{"id":423,"date":"2009-02-09T23:49:14","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T23:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/a-pagan-view-on-the-bible-and.html"},"modified":"2009-02-09T23:49:14","modified_gmt":"2009-02-09T23:49:14","slug":"a-pagan-view-on-the-bible-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/a-pagan-view-on-the-bible-and.html","title":{"rendered":"A Pagan View on the Bible and Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abortion is not condemned in the Bible is the conclusion that Pagan blogger Gus diZerega <\/a>reaches to his own surprise:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Scripture mentions human life being in the womb at some point, but it NEVER mentions that conception is where Biblically important life begins.\u00a0 All one can tell from the Biblical passages is that at some time while in the womb the fetus becomes a person.\u00a0 To my knowledge mo one has ever argued otherwise.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, I was amazed, truly amazed, to discover there is no direct mention of abortion anywhere in the Bible.\u00a0 None at all.\u00a0 The closest is Exodus 21:22-25, which the above site does not mention.\u00a0 But this passage does not support the religious right claims, it rebuts them:<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

“And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide.\u00a0 But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>Violently causing a miscarriage is punished by a fine, and an uncertain one at that.\u00a0 Every other injury is compensated by the principle “an eye for an eye.”\u00a0 If the mother is accidentally killed, the responsible party is still executed.\u00a0 But if she miscarries, only a fine is levied. \u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

diZerega finds this is pretty weak reasoning<\/a> for the religious “abortion is murder” arguments. \u00a0
<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abortion is not condemned in the Bible is the conclusion that Pagan blogger Gus diZerega reaches to his own surprise: Scripture mentions human life being in the womb at some point, but it NEVER mentions that conception is where Biblically important life begins.\u00a0 All one can tell from the Biblical passages is that at some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion"],"yoast_head":"\nA Pagan View on the Bible and Abortion - Progressive Revival<\/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\/progressiverevival\/2009\/02\/a-pagan-view-on-the-bible-and.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Pagan View on the Bible and Abortion - 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}