I am not writing to express my personal opinion on abortion. For the most part, being a man, I am unqualified to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. But with the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade resulting in abortion bans becoming law in many of the Bible Belt states and other states, I am posing this important question for Christians who base their opinion on the Bible:
What does the Bible say about abortion?
Spoiler alert: Nothing.
The word abortion or any synonyms are entirely absent from Biblical text. The closest I could find is the word miscarriage which is used in the Bible two or three times (depending on which version). Evidently, the ancient Hebrews did not have the ability to abort a fetus, but if they did, they probably would have done so at will, although perhaps for different reasons than we see in these times.
Whoa! How can I say such a terrible thing!? I say that because, for a number of reasons, ancient Hebrews, ancestors of the Israelites and today's Jews, were free to kill their children at any time after birth, and could do so with God’s blessing. How so, you ask?
Take the Christian and Jewish dogma found in the so-called Ten Commandments. (Exodus 21) The fifth commandment orders “Thou shalt not kill” which some Christians quote as their proof that God is against abortion. Yet, by the very next commandment, he orders the death of adulterers. (Ha, if we obeyed this commandment today half the members of Congress and several presidents would have been executed!)
Following the Ten Commandments, there are over 600 additional sub-commandments which includes a number of capital crimes punishable by death. Some of these commandments call for death to children for non-violent offenses. For example, God orders the death of any child who curses their mother or father. (Exodus 21:17) That, too, would eliminate a significant percentage of our population, including myself.
As well, God permits a parent to kill his son simply for being stubborn! (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) If your son is homosexual, “surely he must be put to death.” (Leviticus 20:13). That alone would purge much of the Catholic priesthood.
There are more disgusting examples, but you get the picture. With the exception of certain Islamic theocracies (like our good friends in Saudi Arabia) most civilized nations simply ignore most of these commandments from the Almighty. And no thanks to the Bible, we have our own secular laws to punish anyone who attempts to enforce these deplorable edicts.
Frequently, the argument against abortion centers around the question, “When does [human] life begin?” It is a valid question when arguing that taking of a human life is murder.
Christians believe, without evidence, that life begins at conception when a soul magically enters the zygote. First of all, there is no scientific evidence of a soul. So what does the Bible say? Again, the Bible says nothing whatsoever about souls entering fertilized eggs. To the contrary.
According to Jewish law (the law observed by the Jewish Jesus), personhood begins at birth; that is, when a baby draws its first breath. This belief is adopted directly from the creation myth found in the book of Genesis which defines life as “breath”, when God “breathed into [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
This may be a stretch, but from a biological standpoint, it can be argued that life begins with the formation of spermatozoa and eggs at the onset of puberty. Technically, at the very least, sperm and egg represent potential human life. This is the case for some Christians who believe birth control and male masturbation destroys potential humans, and therefore is immoral. Taking this one step further, science tells us that any cell in a living body represents a potential human life.
Back to the Bible. God considers a fetus to be of lesser value than a breathing human being. How so? He says if a man beats a pregnant woman and she lives, but as a result of the beating the fetus dies, he must pay her husband (not the woman) a monetary fine. However, if a man beats a pregnant woman and she dies, the offender must pay the husband with his life for destroying the husband’s “property”, in this case, his wife. (Exodus 21:22-25) No mention of the fetus. So, according to God, “Thou shalt not kill” applies only to persons, not to expelled fetuses.
Just one of many, there is this 'inconvenient' passage about baby killing appearing in Psalms 137:9: "Blessed are those that dash thy infants against the rocks!" Oh my, not exactly a great endorsement for a loving God. I admit, I took this passage out of context. But, I ask you, in what possible context could throwing babies against rocks ever make one blessed, or “happy” as it states in some translations?
Like so many terrible passages in the Bible, placing them back into context often makes them so much worse. Such is the case with this passage. Here is the context as explained by one of the top living Christian apologists, Dr. William Lane Craig. Dr. Craig is an erudite biblical scholar and author of over forty books in defense of the Bible. I have spent many hours listening to his lectures and high-level debates against some tough opponents. Surely he can explain this passage:
Hello? Bill? You there?
Oops. Apparently Bill has nothing to say. Baby dashing must be too difficult a topic to defend, even for Dr. Craig.
So, as a lay person of average intelligence, let me offer my admittedly uninformed, unscholarly interpretation of the context. You may or may not know, the Psalms was the Jewish hymnal. In Psalms 137 the author sings of those Hebrews enslaved by the Babylonians happily carrying out God’s revenge on their captors by murdering their children (various translations say infants, babies, little ones) in a most gruesome way. Some translations say, “Happy are those...”, others say, “Blessed are those...”. Either way, seeking revenge by killing the babies of your enemies should make you happy or blessed by God. Committing this heinous act is a good thing according to this ostensibly 'God-inspired' author of this song. Hey, let's all sit around the campfire and hold hands while we sing along. Oy vey!
Beyond Dr. Craig’s obvious ambivalence toward this passage, doing a cursory Google search of Christian and rabbinical apologetics, some sources claim this 'problem' passage is simply a poetic metaphor, not to be taken literally. They claim, without evidence, that the passage is not a call to murder babies but actually means the Hebrew slaves should be happy when their captors’ children are dashed against the “rocks of reason,” that is, when one day the children of their enemies come to their senses and learn to fear the Lord just as they do.
