Sunday, February 20, 2005
Abortion And The Bible
True or False: The Bible has at least one passage that condemns abortion as being murder in all circumstances. Answer: FALSE. Check this out:
Joyce Cassidy in the Autumn 1989 issue of the "Humanist in Canada" looks at what the Bible itself says about abortion. In fact it says very little. The little is Exodus 21: 22-25 which does not support an anti-abortion stance:-Of course, if you mention this to the really hard cases, they will simply come back at you with "the Devil can quote Scripture as good as anyone." To which you reply: "Does this mean then that all Scripture is wrong, since the Devil can quote it?" (I suggest wearing a bullet-proof vest for this conversation.)"When men strive together and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined according to as the woman's husband shall lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."Hence a miscarriage from hurt is punishable only by a paltry fine, but if the mother dies, the penalty is life for life. Hence biblically the life of the unborn child/foetus is certainly accorded nothing like the status of the life of the mother. The Bible is littered with requests for God to burden enemies with death and God-given abortions e.g. in Hosea 9: 11-14, Hosea entreats the Lord to inflict on the Canaanite tribe of Ephraim:- "Ephraim must lead forth his sons to slaughter. Give them O Lord what wilt thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts."
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