Thread: Been thinking about this tweet and the conversation that follows, and it’s led to some internal recalibrating regarding how I employ claims of a “consistent pro-life ethic.” Because I’m not consistent...
...Most of is aren’t. Because life ethics are actually way more complicated and uncertain than many of us want to admit. Does being “consistently pro-life” mean I have to be a pacifist? Does it mean I’m a hypocrite if I’m not an organ donor? Must I protest against IVF?
There was a Christianity Today piece a few weeks ago arguing in support of evangelicals as “inconsistently pro-life.” It was roundly mocked by progressive Christians, but I found myself agreeing with some of what the author said about...
...how it’s not always clear exactly what it looks like to have a “pro-life” position on, say, immigration or war or self-defense. Where I disagreed with the author was in the assertion that life ethics suddenly become abundantly clear when it comes to pregnancy and abortion...
...Because as I’ve grown older, experienced more life (including pregnancy & childbirth) and listened to more people’s stories, my views on abortion and when life (or more accurately, personhood) begins have become a lot more nuanced...
..But like I said in the original conversation, there seems to be no room in the public discourse around abortion for those nuances. Because we like certainly. We CRAVE certainty, especially when it comes to something as important as preserving the value & dignity of human life..
Yeah, it really bothers me that so many Christians who claim to be pro-life seem to care so little about the lives of people after birth (especially black & brown lives, lives with pre-existing conditions, lives affected by gun violence, etc)...
...And it’s just as maddening (and cruel & damaging) when pro-lifers will not engage beyond “abortion is murder” to consider the wide spectrum of circumstances that lead to abortions....
...But I’m growing less comfortable claiming that because I’m a pro-immigrant, anti-death penalty, pacifist-leaning “red letter” Christian, I’m the real “pro-life” kid in the crowd. Just about everyone wants to be “pro-life” in the most basic sense of that term...
...But what I think we’re afraid to acknowledge is that ethics can be hard. Being “consistently pro-life” on guns, on war, on euthanasia, on healthcare, on foreign policy, on aid, and on abortion just isn’t as straightforward as we’d like....
...Yet we still pursue ethics based on the imago dei, on the assertion that every person is created in the image of God and therefore worthy of life abundant. But maybe with a little more openness and humility.
