Politics: Abortion and the Bible
Kevin Drum has a great post on the textual basis of evangelical opposition to abortion. His argument is, which I'm very inclined to agree with, there isn't any.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
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4 comments:
i haven't heard anyone mention specific bible verses on "abortion" per se. they all do however seem to think that a fetus is a human life, which to me seems relatively uncontroversial save for political reasons. (personhood i think is also derived from political reasons but actually think it's a useful way of thinking of things) i guess one can criticize literal biblical interterpreters for their view that a fetus is a human life, but the stuff about bible verses not saying anything about abortion seems to me to be a case of attacking a strawman.
mikey
Not hardly. Evangelicals (well, I'll speak for the Southern Baptists) play by the book. If it's not in the book, it's not fair game. If it's not in the Bible, it's not absolute, and most of the SBC'ers I knew felt the Bible most certainly demonstrated that the spirit enters the body at conception. This is their stated rule, mind you. They don't particularly play by it. But they believe they do. I know. I was one.
Of course, people can intelligently hold the position that life begins at birth independent of religion. But using your religion to justify your opinion, rather than some sort of reason? Well, that's a problem if what you say is the absolute basis of your religion doesn't particularly advocated (or de-advocate) your chosen world view.
And I think it's fair to say this would apply mostly to the lower SES protestant denominations. Catholics, for example, recognize church history and papal doctrine as a continuation of biblical doctrine. But the Southern Baptist Church absolutely does not. I think the Methodists, Pentecostals, etc would fall into this category as well.
Just the SBC alone makes up a huge chunk of the evangelical crowd, so I believe its perfectly relevant to talk about the SBC as prototypical evangelicals, if only for their critical mass.
oh ok, i didn't know that's how things worked with the baptists. i was presbyterian/reformed and stuck to literal interpretation but i never heard the pro-life view defended with specific bible verses. this is the first time i've ever seen it happen (or rather seen it even referenced).
if you will allow me to pontificate, i personally think life happens at conception, but i also think that life in itself is not valuable. i see life as having instrumental but not intrinsic value, thus i believe that active euthanasia can be morally good. i also think abortion can be good so long as the justification is along the lines of euthanasia, i.e. done on behalf of the embryo/fetus, or when the mother's own health is in jeopardy. i find it distasteful that abortion can be used for other purposes, though i understand the paranoid fear of the slippery slope among the pro-choice crowd.
mikey
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