The Sanctity of Life
“Now choose life, so that
you and your children may live.”
Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)
On January 22, 1984, President Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation designating the third Sunday of January as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. Reagan’s proclamation was designed to bring an increased awareness to abortion’s devastating consequences. Alliance for Life estimates over 65 million abortions occurred in the United States between 1973 and 2021.
Critics often accuse pro-life Christians of being pro-birth instead of pro-life. Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun and social activist, gave voice to this common complaint. “I do not believe,” she said, “that just because you’re opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed...That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”
Chittister’s comments raise a valid point. Is a pro-life worldview only anti-abortion or does it encompass a larger theology of life that extends from the womb to the tomb?
Three years ago I began serving on our church’s initial Theology of Life team. We were charged to develop a twelve-week integrated Pro-Life “Womb to Tomb” curriculum to be taught throughout our church’s adult Sunday School communities. Our Life Team consists of several pastors, seminary professors, professionals, and parents who have worked closely together to develop appropriate materials for addressing important life and cultural issues from a biblical worldview. The curriculum begins with an overview of the theology of life and asks the question, “What does it mean to be human?”
Because a faithful biblical definition of “pro-life” is grounded in the Bible’s teaching of man—male and female—as the Imago Dei, our Life Curriculum examines how we as Christians should understand, articulate, and defend the implications of biblical truth for the sanctity of all life, literally from “womb to tomb.” In other words, what does the Bible say about…??? (fill in the blank).
Gender, sexuality, and identity
Fertility, infertility, IVF, abortion, and abortion recovery
Disability, special needs, fostering, and adoption
Aging, dementia, eldercare, and end of life decisions
Legal issues including wills, advance directives, abortion, and euthanasia
Grief and loss
John 9 is the biblical basis for my Theology of Life session on disability and special needs. Bruce and I used this passage for James Bruce’s memorial service.
In context, Jesus and his disciples have just left the temple and encounter a blind man beggar on the side of the road. In that culture, disability was viewed as a punishment for sin instead of a consequence of living in a fallen world.
The disciples ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus replies:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened
so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
(John 9:3)
The ninth chapter of John’s gospel has sixteen questions within five conversations and is all about the “seeing” as Jesus declares, “I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5)
Jesus sees a man born blind from birth. (9:1)
The disciples see a sinner. ((9:1)
The blind man sees darkness. (9:1)
The neighbors see a healed beggar. (9:8)
The Pharisees see a Lawbreaker. (9:16)
The blind man’s parents see a trap. (9:21-22)
The healed blind man sees Jesus. (9:25, 38)
By the end of John 9, it’s clear that everyone except the blind man is asking the wrong questions. The healed man is the only one who correctly asks, “Who is Jesus?” And the question we must all ask is, “Who remains blind?”
Regarding the urgent need for Christians who think and live biblically, theologian Carl Trueman writes:
“In the space of a few decades, the moral institutions of society have not simply parted company with those of Christianity-they have come to stand in direct opposition to many of them…The churches now need to teach Christian ethics more explicitly and more thoroughly, because that is where the wider culture will challenge Christian discipleship most powerfully…In short, we need good Protestant ethicists who are able to come up with solutions to the various challenges that we face, solutions rooted in our Christian understanding of what it means to be human…”
Thinking and living biblically begins with having God as our reference point and His word as our authority. How prepared are you to defend the sanctity of all life?