Posted on 11/26/2012 1:17:49 PM PST by victim soul
I wasn’t a Christian when I became pro-life. I was kind of anti-Christian. I was converted on the basis of science, reason, ethics, and human rights.
A year later, I was confirmed in the Catholic Church. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. But I also don’t think one has to be a Christian to be pro-life.
I do, however, believe that one has to be pro-life to be a Christian.
Why? Well, because, duh.
I mean, is it really necessary to go into deep biblical study over this issue? Is it necessary to quote Exodus 21:22-23, or Psalm 139:13-15, or Matthew 18:10, or Jeremiah 1:5? Is there even really anything to argue about? I think the big “argument” about whether you can be a Christian and be pro-choice is B.S. I think that deep down, every Christian who knows the truth of abortion knows the answer to this.
Is it possible to have even a rudimentary understanding of Christianity and think abortion is okay? Can any of us really imagine Jesus Christ holding a woman’s hand and encouraging her to have an abortion?
I was astounded when, a few years after becoming pro-life, I discovered that there were denominations of Christianity that were not explicitly pro-life. I was shocked when I learned there were Christian denominations that were explicitly pro-choice.
I did a little research, and of the major branches of Christianity, the only ones I found with a strong pro-life platform were the Catholics, the Southern Baptists, the Eastern Orthodox, and the Evangelicals. There are thousands of Protestant denominations, so I’m sure I missed some, but of the major ones, these are the only ones I have found. Please correct me if there are more
I’d love to hear that there are more. That there are so few Christian denominations who have an official pro-life platform is troublesome. What is even more troublesome is that there are many Christians who, despite having submitted to the authority of a church that tells them abortion is a grave and mortal sin comparable to almost nothing else, believe in abortion “rights” – and vote for them, against clear instruction from their church. Southern Baptists and Evangelicals who are pro-abortion are less common, and, ironically, they do not have the same belief that their church can separate them from full communion with Christ through excommunication, as Catholics do.
According to large denominations of Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Quakers, Church of Christ, and more, abortion is not incompatible with Christianity, which is the same as saying abortion is not incompatible with Christ.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that pro-choice Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, et al. actually believe that?
I don’t. I don’t buy it for a second. I don’t for one second think, if Jesus Christ appeared before a congregation of “pro-choice Christians” and asked them their opinion on abortion, they would look Jesus in the eye and say abortion is okay. I don’t believe for one second that a “pro-choice Christian” would stand in a clinic with Jesus Christ and watch a woman have an abortion.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they have really convinced themselves that abortion is kindness to women, and somehow not cruelty to and the killing of an innocent, dependent human being.
And hey, maybe my understanding of Christianity is completely bass-ackwards. Maybe Christianity is not really about loving and helping those in need, protecting the innocent, telling the truth, and bravely defending justice and righteousness. Maybe Christianity is about intentionally and specifically ending an innocent human life if it is inconvenient or difficult, and encouraging women to “solve” their problems with violence against their children. Maybe “suffer the little children to come unto Me” is just pretty words, or just a poetic way of telling people to make sure the children they allow to live outside the womb go to Sunday school.
Jesus wanted Christians to be kind. No one argues with that. But kind to whom, exactly? And what does “kind” mean? Just going around being “nice” to everyone is lovely if you’re a saffron-robed Tibetan monk, or a spaced-out hippie. But if you’re the slightest bit aware, and if you have any concept of justice, you must admit that, like David Mamet said, “[k]indness to the wicked is cruelty to the righteous.” We have to get over this idea that encouraging terrible behavior is ever kind.
So, if we apply this truth – “Kindness to the wicked is cruelty to the righteous” – to abortion, who is the wicked, the mother or the child? The mother, obviously. We don’t mean that she utterly sinful and repulsive, but it is she who created this situation in almost every case, and it is never the innocent child. Also, if we choose to do “kindness” to her instead of the child, someone will die. If we choose to do kindness to the child, no one will die.
Then there is this: choosing to do “kindness” to the mother by encouraging or allowing her to abort her child is not kindness. It is telling her that doing something despicable and wrong is okay and will help her. That is a lie. Lying is wrong, kids.
