What is life? How do we define its value? Should we even try? Perhaps the biggest political debate that conflicts with popular Christian philosophy centers around the origin and value of human life. Most Christians feel strongly that the lives of the innocent should be protected. In a bit of irony, most Christians also support the death penalty. But are we looking at this issue in the proper context? Or have we been forced to see this debate as the choice to respect the privacy and rights of a woman over the rights of the unborn to live? This is how the issue is framed for us in the media and by most all the political pundits and candidates of the day. But perhaps there is another way to examine this perplexing issue that might bring together those with opposing views.
First one must examine the most fundamental question; who is the author of life? As Christians we believe this is God. But what role God delegated to man in the pro-creation of life is something that must also be considered. For a child to be born at all, a man and woman (without using the aid of modern cloning, or advanced fertility techniques which we will discuss later) must consent to having intercourse. This was intended to occur within the marital relationship as God setup in the Garden of Eden before sin ever existed. The intimacy shared between husband and wife on the most profound physical level would result in the “multiplying” of our species. If man and wife abstain entirely, no child is born at all. Man makes a choice. That choice has consequences. It was not God’s design that only one sex could spontaneously decide to have children. It was supposed to take the union of both man and wife. Two people deciding to join, and in so doing, to pro-create. We cannot originate life on our own. But in union we are able to.
This brings up the issue, of how much of a role do we play with respect to the choice to procreate. To the best of our knowledge there has only ever been ONE virgin birth, that of Christ. Every other birth (short modern medicine) has occurred the traditional way. God has not intervened and granted the desire of a single person absent a partner to spontaneously create a new life. Therefore men and women play the MOST pivotal role in our species propagation. It is not a matter of luck. It is not a matter of fate. It is a matter of choice, physical interaction, and the biological systems our God has created in us. Engage in physical union and the results can be procreation. No union – no children. So when a husband and wife come together as God ordained, a child is the likely outcome. It takes preventative measures to interrupt what would otherwise occur. Today women take a pill, or couples use condoms, or other measures to disrupt what might otherwise occur as a natural result of their unions. The entire birth control industry is built on preventing the likelihood of pregnancy.
It is natural, or by design, that procreation occurs from physical union. It takes deliberate effort to prevent it. Unless a couple suffers from medical inabilities of some sort, a series of physical unions will produce offspring. Therefore it is a choice of man – whether a new life enters the world or not – as his actions can predict the outcome of that choice. God does not create life absent the choice of man. God has instead delegated this decision, and this process to man, for us to exercise as He has outlined. Most every ”dilemma” that accompanies pregnancy occurs when physical unions happens outside of what God intended and ordained.
Rape and incest in our modern age were NEVER a part of God’s plans or intentions. Teenage pregnancy was not either. Pregnancy that comes from irresponsible decision making is not the fault of God. To believe that God “wants” a teenage unmarried girl to become pregnant from engaging in sex outside of what He intended is to make God a sadist interested in punishing the guilty rather than redeeming them. God does not “want” the teenager to be engaging in premarital sex in the first place. This evil causes us to lose our self-respect, lose the ability to truly understand intimacy, cause undo emotional hardship as our transient relationships begin and end without commitment. The pain that is caused to the teenager even if she never gets pregnant is damage enough. Her life is already being ruined, even if she is unable to see it from lack of immediate consequences, as is the life of her partner who too suffers all these losses. This says nothing of the risks that are taken from sexual diseases that can permanently alter our lives. None of this was God’s intent. But ALL of this is inevitable if premarital sex is embraced. Pregnancy too is a natural consequence. Not something that God ordained, or otherwise “blessed”. It is simply another consequence to the actions and choices a teenager has made, or for that matter people of any age who engage in the same actions and decisions.
Forced sexual interaction was also NOT something God ever intended. It is an abomination to Him. And He does NOT intend that a woman becomes pregnant through the violent domination of a man who simply overpowers her in pure selfishness. Pregnancy in these situations is not about what God intends, as if it were up to God, no sin like this would ever exist or be carried out. Pregnancy in these situations is the natural results of the biological systems we were created with. The only specific life that God ordained and intended was the birth of His son Jesus. All other lives that have entered this world came through the natural results of men and their actions and choices.
