in there to offend
everybody, pro-lifers, pro-choice people, alike.

Now, my belief as a person who lives by the Bible is quite
different: Life begins at conception. Of course, we live in a nation of three
hundred million people, not all of whom live by the Bible, so I’d not expect
everyone to accept a Biblical point of reference. The notion that life begins
at conception is religious, not legal. In a free society, people are free to
believe that a fertilized egg is not necessarily a living thing. No matter how
deeply I believe in life-at-conception, there is no legal theory that allows me
to impose that on everyone else.  If I
were to do so, I might as well advocate a law that all Americans must believe
that Jesus died for our sins.

We have all kinds of people in this country, and every last
one of them has the same rights to make their judgments based on the principles
they hold. If I don’t like the opinions that they live and act by, then I can
go bang my head against the wall.

Whether I like it or not, abortion is for each woman to
decide. A woman can act accordingly regardless of the opinions of the men
around her.  If it were to come down to
it, just like in the bad old days, a woman can get an abortion without anyone
knowing. If my faith teaches me that abortion is murder, there’s lots I can do
about that. I can work with women who are considering abortion and encourage
other choices. I can work to promote healthy relationships that don’t result in
disposable fetuses. Can I “stop” someone from getting an abortion by
encouraging a law that makes it illegal? No. Trying to do so might make me feel
like a very righteous person, but it won’t end abortion. If abortion is made
illegal, each woman would still
be the one deciding. It would then become a much more dangerous choice, but her
choice, nonetheless. No pastor or court justice is going to be in her bedroom
with her, voicing threats of incarceration or disapproval. If she decides to go
to an illegal clinic, skirt both law, personal morals and safety, it will be
her that will making that decision. Short of locking up all women of
child-bearing age each individual female will make the choice to carry their
baby to term or not. By making abortions illegal, I’ve only raised the stakes
for women who seek them. I’m saying, “I’m so mad at you for not sharing my
belief in the Bible that I would rather you risk death than do this act that I
disapprove of.”  Making abortion illegal
amounts to a temper tantrum. If a person really cares about the lives involved,
you wouldn’t finger-point, use words like “murderer,” throw a big hissy-fit and
pass some law that no one would obey anyway. Such a person is not motivated by
Christ’s love, only by anger at the fact they live in a society where people
are allowed to do things they disapprove of.

So, as a citizen of America, I’ve a societal obligation
to advocate laws that are fair and evenhanded with regard to all faiths,
understanding that not everyone will believe, as I do, that life begins at
conception. As a society, we make laws based on commonly applied principles
that work for everyone, no matter what a person’s religion is. I should use my
Christian influence to make those laws enlightened and fair, applying the best
of both compassion and justice, as we are taught. But, it is not Christian to
advocate laws that make everybody act like Christians. That’s what personal
conversion to Christ is for.

Laws that force outward emulation of Christian morals only
serve to make Christians feel comfortable with their surroundings. Last time I
checked, the Bible said very clearly that Christians will not be comfortable
with their surroundings. We’ll be sheep among wolves, and so forth. We can make
believe that if we condemn society’s tolerance of bad acts, then the bad acts
will go away. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Personal conversion to Christ makes bad acts
go away, and nothing else.

Same thing with the gay lifestyle. We can raise or lower the
stakes, strong-arm our society into condemning such behavior on any level, then
go home to our churches and make-believe we’ve really won one for Christ. But
we’ve done nothing except exercise political strength at someone else’s
expense. Because ultimately, each person will express, on their own, of their
own choice, what their sexual orientation is.  It’s not the job of  society as a whole to express some sort of
collective displeasure with the choices that those individuals make. As
individuals, we can fold our arms and pout and say, "This is a Christian
nation. You're not allowed to be gay."  But those individuals will
still be gay.

But not all political choice is about individuals, and this
is where Christians can have more impact: You see, an individual cannot decide
to go to war. Nations go to war. . . all of us weigh in on that decision.  America, as a collective group,
lends is voice, money, gives its young men and woman, and provides support for
a war. We are not just lending our opinion. Our collective support is essential
to the war itself.

Our use of language fools us on this point, because our
president does not go to war. Last time I checked, Mr. Bush was not out in the
streets of Baghdad,
fighting and dying. Rather, America
as a group has empowered and trusted this man to harness our collective
resources, and determine, with our consent, when war is necessary. Thus, while
we cannot make a girl not get an abortion, we can force a nation not to go to
war. The difference is this: If we, as a nation, do not lend our support and
complicity, a woman can still get an abortion, regardless of anything we do.
But if we withdraw our support and complicity, Bush Jr. cannot go to war,
unless he puts on his flight jacket, gets in a plane and starts doing the
bombing himself. I find that unlikely.

Same thing with other ways we spend our public dollar. We
all decide how the nation treats homeless people. We all decide how we, as a
people, respond when poor people get sick. Do we put our heads in the sand and
pretend that diseases will stay on the poor side of town, or do we provide
health care for all? Those are national choices.

So. . . you don’t like abortion? Don’t approve of the gay
lifestyle? Fine. Sit down with people within your individual sphere of influence
and help them make good choices. But a person is not winning anyone to Christ
by legislating their spiritual preferences. No one facing an abortion or a
choice of “coming out” is going to be saying, “Look at all these people passing
laws against me. Gee, I sure want to join that church.” There’s nothing of the
love of Christ in actions like that. Voting according to those impulses only
makes Christians feel more politically powerful and comfy-cozy in the world.
Last time I read John 15-17, Jesus made it very clear not to except that.