My Own Pro-Life Creed

My Own “Pro-Life” Creed
by, Charles W. Christian

Beyond Election Talk

With so much talk in this election year – and every election year – about being “pro life”, I thought I would at least share my journey on this topic as one who has pastored for twenty years and who has been teaching ethics to students for about 14 years. Because of the political attention paid to this term, as you can imagine, it is a popular topic for papers and discussions in Social Ethics courses. It is also a hot topic in the media and in church life.

It is mostly because of real life discussions I have had with people in church life that I have wrestled with the broader implications of what it means to be “pro life.” Christians wrestle with life-related questions because we seek to serve the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who consistently identifies Himself with “life” in Scripture (See, Genesis 1-3; John 10 and 11; etc.). Life is presented as a gift given, sustained, and even enhanced by God through the Holy Spirit and through growing connection with the Community of God (i.e., the Church). In Scripture, there is no real reference to a “right” to life, as some have argued. Rather, life is seen as a gift: a gift God gives for the purpose of fellowship with God and others in order to (in the language of the New Testament, especially) proclaim the Good News of God’s love and redemption through Christ.

So, being “pro life” for the Christian obviously goes beyond, but still includes, what happens at conception and birth. It is about the use of the God-centered, community-centered gift of life extended to us by God. With that in mind, I have often felt that certain “pro life” emphases in the American Christian community, though important, fall short of the bigger picture of God’s grander design for what “life” means.

Therefore, for what it is worth, I have listed my own understanding of what it means to be “pro life.” I hope my view is continuing to develop, but here is where it is right now. My purpose for sharing these is that we will no longer allow politicians to flash this phrase every few years during election season, rally people to vote for them, and then tuck it aside without addressing the key issues. Furthermore, I hope that we can use a broader definition of “pro life” to recognize that neither political party has consistently shown what many in Christianity would consider to be a consistent “pro life” ethic. Therefore, we must fairly and consistently offer critiques across party lines as Christians who are concerned about the use or abuse of the gift of life that God has extended to us by His grace.

A Pro Life Declaration:

I believe abortion is wrong, but just having a baby isn’t the whole answer. I think abortion not only takes away human life, but it cripples the community now and in the future. This means that if I believe that women who are pregnant should in most cases carry their child to full birth, I must be willing to support programs in the church and in the community that offer help and hope to women who find themselves in a situation of an “unwanted pregnancy.” It also means that I should support laws that call into account men who abandon women with such pregnancies. Furthermore, it means that if I value the life of BOTH the mother and the baby, I should do my best to help create a situation where the pregnancy is not a “punishment” for the mother and/or the infant, but rather a chance at something redemptive. Matters involving rape and incest should be considered in light of the mother (and the father, where applicable) and their community of faith: will the birth of this child be redemptive or not?

I believe a moral issue like the death penalty can be right in principle and wrong in application/practice. Therefore, I believe that when a seemingly biblical principle like the death penalty, for instance, is applied in unjust ways, it is wrong and is not pro life. The death penalty in Christianity has always been a matter of debate, since its earliest applications in Christian contexts have been extremely negative. Jesus Christ Himself was an unjustly accused and convicted victim of the death penalty, as were many early (and present) Christian martyrs. Therefore, even the most “pro-death penalty” person of faith should at least look more closely into the application of this tool of the State. In the U.S., the number of poor and minority people on death row is many times greater than the representative proportion of the population. It is also many times greater than their white counterparts who commit similar crimes. This is simply disproportionate, and therefore in my mind, causes me to say that even if I were "for" the death penalty in principle, I could not (and do not) support the way it is carried out in the U.S. and in many other countries. As people called to “do justice and love mercy,” according to Scripture, applying this so called “tool of justice” unjustly (and often unmercifully) violates a key tenet of what I understand to be “pro life.”

I believe that many instances of endorsing and carrying out war can (and often does) elevate one's nation to a place that is reserved for God alone, and is therefore immoral. Early Christians were pacifists largely because they were the “enemy” of the government military (Rome). After the Roman emperor Constantine (fourth century) publicly endorsed Christianity, it became more acceptable for Christians to join the ranks of the Roman legions. Needless to say, the debate about the role of Christians is regard to war continues to this day, and there are very well thought out arguments on all sides of this issue. Regardless of where one stands on the issue of pacifism, though, there are indeed biblical “red flags” regarding the role of Christian support regarding war. Even Christians who are not technically pacifists recognize that there are certain boundary lines Christians should not cross, including the elevation of the defense of any nation above the role of God and the ways of God in one’s actions. As every nation, including our own, has learned, military might does not always make a nation “right” in particular actions it carries out in wartime. Therefore, a consistently pro life ethic for Christians includes the possibility of critiquing and even refusing participation in certain acts that cross the line in regard to valuing the gift of life God has given, even in times of war.

Conclusion: Trying to Be Consistent
If I determine that an unborn baby's life cannot be aborted, but I negelect his/her well being after he/she is born by scoffing at programs that try to assist his/her parents, then I don't think that is consistently pro-life. If I am more likely to put a person with dark skin on death row and give a light skinned person who committed the same or similar crime life without parole (as is true, based upon the U.S.'s own statistics!), then I am not being consistently pro-life. If I blow up portions of countries through warfare in a way that results in the deaths of thousands of children who were NOT aborted, or if I demean even enemies through vicious acts of torture, then I don't think that is consistently pro-life. If I put myself in the place of God in regard to who should die and who should not, whether they be pre-born, children, or adults who have sinned, then I risk becoming an idolater who cannot being consistently pro-life because I am attempting to elevate myself to the place of God who is the Source and Author of life.

In other words, I think we need a broader definition.