So while the secondary origin of life may rest in the hands of men as God has created us with this ability. The “value” of life is another matter entirely. Each soul is precious to our God. Each life is one in which He calls us His children. Each of us unique by design. Each created for a singular purpose that no other man or woman will ever be able to completely replicate for all eternity. These are the teachings our Bible gives us. Our existence may have been known to God in advance of our entering the world, but this is simply because He knew the choices our parents would make, and when they would make them. When in scripture He says … I knew you in the womb … He is making a statement about His own omniscience, not about when cells dividing reach the point of life beginning. To that end, each cell is already a “living” organism. God knew the lives of all of us from before Adam and Eve were created. He did not intend for Adam and Eve to break trust with Him and fail. He did everything He could to prevent them from the choices they made. But He could not force them to comply. Nor can He force us to make better decisions.
Foreknowledge does not equate to predestination. God does everything He can to save us from ourselves and the evil we embrace. But He cannot compel us to choose Him. This is the very nature of the freedom of choice He created. He asks us, but does not force us. Therefore man must be made responsible for the decisions he makes. When we choose God, and submit our will to Him, He reforms our thinking and our desires and the consequences that come from evil outside of His intentions are removed from us through His grace. When we forget to submit, or choose to follow our own path, we destine ourselves to the pain that comes from turning away from God. When sex is engaged in outside of what God designed the natural results of the biology will also be inevitable. Our choices may be foreseen by God, but they remain unknown to us. We remain free to choose Him, or choose to forsake Him. Only He knows what we will inevitably choose, but as we do not, we must turn our hearts and minds to Him daily.
So the simplistic answer is that were we to follow the designs of God and His intentions, the entire debate about “unwanted” pregnancies goes away. Within the marital relationship, modern medical science offers us both ways to overcome our inabilities to procreate, as well as ways to keep from procreation. Couples are able to make informed decisions about when to have children. Should a married couple engage in physical union without precautions, they should expect pregnancy to result. You cannot go back and hit the delete button. One shouldn’t complain that they are unprepared or financially not ready to have children as a result of the irresponsible decisions we make even inside of a marriage. If it matters, fix it. If we intend to take risks, we should be responsible when the risks do not have the outcomes we wanted.
But what happens when evil is embraced and through sexual unions outside of God’s intentions a pregnancy results? The salient question is what is to be done with the new life? True freedom of choice, as God outlines it in scripture, is the freedom for a mother to “choose” to carry the pregnancy to term. Then to decide whether to raise the child or not, which may well reflect the realities of her life and circumstances and what is in the best interests of the child at that time. No mother should ever be criticized for the choices she makes in this regard whatever they are. But what of those who choose not to carry the pregnancy to term? Is that “against God”?
The Bible speaks of God breathing into man the breath of life. It is at this point that man “became” a “living” soul. We are not immortal. We did not originate ourselves to begin with. When that first breath was taken, we “became” a “living” soul. Until then, we were a collection of dirt, water, and a few trace elements. We did not spontaneously spring into existence through a selection of random events. We were created by design. Our creation was not complete until our first breath was taken. We may have had hearts, brains, blood, bones, and the systems we needed in place to sustain life; but without God breathing into us, we were still NOT alive. The same is true in the delivery room. Until the child takes his first breath, he is not considered to be alive. If he never breathes he is considered still born. But when he takes that first breath on his own, a new life has entered the world.
When a mother suffers the loss of a pregnancy before it comes to term, it is a terribly sad event. It is not that we miss a life we knew. It is that we miss the life we wanted to know. The life that might have existed, even if it never saw the light of day. But in truth what was lost was not a new life, but the potential for a new life. There is a difference between a pregnancy that terminates before birth, a child who is still-born, and an infant who dies of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Forgetting for a minute the intentional early termination of a pregnancy; prior to taking that first breath, a new life does not yet exist. Once that first breath is taken, a new life has entered the world.
