Published January 22, 2025
The New York Times recently reported on an event where religious leaders—two liberal Protestant ministers (a Baptist and a Presbyterian) and a Jewish cantor came together to bless a Maryland abortion business in an effort “to show that religion could be a source of support for abortion rights.” As usual, the wickedness being perpetrated is couched in the language of piety. The article quotes Katey Zeh, the Baptist minister, as telling the staff, “You all are blessings to those who come to you for care during some of their most vulnerable and sometimes painful moments.”
There is a sense in which she speaks the truth. Women going to such places are often desperate and vulnerable. But the idea that abortion is the way—indeed, the Christian way—to respond to this is chilling. Not only is there the obvious issue of the preservation of the life of the child. But from a theological point, there is the broader question of the underlying anthropology that abortion represents. It involves a basic denial of the Biblical teaching about what it means to be human. Human beings are made in the image of God. That means that they have an end. In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, they are to “Glorify God and enjoy him forever.” From the moment the egg is fertilized, the direction toward that end is set, and anybody who interferes with that is not simply disrupting a clump of cells but frustrating a human being in achieving their God-given purpose. Children in the womb are not potential persons. They are persons of potential.
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Carl R. Trueman is a fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping civic leaders and policy makers better understand the deep roots of our current cultural malaise. In addition to his scholarship on the intellectual foundations of expressive individualism and the sexual revolution, Trueman is also interested in the origins, rise, and current use of critical theory by progressives. He serves as a professor at Grove City College.