THE EDITOR, Sir:
TVJ’s ‘All Angles’ discussion show on July 24 featured two camps, both identifying themselves as Christian, defending opposing views on the motion for the decriminalisation of abortion.
I would like to share my response to Patricia Phillips, in particular, as one of the two positing that abortion is okay if executed prior to 12 weeks of gestation. I don’t recall if any other condition was required, except that the abortion occur prior to 12 weeks.
Those two, having admitted that it is not known at what point after conception a human being gains a soul, brought a weak defence of the 12-week timeline, for it is a fundamental belief of Christians that our human dignity arises from our human soul and is the essence of our being made in the ‘image of God’. If is not known when the soul is formed, then the only safe position is to respect that first cell of human life.
However, it was Phillips’ other argument in defence, from a religious perspective, that was more shocking than her position. She made the argument that a God of love who “killed his son” for our salvation out of love for human beings would not condemn the killing of a foetus if the mother’s circumstances were especially egregious, such as having been a victim of rape or incest.
My reactions to that are many, but I will focus on one.
The phrase “killed his son” is a careless rendering of “sending his son to die”.
Jesus’ death on the cross is the prime example of choosing obedience to God, choosing to teach and to minister as God’s prophet in the face of opposition, even to the point of His death.
Our baptismal vows, by which we become Christian, constrain us to preferring death over committing evil.
In the case of the victim mother, what we have is enduring a very bad situation versus taking another’s life.
The two don’t compare. Acting as Christians will rally a community in aid of the mother in all her needs to overcome the bad situation, and give testimony to our faith that God is with us through it all.
Choose life.
Sam Reid