Those who believe “life” begins at conception are correct. “Life” in so much as every single cell in our bodies is already alive and functioning as it should, begins even before conception. Sperm too are alive. As are the eggs they fertilize. The process was created by God and was not intended for early interruption. Death was never supposed to be part of our reality. Neither was sickness or pain. These things come as a result of the evil we embraced. But our reality reflects the fact that not all pregnancies make it to term successfully. The process is cut short from time to time. When this occurs, it is the potential for life that has died, not life itself. Perhaps in heaven the lost potential will be restored to us. But while we remain here, we have to contend with the most unfortunate of circumstances that sometimes accompany a pregnancy lost.
It is the intentional disruption of the process of life that so grates on our hearts and our conscience. Perhaps it is because most of the time when choice is exercised to terminate our normal process of life, it is done for reasons of pure selfishness. When the decision to engage in sex was not forced, it is usually our other “priorities” that outweigh the potential life we choose to forego. We put our own interests ahead of the interests of another. Sound familiar? It is the very core of evil itself – self-ish-ness. We do not wish for our lives, our dreams, our desires, or our goals to “suffer” from our bad decisions. When infidelity was the culprit behind an unwanted pregnancy, termination is sought to cover up our misdeeds. When unwanted pregnancy occurs in the life of a teenager unprepared for the consequences of raising another life, we think our own needs outweigh those of another. When casual sex is engaged in, we ignore our own irresponsibility and attempt to negate the “consequences” of our actions in order to avoid life-long financial responsibility or inconvenience. In short, we take the risks, but refuse to embrace the natural consequences of our actions when they turn out to be not what we wanted. This line of reasoning is entirely based in the same self-motivation that is at the root of every evil ever perpetrated in the history of our world. It is why the idea of choosing early termination rubs us the wrong way. It defies our ideas of right and wrong, because ultimately we know our choices are based in our own self interests.
But in cases where the choice to engage in sex was not one of informed consent; the idea of early termination of pregnancy by choice is only one of sadness. Already a crime against a woman has been committed. Now it is complicated by a result not of intent but of victimization. What a woman chooses to do in a situation like this should be a matter of true choice between her and her God. Should she choose to carry the pregnancy to term, she should be supported and embraced by those who claim the name of Christ. Should she choose to end the pregnancy before an independent life is formed she should be supported by the same Christians who would have loved her if the outcome were different. Obviously it is not a casual decision. And the longer one waits the closer the life becomes from one of potential to one of reality. But the motivation of a victim is entirely different from the motivation of one who has simply made a “bad” decision (which is actually taking a risk with an undesired outcome). A victim makes a choice as to how to “deal” with the evil that has been perpetrated upon them. There is no such equivalent for errant decisions.
In cases where the life and well-being of mother is put at risk from carrying a pregnancy to term, the decision again must be respected no matter the outcome. Who would dare to criticize a woman who would willingly put her own life at risk to save another? Is that not what policemen, firemen, EMT’s and our military servicemen do every day? A mother will instinctively insert herself between her child and a predator determined to harm the child. And a pregnant woman instinctively knows she is guarding the potential for life within her. While our God values the life that exists in the woman who is already alive, He can also sympathize with her as she tries to fight for the life within her that puts her at risk. She should never be condemned for trying to bring about the potential for life into an actual one.
Where a woman at medical risk makes a different decision in order to preserve her own well-being, no one should ever criticize this decision as well. We do not criticize each other for changing our diets to preserve our health, or having a surgery, or taking advantage of modern medicine to extend our lives. We do it regularly. We do not criticize each other for defending our lives and those we love when they are threatened by the evil that exists in this world. How many husbands would sit idly by and allow their wives to be harmed by another without stepping in harm’s way themselves first? We take steps to protect ourselves and preserve our lives sometimes at the expense of another living person. Why would we criticize a woman for doing so even before a potential life has transitioned to an actual one? It makes no sense. This is not a casual decision a person makes. Organ donors take risks and we do not condemn the one who gives, or the one who is willing to receive what has been given. We value the lives of them both. We do not ask the donor to die, in order that the recipient live. Instead we do everything we can to preserve both. But at the end of the day, the life of the donor must be respected. So too, the life of the mother must outweigh the potential for life she carries within her. No man should judge her decisions in this respect.
