Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Winter 2023
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
    • LIBERTY TO DO WHAT? Hadley Arkes and Rusty Reno join George McKenna June 1, 2022 in New York
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2022
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2022
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 STUDENT or PREGNANCY CENTER STAFF Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2022
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

A Pastor's Reflections

0 Comment

When the Church is silent, we revisit the sin of slavery. (When the Church is Silent, #8 of 10)

03 Dec 2018
W. Ross Blackburn
abortion, slavery
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

 

 You shall not steal (Exod 20:15).

 

The natural bent of the human heart is to possess that which is not ours. James said it well: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  You desire and do not have, so you murder.  You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (Jas 4:2). One could say that the root of our sin is seeking to possess that which is not ours, rather than being thankful for what is ultimately God’s. Eve desired the forbidden fruit, and, along with her husband, took it (Gen 3). King Ahab desired the land of Naboth, and, with the aid of Jezebel, took it (1 Kgs 21). King David desired Bathsheba and took her (2 Sam 11). All took what was not theirs to possess. In a word, stealing.

Stealing was effectively the sin of slavery. In the US and the UK, slavery was rooted in stealing—the idea that the powerful could just take whatever or whomever they wanted. The Bible, of course, condemns this: “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death” (Exod 21:16). The U.S. Supreme Court effectively codified ownership of human beings when it ruled in Dred Scott v Sanford (1858) that slaves were property of their masters.

So it is with abortion. While the language of abortion rights doesn’t use the term “property,” the idea is the same—a woman has a right over her own body, a right which trumps any rights that the unborn body within her might have. The mother is legally entitled to dispose of her unborn child as she wishes, much as she would her property.

A slave auction in Virginia, 1861

The parallels between slavery and abortion are vast. Many today look back on the brutal experience of slavery and are appalled at the silence of the Church. Will ensuing generations wonder the same thing, in a future day when they try to make sense of how abortion persisted so long in lands where the Church abided? In words attributed to Martin Luther King, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”7

In the end, all things belong to God, including people. Yes, there are ways that we belong to one another—a husband belongs to a wife, a child belongs to a father. But such belonging entails the God-given responsibility for the well-being of the other, not a right to do to another as one pleases. For, in the end, we all belong to God, even before we may belong to one another.

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers (Ps 24:1-2).

________________________________________________________________

7 Although attributed by many to King, it is unclear from whence the quote came.

 

276 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
W. Ross Blackburn

Dr. Ross Blackburn has been ordained for 20 years and has served as Rector for Christ the King for the past 10. He earned a Master of Divinity at Trinity School for Ministry, and a PhD in biblical studies at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland. He and his wife Lauren have been married for 23 years and have five children.
As a member of Anglicans for Life's Board of Directors, Dr. Blackburn is a regular contributor to AFL's Lectionary Life App series, and writes for the Human Life Review as well as  Christian Publications.

Social Share

  • google-share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Wyoming Bans Abortion Pills

22 Mar 2023

Legal Issues on Chemical Abortions

13 Mar 2023

HHS weighs declaring access to abortion a "public health emergency’

08 Mar 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kathryn Jean Lopez Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Meaghan Bond Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • TOPICS
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Tweets by @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.