Today I was thinking a little bit, and for some reason I thought back to my Pine Cove interview. For those of you who don't know, in September I interviewed for a position leading worship at a camp in Tyler, Texas. It will (hopefully) take up my entire summer, and I believe that it will be an amazing opportunity for me to grow and to help others grow in Christ. Anyway, the interview was fairly short, but they asked some pretty personal questions, as they should, given that I will be impacting the lives of literally hundreds of kids throughout the course of the summer. Wow- I actually hadn't fully comprehended that until I just typed it. Wow.
In the course of the interview, I was asked to give my moral convictions in regard to several different, fairly controversial issues, such as homosexuality and abortion. For some reason, I keep catching myself thinking about the issue of abortion. Here's my take on it:
Murder is a sin, as well as a federal offense. Therefore, killing anyone is wrong. That's the simple part of it. The more complicated part is defining unborn babies (here the term "unborn babies" will refer to any fetuses anywhere between conception and birth) as a part of anyone. To be straightforward, there are truly no bible verses that are completely clear on the issue. While there are some that refer to us being loved "in the womb," that does not necessarily mean at conception. There remains the possibility that God begins to love us at some point during our development in the womb. I could be after conception. There is no verse that says "Life begins at conception" or the equivalent. That would make it too easy, wouldn't it?
However, through my own research, which you should NOT take my word on, as I am merely a college student majoring in engineering, I have found a few bible verses that I believe point towards life at conception, and possibly before. The one I will use is Psalm 51:5:
"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."
My argument based on this verse is that it is impossible for someone who doesn't exist to be sinful. Because they are sinful, they exist, and are human. If they are human, they would qualify as anyone and be able to be murdered.
Ok, let's assume that, for some reason, you don't believe that all scriptures are completely valid, or you think I'm reading too much into that one. Or you're not Christian at all and are laughing at me right now because all I can find to support my argument is an obscure, out-of-context scripture passage. Here's the scientific reasoning behind my argument.
Conception is the point at which the egg and the sperm are joined and the DNA that each is carrying is put together. At this point, the embryo has all of the information that it will ever need to grow into old age. The color of its eyes, its height, when its hair will begin to turn gray or if it will be bald, whether it will contract cancer that it inherited from its parents, are all predetermined at the moment of conception. To argue that it is not a person because it has not developed organs, bones, etc, is like saying a 7 year old isn't a person because they have not yet experienced puberty.
Now to the hardest part of the issue: What about if the conception was a product of rape?
I believe that I have already answered this question. I believe that, whatever the circumstances of conception, the unborn baby is still a person, and it would be murder to abort it. I think this sounds cold, and I understand that I will never have to deal with the issue for myself, but I believe it to be true. First, the reason you are aborting it is because it is an inconvenience to you. This may be a gross understatement, but the essence of it is correct. Now, think about why a murderer kills. I'm not talking about serial killers, only murderers that have a motive, as most do. A murder kills, in essence, because the person they kill is an inconvenience to them in some form or another. Second, while I realize that rape was not your fault, you have been given a baby to take care of, and you should take care of it, or at least put it up for adoption when it is born, instead of killing it. If you found a baby on your doorstep, would you bury it in the back yard, or would you make sure that it found a home, whether it was with you or someone else? I would hope you would choose the latter, as the former is, most definitely, a sin.
In the course of the interview, I was asked to give my moral convictions in regard to several different, fairly controversial issues, such as homosexuality and abortion. For some reason, I keep catching myself thinking about the issue of abortion. Here's my take on it:
Murder is a sin, as well as a federal offense. Therefore, killing anyone is wrong. That's the simple part of it. The more complicated part is defining unborn babies (here the term "unborn babies" will refer to any fetuses anywhere between conception and birth) as a part of anyone. To be straightforward, there are truly no bible verses that are completely clear on the issue. While there are some that refer to us being loved "in the womb," that does not necessarily mean at conception. There remains the possibility that God begins to love us at some point during our development in the womb. I could be after conception. There is no verse that says "Life begins at conception" or the equivalent. That would make it too easy, wouldn't it?
However, through my own research, which you should NOT take my word on, as I am merely a college student majoring in engineering, I have found a few bible verses that I believe point towards life at conception, and possibly before. The one I will use is Psalm 51:5:
"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."
My argument based on this verse is that it is impossible for someone who doesn't exist to be sinful. Because they are sinful, they exist, and are human. If they are human, they would qualify as anyone and be able to be murdered.
Ok, let's assume that, for some reason, you don't believe that all scriptures are completely valid, or you think I'm reading too much into that one. Or you're not Christian at all and are laughing at me right now because all I can find to support my argument is an obscure, out-of-context scripture passage. Here's the scientific reasoning behind my argument.
Conception is the point at which the egg and the sperm are joined and the DNA that each is carrying is put together. At this point, the embryo has all of the information that it will ever need to grow into old age. The color of its eyes, its height, when its hair will begin to turn gray or if it will be bald, whether it will contract cancer that it inherited from its parents, are all predetermined at the moment of conception. To argue that it is not a person because it has not developed organs, bones, etc, is like saying a 7 year old isn't a person because they have not yet experienced puberty.
Now to the hardest part of the issue: What about if the conception was a product of rape?
I believe that I have already answered this question. I believe that, whatever the circumstances of conception, the unborn baby is still a person, and it would be murder to abort it. I think this sounds cold, and I understand that I will never have to deal with the issue for myself, but I believe it to be true. First, the reason you are aborting it is because it is an inconvenience to you. This may be a gross understatement, but the essence of it is correct. Now, think about why a murderer kills. I'm not talking about serial killers, only murderers that have a motive, as most do. A murder kills, in essence, because the person they kill is an inconvenience to them in some form or another. Second, while I realize that rape was not your fault, you have been given a baby to take care of, and you should take care of it, or at least put it up for adoption when it is born, instead of killing it. If you found a baby on your doorstep, would you bury it in the back yard, or would you make sure that it found a home, whether it was with you or someone else? I would hope you would choose the latter, as the former is, most definitely, a sin.
1 comment:
very compelling arguements. the analogy involving the 7 year old and puberty rang so true. i like when you make me ponder & think.
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