Can a Christian make the following statement in good faith?

[Xeno.of.athens]

Can a Christian make the following statement in good faith?

I will never have an abortion nor would I advise another person to have one nor would I go out of my way to assist a person to have one. Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.​

Please, when replying, do not make this into a pro-abortion vs anti-abortion debate. The intention is to ask if a faithful Christian can hold both that abortion is morally unacceptable and also that the state ought not to legislate to make a pregnant woman, her doctor, the nurses and other support persons into criminals because they participated in an abortion.

 

[Green Sun]

Absolutely.

 

[Sketcher]

I personally cannot make that statement.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

They can make that statement and remain a Christian. They are however being inconsistent. In adhering to a principle that values the right to abortion more than their religious views (that an innocent life will be murdered in an abortion), they view the former as the more important moral standard. It's like being personally against murder, but advocating the decriminalization of it. It just doesn't work.

There are plenty of Christians who think this way, mainly because they have been convinced that their morals are not worthy of implementation in law. Christians need to rethink their commitment to this line of reasoning.

 

[Lady Bug]

I will never have an abortion nor would I advise another person to have one nor would I go out of my way to assist a person to have one. Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.​

Since you are Catholic, what do you think about that statement possibly being a formal cooperation in evil?

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

Since you are Catholic, what do you think about that statement possibly being a formal cooperation in evil?

How so? The statement rejects abortion and any assistance in procuring an abortion.

 

[Lady Bug]

How so? The statement rejects abortion and any assistance in procuring an abortion.

This one below.

Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

It's like being personally against murder, but advocating the decriminalization of it. It just doesn't work.

That is an interesting perspective. Yet it is common for Christians to be involved in war killings and to support war when their nation is involved. So sometimes murder (or perhaps just killing rather than murder) is decriminalised.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

This one below.

How is

Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.​

formal support for abortion?

 

[Lady Bug]

How is

Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.​

formal support for abortion?

By not supporting such laws doesn't it mean that you support laws that make it alright?

 

[Lady Bug]

p.s. I'm not baiting you, I don't want to look like I am. I'm just asking.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

By not supporting such laws doesn't it mean that you support laws that make it alright?

No, it means the Christian in question does not support any law about the matter I think.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

That is an interesting perspective. Yet it is common for Christians to be involved in war killings and to support war when their nation is involved. So sometimes murder (or perhaps just killing rather than murder) is decriminalised.

I do make a distinction between killing and murder. Murder being unlawful and deliberately immoral, whereas killing is something else. Christians historically have not been above killing, via execution or launching wars, or in enforcing law amongst themselves, but the justifications for those actions have been rooted in principles moral and theological. If you have to kill the Muslims invading Spain in order to preserve your Christian community, that seems justified to me. If you have to execute a rapist or a murderer, that is likewise justified.

To kill an unborn child simply because it's an inconvenience and allow for it's death solely at the discretion of the Mother is unacceptable. It goes beyond any Christian reasoning to a different way of thinking. Namely secular.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Can a Christian make the following statement in good faith?

I will never have an abortion nor would I advise another person to have one nor would I go out of my way to assist a person to have one. Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.​

Please, when replying, do not make this into a pro-abortion vs anti-abortion debate. The intention is to ask if a faithful Christian can hold both that abortion is morally unacceptable and also that the state ought not to legislate to make a pregnant woman, her doctor, the nurses and other support persons into criminals because they participated in an abortion.

I'll break this down if you dont mind.
I will never have an abortion.
If your a man you never will. If your a 15 year old you may be forced by your parents. If your raped by a family member or stranger you may wish to do so.
Moral of the story, no one can say never until they have to make the decision based on their circumstance.

nor would I advise another person to have one
Agree. I would not force my 15 year old daughter to have an abortion or put her child up for adoption if she wanted to keep it. The child is family ! It is her decision.

nor would I go out of my way to assist a person to have one.
No would not unless the circumstances were dire like her life was in danger.

Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.
The law is the law.

 

[Jamdoc]

Can a Christian make the following statement in good faith?

I will never have an abortion nor would I advise another person to have one nor would I go out of my way to assist a person to have one. Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.​

Please, when replying, do not make this into a pro-abortion vs anti-abortion debate. The intention is to ask if a faithful Christian can hold both that abortion is morally unacceptable and also that the state ought not to legislate to make a pregnant woman, her doctor, the nurses and other support persons into criminals because they participated in an abortion.

To some degree yes. I do value privacy and can empathize with being "pro choice" but anti-abortion, if you take my meaning, in that yes, I do prefer when the government is not in our business, but at the same time, morally abortion is unacceptable outside of medical necessity.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

The law is the law.

What you say is true, yet there is no law requiring abortion and until today not many forbidding abortion. So while the law is the law is it also true that the lack of a law is the law?

 

[Maria Billingsley]

What you say is true, yet there is no law requiring abortion and until today not many forbidding abortion. So while the law is the law is it also true that the lack of a law is the law?

The lack of a law then becomes the conscience.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

There seems to be a dichotomy in that statement that would make it impossible for any rational person to make, Christian or not.

 

[zippy2006]

The intention is to ask if a faithful Christian can hold both that abortion is morally unacceptable and also that the state ought not to legislate...

Generally speaking not all moral evils need to be the subject of legislation, but given that abortion is a form of murder legislation is more or less inevitable.

 

[Jonaitis]

Can a Christian make the following statement in good faith?

I will never have an abortion nor would I advise another person to have one nor would I go out of my way to assist a person to have one. Yet I do not support the state making laws to criminalise the act of abortion for those who participate in an abortion in any capacity that I can think of.​

Please, when replying, do not make this into a pro-abortion vs anti-abortion debate. The intention is to ask if a faithful Christian can hold both that abortion is morally unacceptable and also that the state ought not to legislate to make a pregnant woman, her doctor, the nurses and other support persons into criminals because they participated in an abortion.

I don't know, if abortion is murder, then it should be treated as such under the law. It seems that this person is not being consistent.