C'mon. Really?
To my mind, this interpretation takes some extraordinary mental gymnastics to twist and bend such an abhorrent passage into something lovely! But then, that’s how thousands of Christian apologists make their living, am I right?
But not so fast. According to Pew Research, 39% of Christians claim to believe the Bible is the perfect Word of God; infallible, inerrant, to be interpreted literally. No metaphors allowed. Accordingly, one-in-four Christians reading this passage must agree that the revenge killing of babies for God is indeed a good thing to sing about. However, the literal interpretation directly conflicts with the oft-quoted scripture, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord” taken from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome where he refers to Deuteronomy 32:35. This is where God instructs his chosen people not to take revenge on others because, well, that’s his special job!
As well, this flies in the face of the universal Christian belief that God is infinitely good as testified to by innumerable passages of scripture throughout the Old and New Testaments. Paradoxically, the entire Old Testament is soaked in the blood of innocents with this so-called “good” God instructing his chosen people to annihilate entire populations from the face of the earth on his behalf. In particular, he seems to carry an unusually vicious grudge specifically against women, children and more noticeably, the unborn.
Below is just a sampling of God’s wrath exacted upon the defenseless. Just a reminder, these are quotes direct from the lips of the Almighty as recorded in scripture.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN!
Numbers 31:17 - Now therefore kill every male among the little ones.
Deuteronomy 2:34 - ...utterly destroyed the men and the women and the little ones.
Deuteronomy 28:53 - And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body (fetus), the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters.
I Samuel 15:3 - ...slay both man and woman, infant and suckling.
2 Kings 8:12 - ...dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
2 Kings 15:16 - ...all the women therein that were with child he ripped up.
Isaiah 13:16 - Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished (raped).
Isaiah 13:18 - They shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb (babies), their eyes shall not spare children.
Lamentations 2:20 - Shall the women eat their fruit (fetus), and children.
Ezekiel 9:6 - Slay the utterly old and young, both maids and little children.
Hosea 9:14 - ...give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
Hosea 13:16 - ...their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
And then there is the conveniently forgotten tale in the Old Testament (2 Kings 2:23-25) where the Lord sends two bears from the forest to maul forty-two children for mocking a man soley for his baldness. Wow. There is no hate like God's love!
Again, I ask, under what possible circumstances could any of these abhorrent commands and actions from God be a good thing?
To be fair, God occasionally demonstrates his capacity for generosity and mercy. For example, when God commanded Moses and his army to wipe the Midianites off the face of the planet he made one exception. He allowed Moses to “spare the female children who have not known a man by lying with him, to keep alive for yourselves”. (Numbers 38:17-18) So after the slaughter, God generously awards the now orphaned young female virgins as war booty to his murderous (and horny) soldiers.
And what do you think these young virgins were to be used for? Probably not just for cooking and cleaning as some apologists would have you believe!
Genocide, ethnic cleansing, torture, bondage slavery, rape and sexual slavery, as well as theft of land and property were routinely ordered, approved, or committed by this most despicable character, the God of the Bible.
Again, we’ll ask Dr. Craig how he squares such insidious evil with his so-called "good and loving" God. Although Dr. Craig is often silent on the many horrific acts attributed to his Lord, Craig is an unflappable promoter of Divine Command Theory (DCT). Sound unfamiliar? Well, if you are a Christian you probably subscribe to this theory without even realizing it. It is the oldest and most widely held ethical theory in the world.
Subscribers to Divine Command Theory claim something like this:
Because God is perfect, he is the ultimate objective source of morality; therefore he is incapable of doing evil.
Like Dr. Craig, these Christians argue the problem with all the apparent mayhem God has created throughout written history lies with our limited understanding of God, not with God himself; that as mere mortals we cannot possibly understand his infinite wisdom and therefore must assume that anything he commands, anything he does, no matter how it conflicts with our innate sense of right and wrong, is ultimately for good; that being divine, God is not to be held to any inferior, subjective human understanding of morality. In time, they claim, he may choose to reveal to us his reasons for committing atrocities or allowing such atrocities to be committed in the future (i.e. the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust!) Or not.
Unlike Dr. Craig, I do not hold a PhD in theology, nor have I written a single religious book. But in my simple, uneducated mind, it seems that a better definition of morality, a benchmark against which all human behaviors, actions and policies should be tested is the one proposed by my 15-year old granddaughter...well, in so many words:
Morality is that which does the least amount of harm to our planet and our human family while best maximizing human well-being.
Coming from a young, fertile mind not poisoned by religious doctrine, this is certainly a more thoughtful, useful definition than the casuistry offered by Christians.
As for human well-being, Divine Command Theory fails the 'granddaughter test' completely! Without a doubt, DCT is the most pernicious, perverted of all Christian doctrines and, as such, provides an irrational, immoral justification for all manner of crimes against humanity: As long as these atrocities are committed by the Lord or commanded in his name, it must be good!
As I have briefly but unequivocally illustrated, the Bible takes no position on abortion while God demonstrates, by his own words and deeds, that he is the very antithesis of the pro-life movement!
So my message to the pro-life Christians is this: Yes! By all means, go ahead, take a stand against abortion. But please, please be intellectually honest and do not try to use scriptural straw men to support your position! Instead, try running it through the simple 'granddaughter' filter proposed above. And just be honest. Then and only then will you be entitled to your opinion.