Contraception as factor in the Abortion Problem

[Josh]

Fornication leads people straight to hell. As Christians, we should be focused on helping people stop doing things like fornicate, commit adultery, murder, and so forth, and instead bring them into Jesus' kingdom.

Sweet. You live in a tidy world Josh.

As a Christian I cannot in good conscience promote things that make fornication "easier".

Funny, that's the way l feel about assault weapons.

I'm not sure what you mean by an "assault weapon" (I assume you are using the liberal-progressive loaded political term), but as a Christian, I don't promote making killing people easier. That's one reason I abstain from politics.

[Josh]

I agree with the points OJ, Josh and others are making.

A change of heart, that is conversion (not persuasion, although that too will help), is the best way to end abortions. Meanwhile, we can reduce abortions with easy free access to birth control, free prenatal care, free birthing centers, and reducing other financial barriers to parenthood.

I could see a Christian ministry doing all of the things Jim suggests except for the easy free access to birth control.

One ministry I know of that does these sorts of things is Save the Storks. They have a bus where you expectant mothers can receive free ultrasounds and other basic medical care. A really great idea.

My point of departure is arguing that it's the "best" way to end abortions.

We don't think that persuasion and newsletters and charity programs was the best way to end slavery, or the best way to end the Holocaust.

As a Christian, I wouldn't have fought in World War II, but I wouldn't exactly be complaining about ending the Holocaust the way many here seem to be wringing their hands about the Supreme Court turning more conservative and anti-abortion.

[mike]

My point of departure is arguing that it's the "best" way to end abortions.

We don't think that persuasion and newsletters and charity programs was the best way to end slavery, or the best way to end the Holocaust.

As a Christian, I wouldn't have fought in World War II, but I wouldn't exactly be complaining about ending the Holocaust the way many here seem to be wringing their hands about the Supreme Court turning more conservative and anti-abortion.

Nobody here is arguing that it is the best way; like Jim said, the best way is conversion. My question is whether advocating for contraception should even be a factor in how Christians combat abortion. I agree with those who are saying it should not.

[mike]

However, as a pragmatic societal strategy (outside of the perfection of Christ), if the aim is to save babies lives by lessening the number of abortions, then deliberately leaving contraception off of a list of ways to limit unwanted pregnancies seems irresponsible to me.

Very interesting how you put this. There are a good many "pragmatic societal strategies that are outside the perfection of Christ." For example the use of military and police force, or capital punishment. As a Christian and and Anabaptist I would not advocate against these things, but neither would I advocate for them because they are in fact outside the perfection of Christ. I am sure that advocating for free and easy contraceptives is a "pragmatic societal strategy"; however I am asking these questions from the perspective of inside the "perfection of Christ" - not outside.

And so, I'm not sure what your answer really is. I'm not really interested, at the moment, in the secular mindset on this; I'm trying to understand why a Christian would advocate for free and easy access to contraception as a factor in reducing abortions.

[Josh]

And so, I'm not sure what your answer really is. I'm not really interested, at the moment, in the secular mindset on this; I'm trying to understand why a Christian would advocate for free and easy access to contraception as a factor in reducing abortions.

Could it be that "contraception will help reduce abortions" and "voting for right wing candidates will help pass laws against abortion" is really just two sides of the same coin?

Both statements seem to be technically true, but both are also off-limits for the Christian (in my opinion).

[Josh]

My point of departure is arguing that it's the "best" way to end abortions.

We don't think that persuasion and newsletters and charity programs was the best way to end slavery, or the best way to end the Holocaust.

As a Christian, I wouldn't have fought in World War II, but I wouldn't exactly be complaining about ending the Holocaust the way many here seem to be wringing their hands about the Supreme Court turning more conservative and anti-abortion.

Nobody here is arguing that it is the best way; like Jim said, the best way is conversion. My question is whether advocating for contraception should even be a factor in how Christians combat abortion. I agree with those who are saying it should not.

My fault. I misread what Jim said.

[Dan Z]

However, as a pragmatic societal strategy (outside of the perfection of Christ), if the aim is to save babies lives by lessening the number of abortions, then deliberately leaving contraception off of a list of ways to limit unwanted pregnancies seems irresponsible to me.

Very interesting how you put this. There are a good many "pragmatic societal strategies that are outside the perfection of Christ." For example the use of military and police force, or capital punishment. As a Christian and and Anabaptist I would not advocate against these things, but neither would I advocate for them because they are in fact outside the perfection of Christ.

Well, Mike, as I said, your questions are good ones. However, you've changed the context of the discussion when you borrowed quotes from a thread discussing the best societal responses to abortion, and placed them in a thread discussing the best Christian responses to abortion. The first was more of an academic exercise (What should society do?), the second is pore personal (What should I as a Christian do?).

As you noted, societal solutions are often pragmatic (see Romans 13) - in this case, what is the best way for American society to limit the tragedy of infanticide so that the lives precious children might be saved?

This type of question illustrates well the ethical murkiness of politics for the Christian by the way. Your point is a good one - it may be better to have no opinion on the distribution of contraception (which in and of itself is no sin), even if the end result saves lives, than to slip into situational ethics that are hard to justify with Christian absolutes. It is certainly easier to remain on tidy moral ground - although I'm not convinced that tidiness is always the highest Christian virtue.

[mike]

However, as a pragmatic societal strategy (outside of the perfection of Christ), if the aim is to save babies lives by lessening the number of abortions, then deliberately leaving contraception off of a list of ways to limit unwanted pregnancies seems irresponsible to me.

Very interesting how you put this. There are a good many "pragmatic societal strategies that are outside the perfection of Christ." For example the use of military and police force, or capital punishment. As a Christian and and Anabaptist I would not advocate against these things, but neither would I advocate for them because they are in fact outside the perfection of Christ.

Well, Mike, you've changed the context of the discussion when you borrowed quotes from a thread discussing the best societal responses to abortion, and placed them in a thread discussing the best Christian responses to abortion.

As you noted, societal solutions are often pragmatic (see Romans 13) - in this case, what is the best way for American society to limit the tragedy of infanticide so that the lives precious children might be saved? The question was framed as an "outside the perfection of Christ" question - to which Jim and I gave pragmatic "outside the perfection of Christ" answers (while both noting that the ultimate solution is a spiritual one). As a member of society, I would like to see less abortions - as a Christian would like to see people to turn to Jesus and live chaste and upright lives. Perhaps those things can both happen.

This type of question illustrates well the ethical murkiness of politics for the Christian by the way. Your point is a good one - it may be better to have no opinion on the distribution of contraception (which in and of itself is no sin), even if the end result saves lives, than to slip into situational ethics that are hard to justify with Christian absolutes. It is certainly easier to remain on tidy moral ground - although I'm not convinced that tidiness is the highest Christian virtue.

Sure, my question brought the question into the Christian context. And so your answer within the context of a Christian response would be...?

To re-phrase the question: Does advocating for free and easy contraceptives have any place within the Christian response to the abortion problem?

And to make the question really practical: Should a Christian crisis pregnancy center offer contraception as part of its ministry?

[Dan Z]

To answer your question "inside the perspective of Christ" - I think sex outside of marriage is a sin.

Thus, I wouldn't hand out condoms to anyone not married or teach "safe sex" to my church's youth group. I also don't think a Christian crisis pregnancy center should be in the contraception business. I do think they should be in the education business however - both biologically and theologically.

[HondurasKeiser]

I'll answer and say with some measure of hesitancy that I do not think Christians should advocate or themselves use contraceptives. I say that I do so hesitantly because I'm going with my gut on this one, though I have given this issue some thought in the past.