Theological Critique of Human Abortion

John C. Rankin

[adapted from First the Gospel, Then Politics …, 1999, Vol. 2, not published]

In Changing the Language of the Abortion Debate, I make an exacting theological critique of human abortion, rooted in Genesis and the Power of True Assumptions (both available at johnrankinbooks.com). Here is a summation:

1. Human abortion equals the brokenness of the reversal of the order of creation, it equals the opposite of the shalom, integrity, teleology and wholeness of the Sabbath.

2. Human abortion reverses the order of creation reality of God, life, choice, sex, and is thus in opposition to covenantal marriage.

3. Human abortion is the power to take and destroy, consistent with pagan gods, and the opposite of the nature of Yahweh Elohim and the power to give.

4. Human abortion is the opposite of communication, congruent with the hiddenness of the occult, and not congruent with the power to live in the light.

5. Human abortion repudiates the needfulness in the nephesh of the image of God, the essence of human nature which the unborn share, and thus it repudiates the nature of the POSH Ls (peace, order, stability and hope; to live, to love, to laugh and to learn), and the goodness of procreation.

6. Human abortion is marketed on the basis of false definition of terms, and thus it opposes the ethics and power of informed choice.

7. Human abortion is marketed so as to oppose the power to love hard questions.

8. Human abortion is principally a service for male chauvinists who do not respect the dignity of women as equal image-bearers of God.

9. Human abortion is marketed in opposition to the scientific reality of fertilization/conception.

10. Human abortion is marketed by distorting its history.

11. Human abortion was legalized in a mockery of the ethics of covenantal law upon which the U.S. Constitution is based.

12. Human abortion is marketed by those who in the final analysis despise religious liberty.

13. Human abortion is marketed in a fashion that repudiates the power to love enemies.

14. Human abortion is marketed so as to preclude the power to forgive.

15. Human abortion qualifies as parallel to the third and final element of the triad of sorcery, sacred prostitution and child sacrifice which led to Israel’s exile to Assyria, and Judah’s judgment in the Babylonian exile.

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