No matter the circumstances the loss of a pregnancy that does not reach its fulfillment is a sad thing. None of us are in a mood to celebrate, even at the potential lost life. We may not hold funerals, or we may not feel the loss as keenly because we were unable to build a relationship with what would have been a new addition to our world, but we still feel the pains of sadness. The loss deepens as time progresses. Our own biological systems discard potential lives by the thousands in the form of sperm and eggs in early stages post copulation. At this point we lack even the capability to know what is going on. Once a pregnancy test comes back positive, changes begin to occur in the body, but more importantly in our minds. We begin to accept the idea that life is coming. We begin to anticipate it. We start making plans around it. We prepare, both physically and emotionally. And we look forward to life. When it is lost, no matter the reason, our sadness is experienced.
We must however make the distinction between sadness at the loss of potential, and sadness for the loss of an actual life. We are sad when someone we love chooses to embrace an alcohol addiction and refuses to seek help. It saddens us as we watch someone we love degrade themselves losing more and more of the things we value to the slavery of their condition. People give up promising careers, financial stability, and finally even become willing to sacrifice the love of their families – all to pursue the next drink. Everyone knows the futility of these choices. Even the alcoholic can see the damage they inflict on themselves and those around them. Yet they choose it anyway. It is a terrible loss to watch the waste of potential. But while life remains in the alcoholic, hope remains that reform can be sought.
When a person we knew dies, the loss is keener still. When an aged parent or friend dies after many years of life, the loss is great as our relationships with them had time to mature. Our love had time to grow and deepen. When a young person dies we mourn both the loss of person we knew, and the loss of what they might have accomplished had they more time in this world. When a baby dies, no matter how long they last after they take their first breath; the loss is heartbreaking. The reality of death is keenly felt and the precious treasure is temporarily removed from our touch – to await a reunion in a more perfect world at the end of evil. A parent truly mourns the loss of a child at any age. It is the rest of us who mourn with them, the more we have time to build our own relationships with the children they have lost.
A Christian should have the clearest picture of what the loss of life, and the potential for life means. We should do everything in our power to comfort those who have experienced this pain. We should never do anything that might add to it. It is unthinkable to go to a funeral and heap insults on the departed. We would condemn the person who goes to such an affair and does everything they can to increase the pain of the survivors. To go there and second guess them, to say “they” are at fault for the lost loved ones, blaming “them” for not doing enough. It is unconscionable. Funerals are a time for comfort and to express our grief and sadness, not a time for recriminations, blame, and second guessing. The predominant emotion at a funeral is sadness, and for Christians, the secondary emotion should be hope. But what is not needed at all is criticism.
When a woman seeks out a medical facility to terminate a pregnancy it is not the time for criticism. It is akin to standing outside a drug rehab facility screaming at the patients leaving the building for ever being addicted in the first place. If Christians wish to see better “choices”, we must begin by allowing Christ to change the desires we hold in the first place, and the values we choose to live by. It must begin with the man in the mirror, not with the woman on the street. When our own lives are reformed by His grace, we begin to love like He loves. This is a compelling lure, and provides a reason for someone who is still caught in pain, to ask us how we found relief from our own pain. It is then that we have an effective answer for them. Submission to Christ cannot be taught in words. It must be shown in the mirror of our lives. We must be different people, not simply talk about aspiring to be different. When we love without precondition our first concern is to alleviate the pain of others, not to increase it.
When our own lives reflect the work of submission to Christ, we finally and truly see the value in forsaking evil. Our lives become a living example to our children of what marriage is actually capable of being. We become more Christ-like in our role models as parents and our children see what the difference is, instead of just hearing about it. Only then will teenage pregnancy rates begin to decline. When our children witness for themselves the beauty of a marriage, instead of being subjected to the horror and pain of divorce, will we begin to see them cherish the ideas of fidelity and waiting for the “right” one to come along. How can we ask them to wait for the “right” person to marry, when we ourselves trade in wives and husbands like so much candy? If our relationships are transient can we not expect our children’s to reflect this also. If our marriages are bad because we base them on our own abilities and selfish weaknesses can we truly expect our children to value marriage? We must be different before the world becomes different.
