Sanctity of Life: The Acid Test

Hunter Baker posts "A Simple Sermon on Abortion" at Mere Comments.

I have called the sanctity of life an acid test because one of the distinguishing marks of the church throughout the ages has been its concern for the unborn and the newly born and its opposition to infanticide. In thinking this point through, it is useful to remember the kind of world into which the Christian church was born. The Greco-Roman world was not one that was kind to unborn life or even newly born life. For that matter, that culture did not value life at all unless a person was somehow very important. The world of the Roman empire was one in which men were forced to battle each other to the death in the gladiatorial games. Others were thrown into the ring defenseless with bloodthirsty lions or tigers. When children were born, they were only kept if the father wanted to keep them. A child who was unfit for any reason, including being the wrong sex would be discarded. There were places on the edge of the wildnerness where infants would be exposed to the elements or to the dangers of predatory animals. It was also common for women to seek abortions by various grisly methods involving poison or crude surgical procedures. But after the life, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the founding of the Christian church, things began to change. The Christians began to rescue the exposed infants and brought them into their families. They argued against abortion and protested the gladiatorial games. Despite the intense opposition they met from the world of that day and the persecution they experienced for their refusal to worship the emperor, it was their view that eventually prevailed. Both the early Christian writings and the law of the Roman empire and the west for many centuries prohibited the practice of abortion and characterized it as an unjust killing of the unborn child. The gladiatorial games were also outlawed. The Christians sought to curb the tolerance of the empire for needless bloodshed and succeeded to an admirable degree.

Despite this history, there are Christians today who will say we should leave behind this “political” issue of abortion and the sanctity of life. They recommend that we focus on our proper sphere of influence which is preaching the word and saving souls. I am always fascinated by this kind of argument. And by fascinated, I think I really mean irritated. First, why in the world can’t we preach the word AND fight against injustice AND protect the weakest among us? Second, why wouldn’t we want to emulate the example of the early Christians? Don’t we try to be like them? Don’t Christians all over the world argue for the authenticity of their brand of the faith by claiming that they are MORE like the early church than anyone else? Aren’t they the ones who have passed the acid test and have been tried like gold? The demands of our Christian lives are as nothing compared to theirs. If we cannot be troubled to speak for the unborn, I agree with Francis Schaeffer that the people of ages to come will be right to question whether anything we believed about our God was true.

Sometimes, we hide behind things like the separation of church and state. Too many southern preachers hid behind that idea to avoid preaching against segregation. At the end of it, they could make no larger claim than having been too cowardly to preach against a clear injustice. There is no reason I can think of for a Christian today to say that yes we should have preached and worked against racism and segregation, but no, we should not work to protect the unborn. You just can’t support that point of view.

I imagine that for the most part, I am preaching to people who agree with what I am saying. The problem is that we become numb to the horror of it. This current battle has been going on for about 40 years now. And we have not won it. We have made progress, though. The number of abortions per year has gone down. No one can any longer be taken seriously when they refer to an unborn child as a mass of tissue. We at least know what we are dealing with. Perhaps more important has been the change in the church, itself. For example, at Christian schools we have learned not to expel girls who get pregnant. We care more about the unborn life she carries than we do about appearances. It wasn’t always that way, was it? How many Christian parents arranged abortions because they couldn’t bear the shame of a pregnancy out of wedlock or they couldn’t bear the shame for their daughter? But what is shame compared to a human life?

In point of fact, while the Catholic church never wavered in its opposition to abortion, even conservative protestants weren’t sure at first whether they supported Roe v. Wade. The consistent witness of the Catholic church in this regard helps explain why the Christian church is closer today than at any time since the Reformation. We are beginning to unite in defense of the unborn.