{"id":304818,"date":"2024-01-08T18:38:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T00:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=304818"},"modified":"2024-01-08T11:38:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T17:38:35","slug":"argue-otherwise-christian-faith-against-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/argue-otherwise-christian-faith-against-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"No matter how they try to argue otherwise, the Christian faith stands firmly against abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(NRL News Today<\/a>) In a sense it only makes sense to our benighted opposition that they would see access to abortion as \u201ca blessing.\u201d The rationales run the gamut from A-Z but the blanket excuse that undergirds this mentality for the person of faith is that why would God give us free will if we can\u2019t exercise it? If in exercising this it happens to snuff out one of His creations, He\u2019s a God of grace, right? Besides it\u2019s a \u201cblessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which takes us to the publication\u00a0The Christian Century<\/a><\/em>. Always ultra-liberal, its modest motto is \u201cThoughtful, Independent, Progressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Annelisa Burns conducted\u00a0an interview with\u00a0Katey Zeh, CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). The RCRC is described as \u201ca multifaith organization that advocates for safe and legal abortion access, provides spiritual companionship through abortions, trains faith leaders and activists, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve written about RCRC, formerly self-designated as the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR), on several occasions. Pastor Paul Stallworth once opined that \u201cRCAR\/RCRC exists, one might say, to provide religious legitimation for abortion on demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how in an interview headlined \u201cSeeing abortion access as a blessing,\u201d does Zeh square the circle? Don\u2019t need to. It\u2019s a given that abortion access is a \u201cblessing\u201d [if] we don\u2019t waste a lot of time asking if God if He has a problem with abortion.<\/p>\n

So\u00a0Burns\u00a0asks what does RCRC do?<\/p>\n

A variety of things. We bless abortion clinics. We work with faith leaders, giving them the language and understanding so they can become advocates in their own communities. We train a new generation of activists and have a whole program for students. We also train people who regularly come in physical contact with people having abortions, like abortion doulas, on how to be there if people have spiritual questions about what\u2019s going on, so they can do that work without going to seminary.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Zeh uses all the buzzwords \u201cIntersectionality\u201d and\u00a0\u00a0\u201creproductive justice\u201d and \u201cliberation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0But for our purposes the conversation picks up when Burns asks, \u201cWhy do you think so many people assume an opposition between Christianity and abortion?\u201d Her answer, infused with politics, tells you much of what we need to know:<\/p>\n

White Christian nationalists deliberately placed abortion at the forefront of the political agenda as a way to bring people together\u2014people who would otherwise not agree\u2014to vote. They\u2019ve put forward a dominant narrative about Christianity and abortion: that they\u2019re antithetical to each other, that to be a true Christian means that you vote a certain way and hold this particular belief. And this has won them many elections. We\u2019re all subject to this narrative\u2014no matter what tradition we come from or what our personal beliefs are\u2014that \u201cChristians are antiabortion.\u201d But we know that statistically it\u2019s not true. The majority of people of faith in the US, including Catholics, identify as pro-choice.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Never mind that the \u201cdominant narrative\u201d has a couple of thousand years under its belt.<\/p>\n

As the pro-life Movement became involved in the fight for life, the stereotype was that it composed largely of Catholics. Over time the Movement became more ecumenical, thanks to people like Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and theologian Francis Schaeffer.<\/p>\n

Prof. Daniel Williams added even more complexity. In his book\u00a0\u00a0Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement before Roe v. Wade<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0in essays, he pointed out\u00a0\u201cThe media portrayed the pro-life movement as a Catholic cause, but by 1972, that stereotype was already outdated\u201d; and (2) by that same point in time \u201cabortion reform\u201d (had) largely ground to a halt. \u201cThe pro-life movement succeeded,\u201d Williams argued,\u00a0because it drew on the \u201clanguage of human rights, civil rights, and the value of human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not a \u201cWhite nationalist\u201d to be seen.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of other \u201ctough\u201d questions\u00a0The Christian Century<\/em>\u00a0asks Zeh but she doesn\u2019t really answer them. To Burns\u2019s inquiry, \u201cIs there a theological argument for being pro-choice?\u201d Zeh responds:<\/p>\n

The mysteries around when life begins and when it ends and what it means are ancient and timeless. These are\u00a0the\u00a0questions about what it means to be human. I think there\u2019s a lot of hubris in being so clear about when life begins or what it means. These are beautiful mysteries that we just honestly don\u2019t have the answers to. In the Christian texts, while people will point to things, in reality there\u2019s nothing specific about abortion or fetal life at all.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n