{"id":4464,"date":"2008-10-20T00:30:16","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T00:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2008\/10\/abortion-and-the-blue-parakeet.html"},"modified":"2008-10-20T00:30:16","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T00:30:16","slug":"abortion-and-the-blue-parakeet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/10\/abortion-and-the-blue-parakeet.html","title":{"rendered":"Abortion and The Blue Parakeet"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my new book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible<\/a>\"\"<\/em>, one of the major points is that the Church has learned to read the Bible by discernment<\/em> instead of treating everything as law. I got a letter recently about abortion, and I’d like to sketch — inadequately — the basics of how discernment works when it comes to the abortion issue. [Today I post the letter. I’ll post my answer tomorrow. Originally, I had it up at the end of this post but I thought better of that and will post it tomorrow.]
\nHow do you approach the abortion issue? What is the “evidence” you use to make your decision? What does the Bible say that leads you to your decision? (See this article<\/a> for a recent strong critique of Obama because of his views and voting record on abortion issues.)
\nDear Scot,
\nOkay, here it is: I’m passionately committed to having all my theology
\nand practice be based on Scripture, interpreted as the original authors
\nwould have intended it to be. To the best of my ability to determine
\nthat, of course. So having assessed some of my other evangelical idols
\nin light of what the whole of Scripture actually says, I thought as a
\nthinking pro-life Christian I should do the same with abortion.
\nI believe the pro-life side has framed the debate properly. This is
\nfirst and foremost about when the fetus becomes a “person” (a more
\naccurate description than saying “when life begins”). We can argue it
\nlegally or scientifically, but I needed to start with Scripture. I was
\nalways taught the first step in exegesis is gathering the evidence. So
\nto build a theology of the beginning of human life, I needed to gather
\nall the passages that apply to that issue, properly interpreted in
\ncontext. I haven’t gotten far into it, but here’s sort of a summary of
\nmy cursory research so far:
\nThe Bible is ambiguous.
\nThere it is. I said it. To clarify, the Bible says life:
\n– begins before birth (Ps. 51:5; Ps. 139:13; Luke 1:41)
\n– is found in the blood (Lev. 17:11,14; Deut. 12:23; Ezek. 3:18)–can
\nthere be life where there is no blood? At what point can we say the
\nfetus has its own blood distinct from the mother’s?
\n– begins\/ends with the breath (Gen. 1:30; 2:7; 6:17; 7:15,22); 7 times
\nin Scripture “breathed his\/her last” means “he died”; of course in
\nHebrew & Greek the same word is used for breath & spirit–can there be
\nlife without breath?
\n– In the Law, a person is not “counted” until one month old! (Lev. 27:6;
\n7x in Num. 3; Num. 18:16; 26:62)
\nThanks.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my new book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, one of the major points is that the Church has learned to read the Bible by discernment instead of treating everything as law. I got a letter recently about abortion, and I’d like to sketch — inadequately — the basics of how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nAbortion and The Blue Parakeet - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/10\/abortion-and-the-blue-parakeet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Abortion and The Blue Parakeet - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In my new book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, one of the major points is that the Church has learned to read the Bible by discernment instead of treating everything as law. I got a letter recently about abortion, and I’d like to sketch — inadequately — the basics of how…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/10\/abortion-and-the-blue-parakeet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-20T00:30:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0310284880\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"xscot mcknight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Abortion and The Blue Parakeet - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/10\/abortion-and-the-blue-parakeet.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Abortion and The Blue Parakeet - Jesus Creed","og_description":"In my new book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, one of the major points is that the Church has learned to read the Bible by discernment instead of treating everything as law. 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