In Biblical Christianity, the Holy Scripture is the authority and basis for faith. In Roman Catholicism the teaching of the church as an institution is regarded as an additional source of authority.
For me as a Biblical Christian, there is no equivalency of abortion and the taking of a human life and its prohibition. The only direct reference in the Bible to miscarriage caused by an external force is Exodus 21:22 in which the taking of a woman’s life is regarded as murder and the causing of a miscarriage is a discretionary fineable offense. The distinction could not be clearer.
The only scriptural references one hears to support the position are words and phases in the Bible which are to be taken metaphorically. These are like Jesus’ reference to himself as “the door” which do not send us in search of a literal door knob. We assume that the Lord’s authorship of the human anatomical processes put in place at creation is what is referred to as knitting us together in our mother’s womb. We assume that the Lord’s knowing every hair on our head refers to His knowing us fully. And we assume that his knowing us before the foundation of the world refers to his omniscience.
Particularly off base and offensive is the glib reference in their rhetoric to “the least of these” when the biblical reference is so specific in Matthew 25 to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, those without clothes, the sick and the prisoner. These are the people Jesus so closely identifies with that he says “Whatever you did not do for the least of these my brothers you did not do for me.”
Worth following is The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights and its dynamic CEO Baptist minister Rev. Katey Zeh at rcrc.org
Holly Wright
Talbot County
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