Luther Rice Journal of Christian Studies 16
Choosing Wrong: A Biblical Response to Pro-Choice Christians by Thomas J. Gentry II Among pro-life advocates, the idea that one can be a Christian and pro-choice seems like a contradiction. Christians are pro-life, the thought goes, and to be pro-choice is anything but Christian. There are, however, those who profess to be Christians while holding a pro-choice view of abortion, and these pro-choice Christians do not merely dismiss the Bible in their considerations. Pro-choice Christians attempt to argue in various ways for their position from the Bible, and any full-orbed pro-life apologetic needs to know what such pro-choice Christians are saying and how to respond. In light of this, the purpose of the present research is two-fold. First, the research will present the biblical arguments for abortion advanced by pro-choice Christians followed by a prolife Christian response. Second, the research will present a summary of the pro-life position found in Scripture. The research will suggest that the arguments advanced by pro-choice Christians are biblically and otherwise flawed and that the proper assessment of the abortion issue is a pro-life position rooted in the historic Christian worldview.
ThM in Theology, Liberty University; DMin in Pastoral Counseling, Piedmont International University. It is beyond the purview of this research to address the validity of claims to be “Christian” that are made by the pro-choice proponents whose arguments provide the basis of this paper. The author’s use of “pro-choice Christian” should not be taken as anything more than a description of these pro-choice persons according to their own judgments. “Argument” is used here and throughout the paper not in the technical sense of formal/informal and valid/invalid, but as a word to summarize the general position of the pro-choice Christian’s approach to articulating and defending his or her views.
