{"id":56668,"date":"2014-12-08T11:56:41","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T16:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=56668"},"modified":"2014-12-07T19:21:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T00:21:28","slug":"professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

I’ve heard a lot of pro-abortion\u00a0arguments in my day, but every now and then I run across one that just seems so completely nonsensical, it takes me aback. One such convoluted argument comes from Beverly Wildung Harrison, formerly a professor of Christian ethics at the Union Theological Seminary.\u00a0 Harrison, who died a few years ago,<\/a> \u00a0wrote the book Our Right to Choose<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in which she used Christian theology to justify abortion.<\/p>\n

The book Abortion: My Choice, God\u2019s Grace<\/em><\/a> by another pro-choice Christian, Anne Eggebroten, puts forth the following quote by Harrison:\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Presidents, members of Congress, and other leaders have made life or death decisions that resulted in thousands of deaths. Some of these decisions \u2013 such as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki \u2013 are justified by many Americans, even if many deaths occurred. Other decisions were clearly mistakes. In 1988 a U.S. Navy officer in the Persian Gulf fired a missile into civilian airliner, killing 290 people, including 66 children. Somehow we can tolerate our leaders making life or death decisions affecting many lives when they are faced with difficult situations such as international aggression. We find understanding and empathy for them if they make a mistake \u2013 even if their decision brings death to other human beings, yet we don\u2019t want to let a woman make a decision affecting only her own life and the life within her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, this is what passes for theological scholarship in some institutions.<\/p>\n

This argument is so convoluted and illogical it is hard to know where to begin. On the face of it, Harrison is claiming that because world leaders have made decisions during war that killed civilians, it is alright for a woman to kill her child. Interestingly enough, she freely recognizes that the baby is a \u201clife\u201d within the mother. Apparently, because we give world leaders the right to kill the innocent, women should be allowed to as well.<\/p>\n

This overlooks the fact that, generally speaking, we do not give leaders the right to kill the innocent, at least not in the US. If president Obama walked into a shopping mall\u00a0and started shooting people, he would be arrested just like anyone else. In a wartime situation, it\u2019s true that civilians sometimes do get killed, and this is one reason why many pro-lifers are pacifists. However, even for pro-lifers who are\u00a0not strictly pacifists, not to mention most of the general public, the killing of civilians in war today\u00a0is not looked upon as the “right” of the president, but rather as a tragic, unintended consequence\u00a0of war.<\/p>\n

Accidentally shooting a missile into civilian plane is a mistake, not a freely chosen act. \u00a0If a modern president\u00a0\u00a0woke up one day and decided to drop a bomb on, say, Paris, with the intention of killing civilians, there would be international outrage and calls for justice. Comparing accidental civilian deaths during war with the deliberate killing of babies in abortion is comparing apples to oranges.<\/p>\n

And even if we do concede that civilians were killed deliberately 70 years ago in Hiroshima, it does not follow that a woman should be allowed to kill her baby today. \u00a0Violence does not justify violence. Violence is wrong, regardless. Justifying one act of violence with another is not a valid argument.<\/p>\n

An analogy would be if someone argued, for example, “my brother ran over a dog six months ago, so I\u2019m going to drown these kittens.” It simply doesn\u2019t work on any kind of a logical level. \u201cSo-and-so did, so I should be able to do it too\u201d is something that little kids often say, which prompts their parents to ask \u201cif so-and-so jumped off a bridge, would you do that as well?\u201d\u00a0 Harrison seems to have missed this childhood lesson.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not trying to take potshots at a woman who\u2019s not around to defend herself. Harrison may well have made other arguments that were compelling.\u00a0 I have not read her entire body of work. I\u2019m sure that in many ways she was an intelligent woman; after all, she did rise to the pinnacle of her profession. \u00a0But this particular argument is preposterously bad, and the fact that it was made in the first place and then taken seriously enough to be reprinted in another abortion supporting Christian book years later shows that quite a few people must have thought it was a good argument. \u00a0This does not say much for pro-abortion scholarship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard a lot of pro-abortion\u00a0arguments in my day, but every now and then I run across one that just seems so completely nonsensical, it takes me aback. One such convoluted argument comes from Beverly Wildung Harrison, formerly a professor of Christian ethics at the Union Theological Seminary.\u00a0 Harrison, who died a few years ago, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nProfessor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve heard a lot of pro-abortion\u00a0arguments in my day, but every now and then I run across one that just seems so completely nonsensical, it takes me aback. One such convoluted argument comes from Beverly Wildung Harrison, formerly a professor of Christian ethics at the Union Theological Seminary.\u00a0 Harrison, who died a few years ago, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-08T16:56:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-08T00:21:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/march_group_photo_og-1-700x467.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"467\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Terzo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Terzo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah Terzo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f32fb25f4ca350784baf5509b1b6eb2\"},\"headline\":\"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-08T16:56:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-08T00:21:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/\"},\"wordCount\":751,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/\",\"name\":\"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-08T16:56:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-08T00:21:28+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f32fb25f4ca350784baf5509b1b6eb2\",\"name\":\"Sarah Terzo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2e9491114fa98a73c4031634f89b2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2e9491114fa98a73c4031634f89b2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sarah Terzo\"},\"description\":\"Sarah Terzo is a pro-life author and creator of the clinicquotes.com website . She is a member of Secular Pro-Life, Pro-Life Humanists, and a board member of Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians, and Consistent Life.. You can reach her at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sarahl.terzo. https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLClinicquotes\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/sarah-terzo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression - Live Action News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression - Live Action News","og_description":"I’ve heard a lot of pro-abortion\u00a0arguments in my day, but every now and then I run across one that just seems so completely nonsensical, it takes me aback. One such convoluted argument comes from Beverly Wildung Harrison, formerly a professor of Christian ethics at the Union Theological Seminary.\u00a0 Harrison, who died a few years ago, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2014-12-08T16:56:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-08T00:21:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":467,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/march_group_photo_og-1-700x467.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sarah Terzo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sarah Terzo","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/"},"author":{"name":"Sarah Terzo","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f32fb25f4ca350784baf5509b1b6eb2"},"headline":"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression","datePublished":"2014-12-08T16:56:41+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-08T00:21:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/"},"wordCount":751,"commentCount":13,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Analysis"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/","name":"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression - Live Action News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-08T16:56:41+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-08T00:21:28+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/professor-abortion-is-okay-because-of-hiroshima-and-international-aggression\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Professor: Abortion is okay because of Hiroshima and international aggression"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f32fb25f4ca350784baf5509b1b6eb2","name":"Sarah Terzo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2e9491114fa98a73c4031634f89b2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be2e9491114fa98a73c4031634f89b2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sarah Terzo"},"description":"Sarah Terzo is a pro-life author and creator of the clinicquotes.com website . She is a member of Secular Pro-Life, Pro-Life Humanists, and a board member of Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians, and Consistent Life.. You can reach her at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sarahl.terzo. https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLClinicquotes","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/sarah-terzo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56668"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56754,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56668\/revisions\/56754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}