I have uploaded my essays on abortion in an e-booklet entitled 'Christian Ethics and Abortion: Sources, Contexts, and Arguments'. The e-booklet of 64 pages is available for free in this blog's bookshop. The booklet has several chapters that would be solid resources for a seminary classroom, but it is written for laity and ministers alike. With the citation of primary sources and an engagement with various arguments, I would suggest that it is also sufficiently academic to offer a contribution to scholars.
The reason for offering this resource at this time is in part due to the importance of the question of abortion in the upcoming elections in the USA. Some say that the 2024 presidential election will be determined over voting on the issue of abortion. Those who see abortion as a universal 'woman's right' believe it should not only be protected in national law but also be pressed on all countries throughout the world. For them, it is not an issue of democracy--the people's choice--and certainly not something to be left to the states. By turning the subject into a matter of a 'woman's choice', they have understood the morality of abortion in terms of individual freedom rather than the freedom of a society to determine its values.
Christians have rejected abortion throughout the centuries. They have presented their reasons in Biblical terms, and over time this has become Church tradition. Of course, the declining, Protestant mainline, post-orthodox denominations in Western culture of the past few decades have broken ranks with their history and the Roman Catholic Church to affirm or allow abortion in one way or another. Some persons claiming to be devout Roman Catholics, too, have been public advocates for abortion--obvious hypocrites in their faith (Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, e.g.). As with other issues, such denominations have chosen to follow the culture and reject the authority of Scripture and the relevance of Church tradition.
Yet, with Christians already at the end of the first century AD and following centuries, we need to say that we as Christians are opposed to abortion. Given the opportunity to vote in a democracy, we have no choice as Christians but to vote against candidates who advocate abortion. Any vote for pro-abortion candidates is a contradiction of Christian faith.
Christians may or may not be able to persuade the wider society in one context or another to oppose abortion. We should not, however, not by any means, deny the sanctity of human life in the womb. We should not undermine the importance of this issue by reducing it to a less important matter facing voters than, say, the economy. Not only so, but we as Christians should be known for our efforts to affirm life, not empower people to take life. This calls the Church to more than voting against candidates favouring abortion. Support for mothers and for unwanted children is a role the church can play and has played through the centuries. Indeed, the health of a culture can be determined in large part by how it cares for the least of these, including the most vulnerable in our society--the unborn.
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