It makes a big difference, and there’s been a radical shift in how that passage has been translated since Roe V. Wade. Here’s a great essay about it with dozens of examples.
EDIT: Whoops, my mistake. The above essay lays out the history. This later essay from the same author lays out examples.
If God knows that a fetus is going to be aborted, why even bother “fearfully and wonderfully” making it in the first place?
In church, I was always told that God had a plan for my life, and that nothing could thwart that plan. That means that God had a plan for a fetus’s life that included the fetus being aborted. That doesn’t make any sense.
I don’t know if it was official dogma, but in medieval times there was at least a folk belief that for a time what was growing did not have a soul, and that the soul was specifically added. There are illustrations of angels adding the souls to the bellies of pregnant women. This was thought to happen at quickening (the time when the baby’s movements could be felt) at about three months.
So the psalm could reflect an idea that the body is made in one place and the soul in another, and that they are then brought together.
Actually, there is such a verse in the bible (Genesis) :
38:8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
38:9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
38:10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
The Bible equates life with breath in several passages. So I think you can make a strong scriptural case that life begins when somebody first draws breath.
The sin there isn’t wasting seed; it’s that Onan is refusing (apparently selfishly) to impregnate his sister-in-law, which was what he was supposed to do.
Apparently Onan was free to spray his semen all over the bed, walls, ceiling, doors, and passers-by, providing he saved enough to produce children for his deceased brother.
Regards,
Shodan
According to traditional conservative Protestant teaching, abortions are responsible for more souls getting into heaven than almost any other single mechanism.
This is because an aborted fetus has not yet reached an age of consent and therefore cannot choose a pathway to hell.
It seems to me this is a greater conflict for conservatives than whether or not the Bible is clear about killing–at any age. It’s not clear at all (Joshua’s mass executions are a good example). But at some level, in the eternal scheme of things, whether you live 90 days or 90 years is trivial in the face of eternity, so if I had my druthers and the general paradigm is correct, I’d rather be aborted and get my pass into heaven than survive to the age of consent and make a fatal–and permanent–choice for hell.
I don’t see this argument exploited by the pro-choice crowd, and I sometimes wonder why it isn’t…
I wouldn’t say the thinking is that God doesn’t care if you are aborted or not, but certainly in the long-term scheme of things, it’s not a disaster if you are aborted, according to traditional conservative theology.
Because human being are eternal, and continue to exist even if aborted in the womb.
I don’t think I agree that you cannot thwart God’s plan for your life. We have free will. I don’t believe the bad things that others do to us are part of God’s will for us, although He can usually salvage some good out of it.
That’s a fair point. Another reason why I refuse to impose my views on abortion upon other people. Plus, my position can and has changed over the years.
As Shodan correctly points out, Onan’s sin was not spilling his seed. It was refusing to do his familial duty to his widowed sister-in-law.
I’ll bet your correct. Adam and Eve come immediately to mind.
Possibly because murder is wrong even if your victim goes to heaven.
Possibly also because nobody really has an abortion so that their fetus goes to heaven before it gets a chance to sin. So it sounds kind of silly to argue that this is why you’re doing it.
Plus, it is certainly possible that the fetus would be born, grow up, sin, and go to hell. But it is also possible that the same fetus would grow up and present the Gospel to a dozen people and bring them all to heaven too. One never knows. Which is part of the reason why murder is wrong - one is making a determination that another should not live, in situations and under circumstances where God has not delegated the authority.
Regards,
Shodan
Great links, appleciders, thanks. Do we know why this sudden reversal of interpretation happened?
It depends on how cynical you want to be. I’d encourage you to keep reading at that blog; it’s one of his (many) pet projects. There’s some evidence that some Republicans realized that since there were no mainstream anti-abortion politicians, they could splinter the reliably Democratic Catholic vote (Catholics really have been anti-abortion for some centuries at least) and in the face of the increasing visibility of secularism and religious minorities in America, American Protestants no longer felt that Catholics were so different, after all. Personally, I also think that the reaction against the sexual revolution is a major factor; if a person were truly anti-abortion, they’d support things like widely available birth control, since that sharply reduces abortions. The opposition to abortion sort of betrays itself that way.
Because if you’re a pro-life Christian, you’re not just worried about the souls of the aborted children. As you pointed out, they’re probably safe in Heaven. The souls you’re fighting for are those of the mother and the medical staff - according to your faith, they’re putting their souls in jeopardy by committing murder.
Exodus 21:22-25 is hotly debated. Does it refer to a miscarriage (as the pro-choice people believe) or a premature birth (anti-abortion view).
Thanks! Ignorance fought!
So, what is the Catholic argument against birth control based on? “Be fruitful and multiply?”
IANAC but my understanding is basically, yes. They may take inferences from the Onan story, but the basic idea is that God has commanded us to multiply and that children are a good thing. By using contraception or spilling your sperm on the ground you are willfully preventing procreation and thus directly breaking God’s commandment.
Of course this also got entangled in some of the church’s general hang-ups about sex for pleasure vs. procreation as well, but officially sex for pleasure within a marriage was always encouraged as long as the possibility of procreation wasn’t removed.