Evangelicals And Abortion

Evangelicals and Abortion traces the history and theological development of evangelical involvement in the abortion issue, and recommends some models of a biblically based response, with particular attention to the United States in the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

This collection of essays is designed to increase a reader's understanding of the facts, issues, principles, and values that should be part of any discussion regarding abortion. It is no accident that Wheaton College professors have authored the essays. After all, disseminating information is one of the tasks of a college. Along with the family, the media, and the church, they play a major role in conveying or changing the values that shape our decisions and therefore determine the nature of society itself.

Explains how abortion politics influenced a fundamental shift in conservative Christian politics, teaching conservatives to embrace rights arguments.

The Sanctity of Human Life is Under Attack. Unborn Children Are Destroyed. The Poor Go Hungry. Families Are Broken Up. We Are All Endangered By Nuclear War. To be completely pro-life means to defend human life wherever it is threatened. Ron Sider provides a consistent vision of what it means to be pro-life. He cuts through party lines by holding fast to Scripture wherever it leads. The result is a refreshing and truly biblical stance on many current and vitally important issues. With the help of the staff of Evangelicals for Social Action, Sider gives us concrete steps to help change our world.

Today's Christian pro-life movement has misplaced its priorities. The issue of abortion is more complex than the movement often appreciates. For a start, Scripture is less clear about the moral weight of the fetus than we often think. In fact, early Christians took different positions on abortion because they also relied on different scientific sources about the unborn. Furthermore, Christian conservatives today do not acknowledge that in American history, as today, Christian stances on abortion were motivated by other political fears: White Protestant Americans developed different state laws on abortion to accomplish anti-immigrant goals in the North, but anti-black racism in the South. That messiness impacts U.S. constitutional law, including Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, Scripture commissions God's people to confront socio-economic factors that push abortion rates higher: male privilege and the disempowerment of women; the high cost of child raising; the causes of birth defects; the desire to care narrowly for just "my children"; mistaken views about contraception and "the culture wars"; and most of all, poverty. This book incorporates biblical studies, church history, science, social science, history, and public policy to argue that we must not approach abortion policy primarily from a criminal justice standpoint, as modern conservatives do, but from a broad social and economic standpoint meant to benefit and bless all children.

Beyond Pro-Life and Pro-Choice is a gift to all who want to expand their understanding of the religious, moral, and philosophical aspects of the abortion debate. Ethicist Kathy Rudy examines four systems of belief - Catholicism, evangelical Protestantism, feminism, and classical liberalism as expressed in the medical profession - and reveals the role abortion plays in each. She shows why, in each case, ideas, about abortion are unlikely to change - because they emerge from each community's deeply held values and concerns, which vary from community to community. She demonstrates that constructing the abortion debate as a choice between "pro-life" and "pro-choice" has distorted and misrepresented the ways that many people relate to the issue of abortion, and has obscured the diversity of belief both among and within communities and individuals. Finally, she offers a provocative alternative that would allow every community involved to more freely develop and express its views about the morality of abortion.