There’s Nothing About Abortion in the Bible — So How Do Right-Wing Christians Justify Their Crusade Against Women?

http://www.alternet.org/print/belief/theres-nothing-about-abortion-bible-so-how-do-right-wing-christians-justify-their-crusade

 

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 21st, 2013 at 9:21 AM and filed under Civil Rights, Extremism, Health, Human Interest, Politics, Religion, Women's Issues. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.

One Response to “There’s Nothing About Abortion in the Bible — So How Do Right-Wing Christians Justify Their Crusade Against Women?”

  1. Ian Alterman said:

    As a center-left evangelical minister, I have always found the abortion debate fascinating – and a bit sad. This is because the debate is largely (though perhaps not solely) engaged in from the “extremes”: the so-called Religious Right argues from the “abortion is murder” position, and gives no ground; the pro-choice advocates argue from from the “don’t force your morality on others – it is and should be entirely a woman’s choice whether to have an abortion.” (Of course, this often eliminates men from the equation, which is another topic entirely.)

    What is missing is an important fact, and an equally important error on the part of the pro-life advocates.

    The fact is that for well over 20 years, polls have shown two seemingly contradictory facts about abortion. First, a small majority of Americans remains pro-choice. Second, almost three-quarters of Americans consider abortion “wrong.” How can this be?

    Simple. A person can consider abortion wrong (as I do), yet believe that it should be a woman’s (and, hopefully, where appropriate, an involved man’s) choice whether to abort a pregnancy.

    The mistake the Religious Right makes is, as many state, trying to legislate morality. Setting aside that this is rarely if ever a good idea, it is perhaps particularly unnecessary vis-a-vis abortion. This is because, while pro-life advocates (and particularly those who are believers) have every right to protest, lobby, etc. – and may even have a moral obligation to speak up about abortion – they should also be aware that it is ultimately between a woman and the God she believes in (or does not). That is, if the woman is a believer, and there is “punishment” to be meted out for it, that punishment does not, and should not, come from people, but from God. If the woman does not believe, then she will, of course, have no (or at least less) moral problem in ending a pregnancy.

    The Religious Right seems to forget three of the central adages of Christianity: “Judge not, lest ye be judged in equal measure,” “Take the log out of your own eye before you remove the splinter from another’s,” and, of course, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”

    Again, believers have every right to express their views on abortion in the same ways that pro-choice people have: on the “soapbox,” in the media, etc. But attempting to legislate morality is both a violation of the three Scriptural passages above, and an attempt to wrest judgment from God and put it in the hands of people.

    Peace.

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