Thread by @crazypastor

Everyone’s a biblical literalist until they realize that the Bible recognizes abortion and doesn’t condemn it (Ex. 21:22-25) and doesn’t consider a fetus as having a right to life (Num. 5:11-31).

(I have more receipts, by the by.)

The biblical narrative also routinely equates life with breath –– the major Genesis story tells us that the adam (human) formed from the adamah (earth) isn’t life until God breathes through them.

Pro-birth peoples will come back with Jeremiah 1:5 — “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,” which is a specific theological statement about God’s view of the prophet Jeremiah, but okay.

Not to mention that Jeremiah himself curses the day he was born (20:14-18).

Either way, taking Jeremiah 1:5, a single verse, as gospel –– but ignoring plenty of greatest hits from Jesus, like loving your enemy and selling all you own and giving the money to the poor — is a tired, biblically-illiterate evangelical take.

We are hearing “God” three times every minute from Alabama politicians and Missouri evangelicals and Ohio Republicans –– but that doesn’t automatically mean they understand Christian theology.

Usually it means the opposite.

The evangelical pro-birth movement has focused with laser intensity on demolishing Roe since before I was born.

I was raised in a fundamentalist tradition that saw the Roe decision as Satan himself.

And they figured out what biblical scriptures they could use/abuse.

Nevermind that the history of Christian theology and dogma has never had a concise view on when life begins in the womb, or what the Church should say about abortion.

And I’ll tell you one thing I know about Jesus that I learned from biblical storyteller and teacher Dr. Tracy Radosevic:

Jesus isn’t pro-life.

He’s pro-quality of life.

In Mark’s brilliant dual story of the bleeding woman and the dead girl (5:21-43), Jesus is portrayed as prioritizing the woman who has suffered for years with zero quality of life.

Don’t you care about the dead child? Jesus won’t be swayed. He stays with the woman.

This woman who has struggled for years and gone to many doctors and had only gotten worse — she would be ridiculed by pro-birth advocates, wondering what she did to deserve it, telling her to pull herself up by her own bootstraps.

But to Jesus, her quality of life matters.

Anyways.

All I’m saying is: the Bible isn’t a boring old repository of answers, like fundamentalists claim. It’s way more complex.

And I’m a man who is never going to tell a woman what to do with her body. Just wanted to offer up a little bible #onhere.