The Brethren in Christ have believed from the very beginning of our history that Jesus our Lord taught His disciples not to kill. Therefore, in obedience to the one we confess to be true God as well as true man, we have understood the biblical call to be peacemakers to mean that we oppose all killing of human beings. This has motivated Brethren in Christ to say “no” to war, as well as to abortion. But in order to be consistently pro-life, we must recognize that there is a whole host of other issues in today’s world that pose an equal threat to human existence.
Due to space limitations, a thorough examination of each of these issues is not possible, so this article will consider four topics representative of the many others we should consider if we are to fully defend the sanctity of human life: poverty and starvation, capital punishment, smoking, and abortion.
When the cupboard is bare
According to UNICEF ChildInfo, in 2007, 9.2 million children born alive across the world died before their fifth birthday. An overwhelming majority of these children lived in developing countries and died of diseases that could easily have been treated. Malnutrition, for instance, contributed to over one-third of the deaths. In that same year, UNAIDS reported that over 5,700 people die of AIDS every day, mostly because they cannot afford the effective, relatively inexpensive drugs now available that could preserve their lives. These deaths are directly related to the fact that about 1.4 billion people in the world are so poor they must struggle to survive on $1.25 a day, according to a 2005 report from The World Bank. Millions of people die unnecessarily every year.
Are not these starving children in developing nations and these suffering AIDS victims created in the image of God? How can we, as Christians, turn a blind eye to the tragedy of these deaths? If we start with the biblical principle that every human being possesses inestimable worth and dignity, then we must vigorously work to reduce and end death by starvation and diseases that we now know how to prevent. By supporting effective private programs and wise government activities to reduce global starvation, malnutrition, and preventable disease, we can live out our respect for the sanctity of human life.
Eye for an eye?
Is it really wise and moral to kill people to show that killing people is immoral?
Many Christians think the Bible has a clear answer. After all, Genesis 9:6 says: “Whoever sheds human blood, by human beings shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made humankind”; and a number of Old Testament laws call for death for certain evil acts (Deut. 17:2–7; 19:15–21). There is no question that the Old Testament prescribed capital punishment.
Before we quickly assume that Christians today should support capital punishment, however, we need
to consider several things.
First, it is most intriguing that in the case of the first murder, God Himself punished the murderer—but did not execute him. In fact, God placed a special mark on Cain, precisely so that other people would not kill Cain (Gen. 4:9–16).
Second, we have a clear case in the New Testament of Jesus rejecting capital punishment in a situation where the Old Testament law explicitly called for it. John 8:3–11 tells the story of a woman caught in adultery. The religious leaders bring her to Jesus and remind Him that the Old Testament ordered execution for such a sin (cf. Lev. 20:10; Deut 22:22). “Now what do you say?” they ask Jesus. But instead of calling for her death, as the law prescribed, Jesus says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” After the guilty accusers slink away one after another, Jesus tells the woman that He does not condemn her and gently instructs her to sin no more.
Most strikingly, Jesus again set the law aside in the case of the central principle of Old Testament jurisprudence: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’ [cf. Deut. 19:21]. But I tell you do not resist an evil person” (Matt. 5:38–39). In fact, Jesus taught that His followers must love their enemies (Matt. 5:43–44).
For the first three centuries, every Christian writer who discussed killing said that Jesus intended to prohibit all killing. But whether or not the Early Church understood Jesus properly, it is perfectly clear that in the one case in which Jesus was explicitly called upon to affirm the Old Testament’s call for capital punishment, He refused.
Human experience presents one other set of problems with capital punishment: The legal system has sometimes made mistakes and executed innocent people. Further, poor people and minorities who cannot afford to hire their own legal defense face the death penalty in far higher percentages relative to population than others. According to the 2009 Death Row USA report from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, minorities in the U.S. have accounted for a “disproportionate” 43 percent of total executions since 1976, and 55.22 percent of death row inmates today are minorities.
There are some people who have done evil things and pose such an ongoing danger to society that we rightly imprison them for the rest of their lives. But biblical faith tells us that God continues to love even the worst sinners, for they continue to bear the divine image as long as they live.
No ifs, ands, or butts
Smoking kills an estimated 438,000 U.S. Americans and 45,000 Canadians every year. Around the world, the death toll from smoking rises to 5 million each year—that’s one in every 10 adult deaths, according to the World Health Organization. If current trends continue, by 2030, that number will increase to 8 million a year, with 80 percent of those deaths occurring in the developing world.
