Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] May 26, 2019 “Abortion and the Bible” Psalm 139: 1-4, 13,14 – New Revised Standard Version Now O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. 13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. John 10:10 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. Sometimes it’s easy to say, “Thanks be to God!” as a response to, “The Word of the Lord.” For example, in today’s gospel, I desire the abundant life of which Jesus speaks. So, I can easily respond: “Thanks be to God.” And then there are other times. The Bible offers lots of those other times! Listen for the Word of God in the Book of Exodus, chapter 23, verse 5: “When you see a donkey that belongs to someone who hates you and it’s lying down under its load and you are not inclined to help set it free, you must help set it free.”[1] Exodus has a lot of those very specific instructions, some of which we might think of as trivial. “When someone leaves a pit open or digs a pit and doesn’t cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into the pit, the owner of the pit must make good on the loss. He should pay money to the ox’s owner, but he may keep the dead animal.” It’s not trivial to the owner, but to say, “The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God?” But then there are instructions like, “When you buy a male Hebrew slave…” and what follows is a list of do this and don’t do that. And then chapter 21 verse 7 begins very matter-of-factly, “When a man sells his daughter as a slave…” Well, I’d just as soon keep God out of all that. These laws all follow after the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. Among them is “Don’t mistreat or oppress an immigrant, because you were once immigrants in the land of Egypt. Don’t treat any widow or orphan badly. If you do treat them badly and they cry out to me, you can be sure that I’ll hear their cry.” Thanks God! But then it continues, “I’ll hear their cry and be furious, and I’ll kill you with the sword. Then your wives will be widows, and your children will be orphans.”[2] Thanks God? Where am I going? Well, interspersed with all these laws and very specific instructions is this one: “When people who are fighting [happen to] injure a pregnant woman so that she has a miscarriage but no other injury occurs, then the guilty party will be fined what the woman’s husband demands, as negotiated with the judges. If there is further injury, then you will give [what it’s worth]: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, bruise for bruise, wound for wound” etc.[3] If a woman gets injured so as to cause a miscarriage, the penalty is a fine.[4] What’s the point of this obscure text? Placed within a Mosaic legal context, it is one very specific answer to the question – when does life begin? Theologically we could answer the question of when life begins by quoting such passages as Psalm 139. The Psalmist beautifully and poetically proclaims of God, “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” It’s one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Likewise, Jeremiah 1:5 reads “Before I created you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I set you apart.” Theologically, what this is saying is that God knew us before we even existed. God is the Alpha and the Omega. Theologically, God existed before the beginning and will exist after the end. But when does life begin legally, in the time of Moses? The fetus was not considered a “life.” It did not equate to a life in the way that one must pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc. The loss of a fetus resulting from an injury sustained during a fight required the payment of a fine. There is one other bizarre example I want to cite from the Book of Numbers. Bizarre and horrible. If a husband suspects his wife has committed adultery, he can take her to the priests. The priests will then make her drink a potion that, if she is guilty, will cause “her womb to discharge” and her “uterus drop.” If she is not guilty, “then she shall be immune and be able to conceive children.”[5] It’s right up there with burning witches. We’ll know she’s not a witch if she burns to death. The Word of the Lord? No thanks. And yet this bizarre and horrible passage in the Book of Numbers makes the point that the life of the fetus was not to be saved under every circumstance. In this case, the circumstance of adultery – or as I suspect more likely, the result of rape. After all, how much consent could women really have? In fact, that’s an important point in all these cases. These examples fall right in the middle of a bunch of laws about saving oxs and donkeys and the treatment of slaves. All examples involving property. Men did with women’s bodies what men wanted. In the last few weeks states like Alabama have enacted extreme bans against abortion even in cases of rape and incest. I felt it was important to look at this more deeply than all the clever memes on Facebook and chants at rallies. To recognize that even for those of us who are firmly pro-choice or pro-life, we are likely all conflicted to some extent about what is wise, moral, and ethical. I believe it is especially important to be conversant with the biblical and theological considerations so that we can talk with one another, especially those who use the Bible as their reference point. Those who say about abortion, “The Bible clearly says…” It doesn’t. “We do affirm God as the Source of life – our life, all life, life to the fullest.” That’s how the United Church of Christ General Synod began a resolution in 1971.[6] It said, God gave us privileges and responsibilities and freedom, freedom bound to responsibility. And then affirmed the right to legal abortion. Before Roe v. Wade. In 1971 the UCC General Synod called for the repeal of all legal prohibitions of physician-performed abortions, as well as to give protection to physicians who wish to be “conscientious objectors.” Among a long list of things, it called upon pastors, members, and local churches to support and expand programs of sex education in schools and the availability of contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies in order to achieve a “wholesome family life.” And to consider the impact of bans especially on those who are poor. Even the Southern Baptists in 1971 called for a more nuanced view of abortion. The Convention called upon “Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”[7],[8] Why have Christian conservatives since then taken such a hard turn to the right on abortion? It did not primarily arise out of a biblical and theological concern but was a cynical ploy by political operatives in search of a base of power, birthed in opposition to desegregation efforts at Bob Jones University.