A random confluence of events and pseudo-events has led me to some interesting questions this week. First,the conversation that has been taking place around the widening view of the pro-life movement in this country as further stirred some great conversations about what it really means to be pro-life. Second, the ridiculousness of millions of people watching and debating the life of one family (Jon and Kate plus 8 ) has brought up an whole other set of issues regarding Christians and the ethics of procreation. Somehow, at least in my mind, these two ideas are really linked.
I don’t think there is much debate that Jesus expected his followers to be pro-life. By this I specifically mean that Jesus, through his own life, his teachings, and his reinforcement of the ethics already present in scripture, consistently emphasized the importance and sacredness of all of humanity. Jesus crossed, social, ethnic, gender, and religious lines to express the value of all who are created in the image of God. Simply saying that we are Christians should suffice in regards to any issue about whether or not we are pro-life. That isn’t actually the case, but it would be nice if we at least understood the ethics of Christ.
As we consider the specific issues regarding the sanctity of life and form an ethic around the creation of life there are direct links between our views on abortion and our views on fertility treatments. This link was forged in my mind reading the excellent article from Christianity Today on the whole Jon and Kate fiasco. In the article the author talks about how quickly evangelicals got excited about Jon and Kate because of their decision not to eliminate any of their sextuplets inutero despite the risks involved, but evangelicals don’t really talk at all about the ethics of why they went through the process in the first place.
This is where I see great links between Jon and Kate and the killing of the abortion doctor. I think that we have a poorly formed ethic regarding the sanctity of life, especially within the pro-life movement. We are against abortion, but we are quite often pro death penalty. That anyone who is against abortion could consider murder of another person justified is ludicrous, especially for those of us who are followers of Christ. But it is also ludicrous that we talk about the sanctity of all life and don’t often reason out the ethics of reproduction.
As Christians are there limits we should recognize in our efforts to bear children? I am very sensitive the issues of infertility. Some of my very best friends struggle with infertility. Some of my relatives struggle with infertility. As a pastor I have ministered to so many couples who struggle with infertility. The pain of not having children is real, powerful, often debilitating, and can deeply shake the faith of Christian couples. It is the main reason I don’t celebrate Mother’s Day in church. I don’t want a service of worship to be another painful reminder for couples who come there for comfort. That being said, I don’t struggle with using medical science to help couples struggling with infertility. There do seem to be limits, however, as to how much far we should go to have children. This is especially true in light of the tens of millions of children around the world who do not have homes.
We want to eliminate abortions but are we prepared to help with the reality of a world with millions of more children that may need homes? We just don’t seem to be aware enough or concerned enough about the millions and millions we already have that desperately need us. We just haven’t spent enough time thinking through all that it means to be Christian in regards to the sanctity of life.
We praise Jon and Kate for their choices to keep their children, but we just as surely need to at least think through their decisions that led to those choices in the first place. We rally to end abortion, but do we have an already in place ethic and practice of caring for orphans and children in poverty that will engage us in truly providing quality of life for the children once they are outside of the womb.
Sometimes it just seems that we are so concerned about children inutero but passively compliant in whatever evils befall children after they are born. If this remains we simply cannot call ourselves Christians or pro-life.
**** Just saw a link on Jesus Creed for a book about Adoption as a Mission in the Church. Here’s the link, looks good ****
June 5, 2009 at 5:13 am
Thank you, Greg. I fully agree with your thoughts. The distinction I hear between being anti-abortion but pro-death penalty is that the baby is “innocent” and the murder is “guilty”. As Christians this is should not be a valid argument with passages in the Bible like Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and falled short of the glory of God” and Romans 6:23 “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We all have sinned and we all are due the same punishment, yet in Christ, we all have the gift of life in God.
Whenever I hear the argument of pro-life vs pro-choice I always try to steer the conversation to adoption and better parental and mentor support for teens who may be tempted to engauge in premarital sex.
I think many of the hot button issues have alternate converations that should be addressed more than the hot button issue. Some examples:
Some say, “Homosexuality is a threat to the sanctity of marriage.” I would much rather spend time and energy on marriage counceling for the 50 plus percent of heterosexual marriages that will end in divorce.
Some want to talk about overpopulation in the world. Instead, could we talk about our own unjust gluttony and excess?
Some want to talk about how Islam is out reproducing Christians. Like your previous post, I’d like to talk about how we can better teach and spiritually form our children within the Christian faith so they will maintain it when they are older and how we can better evangelize.
Are there other areas of conversation and debate where a shift in focus could be more fruitful for us? I’d like to hear others thoughts on that.
June 5, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Shay,
I am with you on the fact that we have too many of the wrong conversations.
The question of homosexuality is really valid, but we are simply failing at marriage, the homosexual part of the equation is pretty minor statistically.
Another issue I would bring up again, (I am pretty sure I have blogged once or twice about it) is the issue of the economy. Right now the recession we are going through should be a moment when the church truly shines. It should be a moment when the church demonstrates a decidedly different attitude of possessions and wealth than the rest of our culture. But that hasn’t been the case nearly enough.
Within the church, the debate over music styles that dominated the last decade was ridiculous. The conversation should have been about our theology of worship that informed our musical choices, not the styles themselves.
June 9, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I used to be in favor of the death penalty. Then I began, a few years ago, to think what it means to be pro-life. If one is to be pro-life for the life of the child, why would not also be pro-life when it comes to the guilty? It seemed to be contradictory to me. One cannot be pro life and then turn a blind eye to capital punishment used to, supporters say, to prevent crime. Last time I checked, crime was still taking place in states with and without the death penalty.
We never think outside of the box when it comes to issues. If we not so much reframe, but perhaps move the debate or discussion to a more logical response it allows for more willingness to influence to take place and it requires people to think about why they believe the way they do.
June 10, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Here’s a good blog about pro-life using the term pro-vita to clarify a stance. http://www.genxrising.com/2007/11/pro-vita-christians.html