It's time for me to be as direct as I can be about something I've avoided talking about directly in public for a long, long time: Abortion. Considering the fact that this topic is now blowing up my Facebook feed, maybe it's time for me to say something pastorally theological about the crisis in which American society now finds itself.
First, let me say that the things I've said in the past about why moral law makes a horrible foundation for legal law is still true. I stand by the words. In fact, they're something of a foundation upon which I intend to build here.
A very well-known conservative Christian author recently accused me of being a "progressive". That's bullshit, and anyone who's taken the time to hear me out on nearly any issue knows it's bullshit. I make a horrible "progressive" Christian (the lie about modern progress is just that, a lie). I'm also a horrible "liberal" Christian (here's why). And I'm a horrible "conservative" Christian, too (here's one example why, among so many). So what follows, while attempting to sort out what I think as a pastor-theologian about abortion, will sound like I'm a bit of all three, I'm not some strange mixture, as if I were picking and choosing from a buffet. I intend to take the confession that "Jesus is Lord" with seriousness.
That seriousness demands that I begin by respecting the actual human lives impacted by abortion. Which is another way of saying, what I say I say as a male who loves particular women: My wife, Kendra and her extended family, as well as my own family -- including a sister who currently expects to become a mother. What I say here isn't meant to be determinitive in a way that excludes those women's voices. In fact, I reserve the right to change what I think based on what I hear from real women whose lives are impacted by their medical care.
That said, here we go:
First, let me say that the things I've said in the past about why moral law makes a horrible foundation for legal law is still true. I stand by the words. In fact, they're something of a foundation upon which I intend to build here.
A very well-known conservative Christian author recently accused me of being a "progressive". That's bullshit, and anyone who's taken the time to hear me out on nearly any issue knows it's bullshit. I make a horrible "progressive" Christian (the lie about modern progress is just that, a lie). I'm also a horrible "liberal" Christian (here's why). And I'm a horrible "conservative" Christian, too (here's one example why, among so many). So what follows, while attempting to sort out what I think as a pastor-theologian about abortion, will sound like I'm a bit of all three, I'm not some strange mixture, as if I were picking and choosing from a buffet. I intend to take the confession that "Jesus is Lord" with seriousness.
That seriousness demands that I begin by respecting the actual human lives impacted by abortion. Which is another way of saying, what I say I say as a male who loves particular women: My wife, Kendra and her extended family, as well as my own family -- including a sister who currently expects to become a mother. What I say here isn't meant to be determinitive in a way that excludes those women's voices. In fact, I reserve the right to change what I think based on what I hear from real women whose lives are impacted by their medical care.
That said, here we go:
- I believe all life is a gift and a task from God. God creates and fashions each human life for a Kingdom purpose.
- I also believe that all life is fractured and impacted by sin. Nothing is perfect and we live in the midst of that brokenness.
- For that reason: I believe abortion is never the best answer, but sometimes, in the midst of life's brokenness, it's the only answer. We should protect children -- not simply the unborn. But, sadly, that protection sometimes requires that we work against the principalities and powers that will continue to fracture human life.
- For this reason, I don't believe we should legislate and enforce a certain "perfect" view on the world.
- Naive as this may be (coming from the mouth of an American white male), I think every baby produced in the context of a "difficult" relationship deserves to live -- but that decision has to be made by each woman in each particular (often precarious) situation. Punishing women (even if it's indirectly, by punishing their medical providers) is absolutely Satanic in its own right. I think women should be empowered by their communities to make decisions, even if those are heartbreaking imperfect ones, surrounded by love. Not judgment.
- For that reason, the laws each of these American states are now passing are disgraces from a Christian perspective. And I'm outraged, as are so many others.
- What, then, should Christian communities actually do? Legislation and punishment seem to me to be the way the Satan would act. Therefore, the only way forward is for the Christian community to construct an ethic of life that affirms not only babies and mothers, but also the poor, uneducated, sick, mentally disturbed, and even our enemies (can we say "Muslims" and "illegal immigrants"?). We have to fight against the social and political evil spirits that undermine human life in a myriad of ways. Those spirits, sadly, will include a number of the social movements that have been embraced by American Evangelicals.
- To quote Stan Hauerwas here: "Christians should, in their own communities, make clear that the role of the parent is one we all share. Thus the woman who is pregnant and carrying the child need not be the one to raise it. We must be a people who stand ready to receive and care for any child, not just as if it were one of ours, but because in fact each one is one of ours". If Christians are so concerned about abortion, why not focus on crafting communities of acceptance that will provide social and medical services for these women? Why not take these children into our own homes? Forget trying to outlaw abortion. That's a wrong-headed approach for so many reasons.
- Our entire communities should be welcoming and affirming of the gift and task of each human life. In that sense, we should be "pro life". But our communities should also recognize that each human life is fragile, and lived in the context of so much brokenness. In that sense, we should be "pro choice". So ultimately, what we need aren't laws about abortion. What we need are communities of wisdom and character which refuse to abstract human life into some law. But until we are able to live with the kind of courage that makes those virtues possible, we'll always be fighting one another, instead of crafting communities that enable us live as real people in the real world transformed by a Lord who goes the way of the cross.