Additionally, the social costs of smoking are enormous. Lung cancer snatches fathers and mothers away prematurely. Children exposed to second-hand smoke are at an increased risk for a whole host of health conditions and diseases. The American Lung Association estimated that in 2004, smoking cost the nation $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in direct healthcare expenditures. In Canada, about 7 percent of the national healthcare bill in 2007 was attributable to smoking. Given the devastation caused by smoking tobacco, Christians must insist that the sanctity of human life applies to everyone, including those seduced by clever cigarette advertising. Christians must work for effective laws that prevent tobacco advertisements, forbid smoking in most public buildings and facilities, educate the public on the dangers of smoking, and limit tobacco exports to other countries.
Cradle, and all
Although abortion isn’t the only pro-life issue, the topic has gotten a lot of press, especially in Christian circles. And rightly so. Abortion destroys millions of unborn babies each year. Statistics Canada reported in 2005 that since 1969, more than 3 million babies had been aborted in Canada. That same year, the National Right to Life Campaign noted that about 50 million babies in the U.S. had lost their lives to abortion since 1973.
Perhaps this disregard for unborn life stems from the rapidly spreading view that humans are in no way unique from other creatures. In his article “Sanctity of Life or Quality of Life?” Princeton philosopher Peter Singer makes this claim: “We can no longer base our ethics on the idea that human beings are a special form of creation, singled out from all other animals, and alone possessing an immortal soul.” As a result, Singer concludes that not just abortion and euthanasia but also infanticide are morally acceptable.
But historic Christian faith offers a radically different vision. Nothing affirms the special dignity and inestimable worth of each human being as strongly as the Bible. Genesis makes the breathtaking claim that all human beings—and only human beings—bear the very image of the Creator. The New Testament describes how God became a human being—an embryo, a baby, a young man, a carpenter. It tells us that God Incarnate suffered crucifixion so that His followers could have eternal life (John 3:16).
God is glad to die for every person, no matter how poor, how weak, how marginalized and neglected, and He invites every person to an intimate, personal relationship with Him. That is how precious every person is.
Jurgen Moltmann, author of God for a Secular Society, is right when he says, “God has a relationship to every embryo, every severely handicapped person, and every person suffering from one of the diseases of old age, and He is honoured and glorified in them when their dignity is respected. [. . .] there is no life that is worthless and unfit to live.”
Unfortunately, the Bible does not provide an explicit answer to one crucial question: When does the unborn developing fetus become a person?
Nothing in the Bible suggests, however, that the fetus is not a human being. In fact, the Bible often uses words for the fetus that are normally used for persons who are already born (e.g., Gen. 25:22; 38:27–30).
Further, the ever-clearer scientific evidence is indisputable: From the moment of conception, a fetus is a genetically distinct being that grows without any biological break to become the baby, who, at birth, is accepted by almost everyone as a human being to be protected.
To be sure, there is no explicit biblical teaching that unambiguously asserts such a view. Yet even if we remain agnostic—uncertain about when the developing fetus becomes truly human—we have no choice but to adopt the working assumption that if there is any serious possibility that we are dealing with human beings, we must reject abortion. As we seek to save the lives of unborn children, we in the Church need to be proactive, pressing for laws that restrict abortion, participating in civil and legislative actions that make abortion less attractive, and, most importantly, graciously lending our support to women with unwanted pregnancies. We can also invest in adoption and other positive alternatives to abortion.
Amending the pro-life agenda
Biblical teaching on the sanctity of human life calls Christians to a consistently pro-life agenda. Abortion, euthanasia, pollution, smoking, starvation in a world of abundance, war, and capital punishment all destroy persons created in the image of God.
That is not to say that each of these issues has identical moral weight. The direct, intended taking of innocent human life has a moral seriousness that differs from indirect, unintended taking of human life. Failing to protest when tobacco companies use seductive advertising to promote smoking is not morally equivalent to plotting to murder an innocent neighbor. But both violate the sanctity of human life and are therefore morally wrong, even though they are not morally identical.
Contemporary North American society urgently needs to recover a deep respect for the full sanctity of human life. For us Brethren in Christ, this means we must wholly commit ourselves to being pro-poor and pro-family, pro-peace and pro-creation care, pro-compassion and pro-forgiveness. When we live out a completely pro-life vision in every area of life, not only will our neighbors hear our words much more clearly, but we will more faithfully honor God’s gift of life in all its forms.
Ronald J. Sider is professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Palmer Seminary at Eastern University (Wynnewood, Pa.). President of Evangelicals for Social Action, Ron has authored some of the most influential books and articles written about faith in the U.S. He and his wife, Arbutus, live in Philadelphia and hold dual membership in the BIC Church and the Mennonite Church USA.
