the Christians who work in politics for end legalized abortion because innocent lives are at stake. That would be a sufficient cause in itself. However, Abortion is not just one of many issues we should be concerned about. In a lot In some ways, abortion, perhaps more than any other issue, symbolizes the fundamental beliefs of our society. Simply put, Christian societies not kill their smallest and most vulnerable members. P.Aganic societies, on the other hand, do this.
In a recent and fascinating essay published has First things, Louise Perry has argued that the fight against abortion is really about whether we will remain, in any real sense, a Christian society, or whether we will repaganize ourselves according to the beliefs and values of pre-Christian times. Perry, author of the recent book The arguments against the sexual revolution, is not a Christian, although she admits that she finds Christianity attractive. His academic journey seems to have become a spiritual journey, one that led him to recognize that many of his secular and humanist values are, in fact, vestiges of a Christian morality that remade the world.
Perry opened his article by quoting Scottish poet Hollie McNish, who wrote that archaeologists know they have found a Greek or Roman brothel when they dig up “a pit filled with the bones of newborn babies.” Hearing this poem gave Pear the same “painful, squeezing, falling feeling” she first felt When hear a graphic description of abortion. She achieved something pro-lifers have long supported: abortion is really a form of legalized infanticide and not so different from the baby killing of the ancient world.
Although Perry is still pro-choice in some cases, she is clearly worried about it. This is partly because she is a mother and because she sees how abortion and infanticide exist on a “continuum” that includes other ancient practices like slavery, the sexual exploitation of women and children and general contempt for the weak and poor. Historically, only one group of people has opposed these things. As Perry wrote:
The strangest thing about Christianity in anthropological terms is that it takes a backwards attitude toward weakness and strength. To put it crudely, most cultures look at the powerful and wealthy and assume that they must be doing something right to achieve such power. The poor are poor because of some of their own failures, whether in this life or the last. The smallness and weakness of women and children are a sign that they must be commanded by men. The suffering of slaves is not an argument against slavery, but an argument against allowing oneself to be enslaved..
Into this predatory, power-centered pagan world, Christ entered, who defeated the powerful by submitting to death.— “even death on a cross”. After Christ’s resurrection, his followers began to emphasize the innate and equal worth of all human beings and to condemn practices such as infanticide.
Christians, of course, have not always lived up to these ideas, but they have been the only ones to defend them. As the authors like Tom Holland argued, these Christian ideals did not disappear with the rise of secular humanism. Western progressives owe their moral instinct to protecting the weak and vulnerable in the face of Christian revolution, even as they mock the idea of the Christian God.
And there lies Perry’s problem. TThere is no group weaker or more vulnerable than unborn babies. Yet it is precisely these victims that feminists and secular progressives insist we must ignore To advance sexual freedom. We have all seen how THE rhetoric heated both against those who work to save unborn lives and now against the extension of what we call “medical assistance in dying” Disabled children.
This is why, Perry concludes, “the legal status of abortion…represents the cutting edge of de-Christianization.” Resolutely moving away from the influence of Christianity will bring back a set of “older, darker” values in which the strong exploit the weak and no one opposes them. Such a world would truly be, once again, pagan. At least some non-Christian writers seem to realize that in this world, women, the poor, and other vulnerable classes would not fare well.
Historically speaking, equality, human rights and the protection of the weak are not self-evident. They are part of a clearly Christian heritage shaped by a resolutely Christian worldview. AAs the values of our pagan past become more influential and pervasive, progressives should take note. A society built on baby bones will not long respect the rights of anyone except those of the powerful. For this you need Christ.
This Breakpoint was co-written by Shane Morris. If you are a fan of Breakpointleave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources for living like a Christian in this cultural moment, visit breakpoint.org.