Values cannot be instilled in another through well-crafted words. They must be shown by a well lived life. A living example is a powerful testimony. If we wish to see a reduction in the choices to terminate pregnancies we must begin in our own homes. As we become changed, and introduce change to our children, we raise up a generation who knows only how to love like God loves. Teenage pregnancies will fall dramatically. But to reflect the character of Christ is not to embrace evil, or to condemn and punish those who do. It is to redeem those who embrace evil from the pain they bring upon themselves. Instead of carrying placards in front of an abortion clinic, why not open, publicize, or volunteer to help out at an adoption services facility. Open, volunteer, or contribute to a local day care facility for parents who do not have the funding to care for their children on their own. Volunteer or teach in any facility that will have you that caters to the needs of the children who already exist in our communities. Each of these acts of service will inspire others to believe that perhaps raising a child may be more feasible than they first thought. Where no hope is offered to a person in need, hope is lost, and people make unfortunate and sad decisions.
Beliefs cannot be legislated into the hearts and minds of others. Our country had national laws to set a maximum speed limit on its road systems of 55mph for many years. Yet our citizenry routinely ignored these limitations despite the consequences. The laws were enacted to reduce our fossil fuel consumption, a goal with which most agree. But the inconvenience of driving at reduced speed outweighed the better goals of reducing our fuel consumption. Eventually because so many ignored these laws, they were revoked. The creation of laws does not change the minds of the governed. Consequences for breaking our laws does nothing to deter a criminal bent on disobedience. To truly change behavior, we must provide a living role model, that behavior can change, and that the values we live by help us avoid the pain and sadness that come with those who refuse these values. A woman will forever carry the scars emotionally from choosing to terminate a pregnancy no matter when she decides to do this. It will be a sadness that haunts her forever. She needs no law to remind her of this, or to try to prevent her from this. She needs a reason to avoid being caught in this decision in the first place. And she needs hope to provide her with another alternative if she is found in it already. To truly offer choice we must offer a real choice.
It is unrealistic to expect a woman to carry a pregnancy to term without the benefit of life long support for that decision. Are we willing as Christians to go beyond preaching the evils of abortion and take up the cause of being in a child’s life from birth to tomb? Instead of asking the person caught in sin to pay for it (as might rightly be asked of us for our own sins), perhaps we should offer the same kind of love that gets involved and stays involved that Christ offers us. How many might turn away from the saddest choice a woman could make, if the alternative was a full community of people who would be there for her and her child for the length of their lives. It is not because the new mother deserves this kind of support. In fact she does not. It is after all our own bad decisions that cause us to suffer the pain of the consequences of evil. But if Christians are to value the lives of the innocent, perhaps we should commit to get involved on their behalf. If we are to offer hope, we must find a way to make the hope tangible. It is not enough to offer prayer for the fallen victim on the road, the Samaritan took action to save the victim. So too should we Christians take action to offer a real alternative for the potential lives we value so much.
Salvation is not about crime and punishment. Salvation is about being saved from our own evil choices. It is about changing what we want, and therefore what we do. To blame someone for making an evil choice is to blame a diseased person for their own conditions. We already know we are at fault. All of us make bad decisions. Salvation is not about blaming, it is about reforming. Abortion will not ever be required, let alone considered in the perfection of heaven. Life was never intended to be prematurely interrupted. It is a consequence of evil that this occurs at all. And in this world, we are all steeped in the evil that accompanies this kind of result. Knowing that abortion would not exist in perfection, perhaps Christians can begin to see it completely extinguished in the world around us, by seeking the perfection that comes from total surrender to Christ. By complete submission to our Lord, the need, the desire, the sadness, all of it can be once and for all removed from our lives. When we learn to love like He loves, we will finally change the world around us. Not until.