It’s fun to pretend Jesus was a misty-eyed hippie. Except he wasn’t. The culture we live in tells us Jesus was okay with, for example, adultery, because he saved a woman from being stoned to death for committing it. They leave out the part where told her to “sin no more,” because nowadays the only sin is believing in sin. Our culture too often confuses mercy with leniency. They are not the same thing.
I have no doubt that Jesus was kind, but I don’t think he was nice – not in the way we mean it today. He told us to love everyone. Loving everyone does not mean smiling and shrugging at everyone’s sin. I don’t expect mine to be smiled and shrugged at. If I wanted that, I would be a Unitarian Universalist. Telling people killing their babies is okay is not loving. It’s not true. It’s not righteous. It’s not Christian.
Saying publicly that abortion is not Christian is judgmental and mean, or so I have been told repeatedly. Well, I’m judgmental and mean, I guess.
Look, I know I am a sinner. I sin all the time. I’m horrible and lowly. I fail constantly. But I am a Christian, and I rely on the mercy of Christ to save me. What I don’t do is pretend my sins are not sins. I have done it before – we all have, probably – and I had to repent. You can’t go around indignantly declaring that grave, life-destroying sins are fine with Jesus because it makes you more modern and hip and “with it,” or because it sounds “nice,” or because hell yeah women’s rights.
Quick answer: Yes.
Perhaps just re-prhase the question to make it clearer.
Can I be a Christian and believe murder is acceptable?
“Look, I know I am a sinner. I sin all the time. I’m horrible and lowly. I fail constantly. But I am a Christian, and I rely on the mercy of Christ to save me. What I don’t do is pretend my sins are not sins.”
Perfect synopsis of the biggest dichotomy in Christian living today (and always): how to be in the world but not of it. Closely related is how to explain that yes, I CAN love the sinner and hate the sin.
Yes, you can be pro-life without being a Christian. Regarding abortion as murder a reasonable position, after all, especially with what we know now about contraception, gestation, etc.
But a Christian cannot be pro-murder so therefore you must be pro-life to be a Christian.
Going further with the question, does someone have to be anti-ObamaCare to be a Christian?
Leading to, does someone have to be Catholic, a large supporter of ObamaCare, to be a Christian?
I wouldn’t want the job of judging the souls of my fellow men even if was offered to me.
There is only one unforgivable sin and that (as I understand it) is to deny that the the Holy Spirit has the power to save anyone he chooses. I’m rooting for everyone.
What do you mean “true Christian”?
When I say Christian I mean born again Christian, now a member of the Body of Christ.
Born again Christians are only Saved they are not perfect, or even close to perfection.
I cannot see how anyone who claims to be born again can be anything but pro-life, however I am sure there are people who are both born again and will accept abortion given the circumstances.
he = He.
I don’t know, but it’s hard to imagine Jesus with a coat hanger or patting a doctor (or the pregnant woman) on the back as scissors are pierced into the base of an unborn baby’s skull and saying, “That’s all right. You go right ahead. You’ve got parties to go to. You’ve got promotions at work to claw your way up.”
“Leading to, does someone have to be Catholic, a large supporter of ObamaCare, to be a Christian?”
Can one support the Morning After Pill and still be a Christian?
At the same time unbelievers may attend Catholic services ~ but participation is limited.
So, Protestants, and Catholics go to church and are surrounded by ~ Lo and Behold ~ both those who believe and those who do not yet believe.
When you find yourself in a church where NONE BELIEVE, unless you are some kind of thick skinned missionary who never gives up, there are other options ~
Christ did not set it down as a requirement for salvation. Given that He died for ALL sins of the sinner, it would seem this one would be covered like any other.
Yes.
As Christians we are supposed to turn away from sin. This implies we know right from wrong. Is abortion wrong? If the answer is yes then we should not support it.
The fact that this question needs to be asked answers the question of what a “true Christian” is. Think about it..
then I assume you are also anti-death penalty
This issue was what made my faith real. God said that we
should choose life. Most importantly innocent life. I do
not know how anyone can call themself a christian or vote
for the party that frames the platform around this idea.
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