Excellent article, thank you. I appreciate your application of Frame’s triangle. In the post, you mention that Biblically, taking a human life ranks the highest amongst sins (so to speak). While agree with you, I am also looking through scripture a bit to see where it says that explicitly. I see plenty of implicit passages (Cain & Abel is a simple start). Is there anywhere that the Bible explicitly calls out murder as “the worst” of sins?
Thank you, Alan, for reading and for your kind comments. I do not believe I said murder ranks the highest or was the worst. I made a comparison with theft merely to demonstrate that there is “unequal” weight between the two. I think it is safe to say, however, that crimes that receive the highest punishment in biblical law are “weightier” than those that don’t. Make sense?
This was helpful. On abortion, I'm with you. I'm for outlawing it. However, I'm less persuaded than ever that this position is the obvious and only one a consistent American believer can take. While I believe abortion is a form of murder, it is a very different form than all others. We will never eradicate it, particularly in an age when medical/technological means are available to quietly kill the unborn long before the mother has any outward manifestation of being pregnant. I'm still agin it, and want it banned, but I can see the perspective of those who acknowledge the evil at play but don't believe criminalization is the answer. The fact that the abortion rate is now lower than it was before Roe also complicates the view that criminalization is a biblical no-brainer.
Thanks for reading! “We will never eradicate it, therefore let’s not criminalize it” could be said for every single criminal activity under the sun. So…the premise is faulty. ;)
Sure. And I'm for criminalization. But you don't think abortion is unique in a number of ways, among them that a pregnant woman very often is able to commit this crime without anyone discovering the pregnancy, let alone the act? And therefore criminalizing it in the same way as the murder of the born is... complicated? I saw just today SBC folks at each other over whether or not women caught aborting their unborn children should be prosecuted in a post-Roe/anti-abortion regime. That this is a live debate indicates to me that criminalization is not the slam dunk I once thought it was. Though at the end of the day, I'm still for it!
It is somewhat unique, that's true. But I will point out that just our plain old murder laws are also very flexible, taking into account a variety of factors surrounding the crime. There's a difference between first-degree murder and manslaughter, for example, and I suspect that any criminalization with regard to abortion will be hammered out similarly. That's why I called making it illegal the *baseline.* There's plenty to debate and figure out after that! Cheers!
Lot of good insights. Been struggling to wrap my head around all this. Thanks.
Excellent article, thank you. I appreciate your application of Frame’s triangle. In the post, you mention that Biblically, taking a human life ranks the highest amongst sins (so to speak). While agree with you, I am also looking through scripture a bit to see where it says that explicitly. I see plenty of implicit passages (Cain & Abel is a simple start). Is there anywhere that the Bible explicitly calls out murder as “the worst” of sins?
Thank you, Alan, for reading and for your kind comments. I do not believe I said murder ranks the highest or was the worst. I made a comparison with theft merely to demonstrate that there is “unequal” weight between the two. I think it is safe to say, however, that crimes that receive the highest punishment in biblical law are “weightier” than those that don’t. Make sense?
OK yes, that makes sense.
This was helpful. On abortion, I'm with you. I'm for outlawing it. However, I'm less persuaded than ever that this position is the obvious and only one a consistent American believer can take. While I believe abortion is a form of murder, it is a very different form than all others. We will never eradicate it, particularly in an age when medical/technological means are available to quietly kill the unborn long before the mother has any outward manifestation of being pregnant. I'm still agin it, and want it banned, but I can see the perspective of those who acknowledge the evil at play but don't believe criminalization is the answer. The fact that the abortion rate is now lower than it was before Roe also complicates the view that criminalization is a biblical no-brainer.
Thanks for reading! “We will never eradicate it, therefore let’s not criminalize it” could be said for every single criminal activity under the sun. So…the premise is faulty. ;)
Sure. And I'm for criminalization. But you don't think abortion is unique in a number of ways, among them that a pregnant woman very often is able to commit this crime without anyone discovering the pregnancy, let alone the act? And therefore criminalizing it in the same way as the murder of the born is... complicated? I saw just today SBC folks at each other over whether or not women caught aborting their unborn children should be prosecuted in a post-Roe/anti-abortion regime. That this is a live debate indicates to me that criminalization is not the slam dunk I once thought it was. Though at the end of the day, I'm still for it!
It is somewhat unique, that's true. But I will point out that just our plain old murder laws are also very flexible, taking into account a variety of factors surrounding the crime. There's a difference between first-degree murder and manslaughter, for example, and I suspect that any criminalization with regard to abortion will be hammered out similarly. That's why I called making it illegal the *baseline.* There's plenty to debate and figure out after that! Cheers!
Excellent! I'll be sharing this one.