Abortion: A Personal Story
My friend Trevin Wax over at Kingdom People recently posted on the issue of abortion in "honor" of January being the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
My own account with the issue within my Christian life was shaped quite powerfully by a particular event, one which I chronicled in the closing paragraphs of the introduction of my (hopefully) soon-to-be-published book Parables of a Prodigal Son: The Theologically Grounded Testimony of an Ordinary Scoundrel. The story is set within the context of my grappling with the struggle to understand the bible as a holistic story, and my coming to understand that we can only grasp the truth of the Bible by understanding it as such.
It goes something like this:
In other words, the truth of the Bible can only be grasped by this holistic, bird’s-eye, narrative view. This narrative perspective is critical because our language is too limited, our experiences too varied, and our God too magnificent to be reduced to a set of objectively true statements about Him. Talking about literal truth and inerrancy on the one hand, and having that be the criterion for trustworthiness on the other, just doesn’t make much sense. People often ask me when we are discussing theological issues, “What scripture do you have to support that claim?” or “Where in the Bible does it say that?” My usual response is, “Take a look at Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.” We must always view “biblical truth” in context, each word within the context of each sentence; each sentence within the context of each paragraph; each paragraph within the context of each story; each story within the context of each socio-historical setting; and finally, each socio-historical setting within the context of the entire biblical narrative.
Yes, there are a few lines in Scripture that acquiescingly speak of slaves obeying their masters, but, more importantly, the theme of the entire biblical narrative, from Genesis to Revelation, is about a God who is ceaselessly at work to rescue the people He loves from slavery. Now take a look at the statement, “Slaves, obey your masters,” from within that context.
I realize that this is a very broad-brushed and truncated summary of what the Bible is, or even what it means to me. The details are myriad and often times help to define these parameters, and I’m pretty sure I’ll come back to those details many times throughout wherever this book is going. Let me just leave off this topic, for the time being, with a personal account, a piece of testimony:
Early in my “Christian life,” when I was still stuck in the mire of literal God-givenness and, therefore, the inerrancy of Scripture (and the natural corollary that the Bible was primarily God’s “rule book,” an owner’s manual on how to live), I met a young woman who asked me to look into what the Bible said about abortion. It was an important question for her because she had a decision to make. I was well aware of mainstream Christianity’s position on the topic, but knowing full well that the Bible was the source book of the rule and that mainstream Christianity sometimes gets the message wrong, being the good Protestant that I was (sola scriptura, baby!), I decided to look into the Bible for myself to find the “true” answer. I looked for the word “abortion” in the concordance of my handy NIV Study Bible. Nothing. So I looked at the passages of the Bible that were usually cited in order to “prove” that abortion is wrong. Not too much there, either. Something about God “knitting” David in his mother’s womb, “knowing” Jeremiah before he was in his mother’s womb, things like that. My detailed, objective analysis of the Bible led me to believe that abortion was not necessarily wrong. I communicated my findings to my new acquaintance. She made her choice. I was very proud that I had helped this person make a biblically-informed decision.
Today, I find myself too ashamed even to pray for forgiveness for what I did. I finally found the passage that “proves” that abortion is wrong. It was Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.
And I think this is an appropriate place to conclude this introductory chapter. Let those who have ears hear.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
My own account with the issue within my Christian life was shaped quite powerfully by a particular event, one which I chronicled in the closing paragraphs of the introduction of my (hopefully) soon-to-be-published book Parables of a Prodigal Son: The Theologically Grounded Testimony of an Ordinary Scoundrel. The story is set within the context of my grappling with the struggle to understand the bible as a holistic story, and my coming to understand that we can only grasp the truth of the Bible by understanding it as such.
It goes something like this:
In other words, the truth of the Bible can only be grasped by this holistic, bird’s-eye, narrative view. This narrative perspective is critical because our language is too limited, our experiences too varied, and our God too magnificent to be reduced to a set of objectively true statements about Him. Talking about literal truth and inerrancy on the one hand, and having that be the criterion for trustworthiness on the other, just doesn’t make much sense. People often ask me when we are discussing theological issues, “What scripture do you have to support that claim?” or “Where in the Bible does it say that?” My usual response is, “Take a look at Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.” We must always view “biblical truth” in context, each word within the context of each sentence; each sentence within the context of each paragraph; each paragraph within the context of each story; each story within the context of each socio-historical setting; and finally, each socio-historical setting within the context of the entire biblical narrative.
Yes, there are a few lines in Scripture that acquiescingly speak of slaves obeying their masters, but, more importantly, the theme of the entire biblical narrative, from Genesis to Revelation, is about a God who is ceaselessly at work to rescue the people He loves from slavery. Now take a look at the statement, “Slaves, obey your masters,” from within that context.
I realize that this is a very broad-brushed and truncated summary of what the Bible is, or even what it means to me. The details are myriad and often times help to define these parameters, and I’m pretty sure I’ll come back to those details many times throughout wherever this book is going. Let me just leave off this topic, for the time being, with a personal account, a piece of testimony:
Early in my “Christian life,” when I was still stuck in the mire of literal God-givenness and, therefore, the inerrancy of Scripture (and the natural corollary that the Bible was primarily God’s “rule book,” an owner’s manual on how to live), I met a young woman who asked me to look into what the Bible said about abortion. It was an important question for her because she had a decision to make. I was well aware of mainstream Christianity’s position on the topic, but knowing full well that the Bible was the source book of the rule and that mainstream Christianity sometimes gets the message wrong, being the good Protestant that I was (sola scriptura, baby!), I decided to look into the Bible for myself to find the “true” answer. I looked for the word “abortion” in the concordance of my handy NIV Study Bible. Nothing. So I looked at the passages of the Bible that were usually cited in order to “prove” that abortion is wrong. Not too much there, either. Something about God “knitting” David in his mother’s womb, “knowing” Jeremiah before he was in his mother’s womb, things like that. My detailed, objective analysis of the Bible led me to believe that abortion was not necessarily wrong. I communicated my findings to my new acquaintance. She made her choice. I was very proud that I had helped this person make a biblically-informed decision.
Today, I find myself too ashamed even to pray for forgiveness for what I did. I finally found the passage that “proves” that abortion is wrong. It was Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.
And I think this is an appropriate place to conclude this introductory chapter. Let those who have ears hear.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
The verses that define the penalty for killing an unborn child is:
Exodus 21:22
"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
The assumption is that if God specifies such penalties for accidental injury/death then surely these penalties if not worse should apply to intentional injury/death.
Thought you'd be interested.