[9],[10],[11] They took the name “Moral Majority.” It’s a fascinating but too long a story to tell here. However, by the framer’s own admission, hard core opposition to abortion was built directly on the framework of white supremacy and Jim Crow laws, and as a result, kept women subject to the same kinds of property laws as slaves and donkeys. Although, slaves in the Bible had many more rights and protections than they did in the American South. But like so much in our country that divides us, opposition to abortion has its roots in racism. Support for legal access to abortion by the United Church of Christ is part of a larger framework of reproductive justice. The concept of reproductive justice was formed by a group of black women in Chicago in 1994.[12] It asks such questions as What are the racial, economic, cultural, and structural constraints on women’s power? The right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments. Reproductive Justice includes the question: What happens to a child once it’s born? Not just when does life begin but how can one continue to live? Not to just barely survive but to thrive, like the Gospel reading. Jesus offers another decision-making framework when he said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” When we ask, when does life begin? At least one answer is: When we have it abundantly. And take a moment to notice, Jesus is talking about life here and now; not something that comes as a reward in heaven. What makes a life abundant here and now? At its most basic, life requires food to eat, clean water to drink, shelter, and access to health care. Seriously, what good is a heartbeat in the womb when later it can’t afford to go to the hospital so that heartbeat can stay alive? I don’t want to make light of such a serious situation, but migrant children have heartbeats too. Children shot while they are in school had heartbeats. Prisoners on death row have heartbeats. Catholic Sister Joan Chittister says so clearly, “I think in many cases, morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. That’s not pro-life. That’s [just] pro-birth.”[13] As the UCC said in 1971, if we want to reduce unintended pregnancies, studies prove that comprehensive sexuality education and an abundance of options for contraception will do exactly that.[14] Abstinence-only curriculums result in more abortions, not fewer. To deny those things is just evidence that this is the enforcement of women as property more than any concern for the unborn. But what comes next? Abundance includes support for that life including such things as parental leave, child care options, quality education, and the list continues. Clean air to breathe… An inhabitable planet. So, when does life begin? Some say conception. If you use Jeremiah to answer the question, it would appear that life begins before conception! Another answer is that life begins upon our first breath. The life of the first human began when God breathed life into him. In Ezekiel, dry bones came to life when God breathed the Spirit into them. Theologically, that is a lovely sentiment, but it doesn’t exactly help determine when life begins since there is clearly life in the womb at some point before the first breath. Life that does in fact deserve protection. So where do we find common ground? For one thing, doing everything we can to reduce the need for abortion, though it must remain legal. And then, support for whatever life is born for as long as that human is alive. But fundamentally, it still comes down to whether we trust women to make that decision. And if not, why not? Rebecca Todd Peters believes it’s because people think womanhood is motherhood and “motherhood is a moral end that supersedes all others.” She also believes progressive Christians need to move from a conversation that tries to justify abortion, a place of weakness or defensiveness, to one of strength in which we are the advocates for reproductive justice. SisterSong, the framers of reproductive justice, focus more on the question not of choice but of access. Do women have access? Abortion, after all, exists within a context; it’s not an isolated event. It is a legal issue. For people of faith, it is a theological issue. And for everyone, abortion is a moral issue within the context of other moral issues like quality of life and the agency of women to make decisions. Who gets to decide?[15] If, theologically, we believe God created us with free will, then we must be free to practice our free will – women and men equally. And if we believe in grace, then we must live with an attitude of grace for one another on opposite sides of this and every other issue that divides us. And forgive each other when we are wrong. But most of all, have respect for life. “Not just life for the sake of survival, but rather for flourishing. Not just that we get by, but so that we all thrive. Not just that we have existence, but that we have joy. Not just life, but life in abundance.”[16] I’m pro-that life. Thanks be to God. For more resources, see http://religiousinstitute.org/issue/reproductive-justice/ [1] All citations are from the Common English Bible [2] Exodus 22: 21-24 [3] Exodus 21: 22-25 [4] Thanks to several authors for directing me to these verses, including Cheryl B. Anderson http://www.ecclesio.com/2012/09/christians-and-reproductive-justice-hearing-new-voices-by-cheryl-anderson/ [5] Numbers 5: 11-31 [6] http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/unitedchurchofchrist/legacy_url/2038/GS-Resolutions-Freedon-of-Choice.pdf?1418425637 [7] http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/13/resolution-on-abortion [8] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2016/10/23/what-does-the-bible-say-about-abortion/ [9] https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133 [10] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/02/18/the-biblical-view-thats-younger-than-the-happy-meal/ [11] https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5502785 [12] https://www.sistersong.net/reproductive-justice [13] https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/sr-joan-chittisters-2004-quote-pro-life-versus-pro-birth-goes-viral [14] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reducing-abortion-rates-policy_n_589b8ea5e4b09bd304bfd920 [15] https://www.thenation.com/article/a-christian-argument-for-abortion-a-qa-with-rebecca-todd-peters/ [16] David Lose
2 Comments
Elaine Schieffer
5/28/2019 06:32:32 pm
Pastor David - I am so thankful Mona forwards your sermons. You include so much information and research. Every sermon requires several rereads to process the whole thing. I truly enjoy them and learn so much. Thank you! Yes - I am pro that life too.
Reply
David
5/29/2019 06:02:49 am
Thank you Elaine. That you read them means so much to me.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI love being a Archives
March 2024
|