Yesterday I posted about the need to permit homosexuals into leadership positions within the Church. It was announced last night that the Presbyterian Church voted in favor of allowing gays to be ordained as ministers. This is a huge step forward for the Church and a move I greatly applaud. Today I turn my attention to another topic, and one as equally controversial: abortion.
The reader may be surprised to discover that I hold with the traditional view of the Church on this matter and consider abortion to be a sin. I believe life begins at conception, and that abortion is therefore the needless taking of a human life. But the two sentences I just wrote on the sinfulness of abortion is the extent to which I will discuss it being a sin. This is because I do not believe it is helpful to label a person a sinner. And no matter how much we try to separate the sin from the sinner, the "sinner" will always feel guilty when having their "sin" waved in front of their face. To label an action a "sin" and to make a person feel like a sinner places them in a category hard to escape. Sometimes we make something so by calling it so. To make someone a sinner, when Jesus already wiped away their sins, is a regression. Therefore, instead of calling a sin a "sin" or a sinner a "sinner," I think it is more helpful for Christians to recognize the hurt a person is feeling, to have compassion on them, and to act accordingly.
I wanted to turn to the topic of abortion because I wanted to show how the Church has responded badly to sin. I have shown that homosexuality is not a sin in my article Is Homosexuality a Sin? so it may be the case that my related posts about how we should treat the LGBT community may be related to my view that they are not living in sin. But my views on the Church's response to gays would be the same whether I thought homosexuality was a sin or not. Therefore I am turning to the topic of abortion to give an example of how I think the Church needs to change its interactions with what is, in my view, sinful.
Let me give a story that can be found in David Kinnaman's book UnChristian to illustrate what I believe is the traditional Christian response to the issue of abortion. He tells of a woman, Lisa, who went to a Christian event and was sitting with some of her Christian friends at a table discussing the topic of pregnancy. At one point Lisa brought up that she had a friend who was pregnant and really going through a rough time. Her boyfriend left her and there were some other things going on in her life. When Lisa told them that her friend was contemplating abortion and that she, herself, could empathize with her, the group Lisa was with turned on her. They condemned the friend for wanting an abortion and condemned Lisa for her empathy. Lisa was left out of the conversation for the rest of the event. Lisa had not even told them that she had an abortion earlier in life. These women did not show the slightest compassion or love toward Lisa. Instead, they showed judgment which (not to mention the burden placed on Lisa’s friend) placed the impossible burden on Lisa of feeling more condemned than she already had for her abortion. She had already had an abortion and there was nothing she could do about it. And without knowing what Lisa’s background might be, they showed no sensitivity at all, and placed Lisa immediately in a category out of which she could not now get; the category of the condemned, the judged, the hated, the abortion lover. All this kind of response does is repel people from Jesus.
The women in the above story could not focus on the hurt Lisa might be feeling or the hurt her friend might be feeling; all they could focus on was the sin. This prevented them from truly connecting with Lisa and from helping her. Instead of creating a bridge to Jesus, these women built a wall blocking Lisa from Jesus.
Now let's look at two examples from the life of Jesus to give a model for the Church today. The first example comes from John 4 where Jesus confronts the Samaritan woman at the well. What is remarkable about this story is that Jesus shows his willingness and desire to build bridges and break down barriers, as opposed to the religious leaders of the time who wanted to divide people and build walls. The first thing about this story that catches the readers eye is that Jesus, a Jew, has no qualms about socializing with a Samaritan. The Jews and the Samaritans hated each other and would have no interaction with each other unless it was to the bloody death (this is why the story of the good Samaritan, where Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of the story, is such a remarkable story). Not only this, but Jesus was not at all put off by the fact that this woman was seemingly the town slut. As a matter of fact, Jesus did not seem to care too much to develop relationships with people viewed by the culture as "righteous." It was to those viewed as the worst of sinners that Jesus typically spent time with. When Jesus revealed to the woman that he was knowledgeable of her sordid past, she was shocked. I think a lot of her shock had to do with the fact that the Messiah would sit and talk, and love and accept her, knowing what kind of person she was. It did not matter to Jesus that this woman was "sleeping around." Instead, Jesus knew this woman's hurt and the pain she experienced. Jesus knew the daily struggles this woman dealt with. Jesus could look passed the "sin" and see the woman behind the sin, and he had compassion on her.
The second example is one of my favorites and comes from John 8. In this story the scribes and Pharisees caught a woman in adultery and, in order to trap Jesus, reminded him that the law of Moses commanded that she should be put to death and asked him what he thought should be done with her. Jesus famously replies, "let him who is without sin cast the first stone." All of them, one by one, left the scene, leaving the woman alone with Jesus. When Jesus looked up and discovered that none of the men had condemned her, Jesus replied, "then I do not condemn you either." Jesus showed no condemnation for "sinners." Jesus only showed love and acceptance. He did this because he knew that people did not sin out of hatred for God or because they were rebellious. He knew that people sin because of hurts they experience in their lives and that if they felt the love and acceptance that he offered, that they would have the strength to overcome their sins.Today we are acting like Pharisees, dragging those who have had or are considering having abortions to the feet of Jesus and telling him that the Bible condemns such a thing and commands capital punishment for such behavior. We do this with all kinds of sins (or even behavior we consider to be sin though it may not be) and neglect to see these examples in Scripture of how Jesus fought against such responses to sin. As the Church, as the body of Christ, we are called to bring loving acceptance and compassion to the world which is hurting. We are called to respond to abortion not with protest signs or abortion clinic bombings, or even with a cold shoulder. We are called to respond to abortion with the same kind of compassion Jesus had for the Samaritan woman and the adulteress woman. We are called to respond to abortion by showing love and acceptance to those women who have had or are considering having abortions. This is what Jesus did.
Blessings,
-Brandon
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