Theological Basis for Opposing Abortion

Dr. Mark S. Krause, Westwood Hills Christian Church
Thu Nov 13 09:42:49 MST 2008

     Gary Wills, Professor of History at Northwestern University and author on historical religious topics, has recently claimed that since Scripture is silent on the issue of abortion, its validity must be decided by science and reason. Is this valid?               

      Wills correctly understands that in the USA, the Christians who oppose abortion are largely either Evangelicals or Roman Catholics. I can only speak from the evangelical camp. Evangelicals believe that the Bible is the final authority for human behavior and the ultimate source for theological understanding. While Thomas Aquinas and the writings of the popes may offer various insights into this issue, they do not trump Scripture for Evangelicals in this or any other discussion.

      I have software that allows me to do very quick word searches for all or part of the Bible in many different translations and in the original languages. It is true that if I do a search for the word “abortion,” I will get no results. But Wills engages in logical fallacy if he claims that this type of silence means that the theological principles of the Bible have no bearing on the abortion debate. This fallacy is pushed to the extreme with implication that perceived silence implies permission.

      The Bible teaches throughout that human beings are essentially different from all other life forms because they alone bear the Imago Dei, the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Murder is not forbidden simply because it destroys life. Murder is taboo because “in his own image God made humankind” (Genesis 9:6). This is why Christians view human life as sacred. This is why Christians seek to defend the weak and preserve the dignity of the helpless, because every human life has value.

      The Bible also teaches that God knows each person whether that person acknowledges God or not. The  psalmist wrote that God recognized him while still in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-13). The Prophet Jeremiah understood that God knew him and consecrated him as a prophet before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5). The bottom line for this is that our personhood is defined by our relationship with God, and this relationship begins before birth. God knows and loves us throughout our lives and in spite of our rebellion against God’s will.

      From a theological standpoint, abortion, then, is deliberate and calculated destruction of the image of God. It is taking away that which we have no right to take. It is more than disposal of unwanted tissue. It is stealing life that is precious to God.

      It may be of interest to challenge Wills on a non biblical basis, too. Scientists have told us that evolution is driven by the survival of the species. Survival depends upon reproduction. Therefore, females instinctively protect their young, their children. For a mother willingly to assent to the death of a child, even an unborn, goes against everything that species survival seems to teach. Nature itself cries out against abortion. The only possible way this could happen is through the existence of human free will, which has no logical explanation or purpose in the natural order.

      The human capacity for free will is also a door into some of the philosophical underpinnings of the abortion debate. Our current postmodern variety of understandings is the progeny of the experiential horse that philosophy rode in the last half of the twentieth century. 

      Existentialism and its cousins posited that our personhood was defined by our experiences and our choices. We were the sum total of choices we had made, and life was never more authentic than when we were able to choose our destiny. The greatest evil, we were taught in the 1960s, was no longer disobedience, but denial of choice. This later morphed into the current version of intolerance as heinous evil, for intolerance is always an attempt to control the choices of other people. It is no accident, then, that the pro-abortion movement styles itself as “pro-choice.” Choice itself becomes more precious than life.In the end, Evangelicals understand abortion to be a deeply theological issue, no matter what Dr. Wills might claim. One’s view of God will influence what one believes in this debate. If you are a non-theist, you must ask what God thinks about abortion. The options available to you are that God doesn’t care about abortion, or that God does care. Evangelicals believe that God does care.          

   ~ Dr. Mark S. Krause, Westwood Hills Christian Church

Note: This is a slightly modified version of a letter I sent to the Los Angeles Times in response to the column by Gary Wills entitled “Battling abortion isn’t a holy war,” printed November 4, 2007. The Times declined to  print my letter. Wills’ original essay may be found at: www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-willls4nov04.07799993.story?coll+la-opinion-center.