Following Easter Sunday this year, the sermon topics have been responses to questions or topics that you submitted to the preachers. We squirmed a bit as we read your questions. Maybe you squirmed a bit as you heard our responses. Many of you stayed after worship to continue the discussions. Today is the last of the series and we would be grateful if you would let us know what you thought of the format as we do our planning for future sermons.

Today’s question is definitely a squirmin’ one since it is an issue that not only the church but our society and culture have been wrestling with for several decades. One of you asked this: "Capital Punishment and Abortion: What should the Christian response be to the two issues? Please address them both in the same sermon."

The person who submitted this one was brave enough to include her name so we talked a bit this week. She said it seems to her that people who are against the death penalty are usually pro-choice on abortion, willing to allow for the death of a fetus. On the other hand, those who propose a legal ban on abortion seem to be in favor of capital punishment and willing to allow for the death of an adult person. How should we think about the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill?" Today we will look at some background on the topics, various ways the Bible may speak to the issues and to our decision-making, and also examine the current Presbyterian perspective.

As I struggle with the issues, two questions come to my mind. The first is, "When does life begin?" The second is, "Under what conditions is it morally justifiable for us as individuals or as a community to take a life?"

Though Moses received the 6th Commandment, among others, from God on Mt. Sinai, you probably remember that there are other passages in the Bible that seem to allow for killing. In fact the New Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew as, "You shall not murder." To murder has a more limited Biblical meaning than to kill. It refers to killing someone of one’s own community, a peer. It is not referring to killing in war or capital punishment. As God established a new world following the flood in Genesis, God said to Noah and his sons, "Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind." (Gen. 9:6) This passage is understood to support retaliatory justice and the death penalty in an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth way. However, when we look closely at other passages both in the Hebrew and the Greek Scriptures, the Old and New Testament, we can see how God cherishes all of human life and asks humanity to do the same. Certainly, in the ministry of Jesus he warns against assuming God’s role as judge and offers the forgiveness that we know in his life and in the hope of his resurrection. The letter of James reads, "Whoever acts without mercy will be judged without mercy but mercy can afford to laugh at judgment." (James 5:13). So, by selecting out specific verses, it is possible to justify or to refute the death penalty from a Biblical perspective.

When we look at the issue of abortion, the Bible is also not definitive. Though it is likely that societies had some method for abortion in Biblical times, it is not mentioned. In addition, there is no Biblical passage stating that life begins at conception or at birth or sometime in-between. The beautiful Psalm 139 read this morning expresses poetically the psalmist’s understanding of God’s love for him before and after birth. "You formed my inward parts; knit me together in my mother’s womb…. When I was intricately woven in the depths of the earth, Your eyes beheld my unformed substance." In the creation stories of Genesis we read that God created humankind in God’s image. God formed "man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being." (Gen. 2:7) From the psalm, we might say that life begins before our substance is formed but from Genesis we could determine that life begins when a person takes the first breath. Regardless of which side of the fence we are on about the issues of capital punishment and abortion, without looking very hard it is possible to find a Biblical passage that will provide justification for our point of view. On the other hand, it is important to remember that there is an underlying thread throughout Scripture of the sacredness of human life, of God’s cherishing love and mercy for all humanity, young and old. At the same time that we are loved and forgiven by God, we are challenged to live responsible lives in the choices and decisions we make. In our Scripture reading, Paul said to the Ephesians, "Live intelligently and not like senseless people recognizing what is the will of the Lord."

Do you recognize the name William Quentin Jones? At 2:16 a.m. Friday morning he died by lethal injection in North Carolina. At age eighteen, sixteen years ago, he shot and killed a man while robbing a convenience store. Did he deserve to die? Some say yes because he purposely took a life. Others say he did not deserve to die because he killed only one person and the justice system is not consistent. Of the 22,000 homicides committed every year, about 300 people are sentenced to death for their crime. Others might say he did not deserve to die because capital punishment for Jones is revenge and does not restore the life of the victim or help his family. As Christians, in our search for God’s will in this matter, we might ask ourselves, what in the ministry of Jesus demonstrated the kind of justice that would have been appropriate for William Quentin Jones?

Most of the countries in Western Europe and the Americas, about 112 worldwide including Russia, have abandoned capital punishment. Gov. George Ryan was originally an advocate of capital punishment but became appalled by the fact that thirteen people on death row in Illinois had been exonerated during his term as governor. In January, he commuted the sentences of 167 death row inmates and placed a moratorium on the death penalty before leaving office. He explained his reason by saying, "Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error: error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die." As people of faith, what is our responsibility if there is the chance that we are sending even just a few innocent people to their deaths?

Repeatedly, at the annual General Assembly meetings of the Presbyterian denomination, the elected delegates have voted for a moratorium on capital punishment declaring that it is "an expression of vengeance which contradicts the justice of God on the cross."

Now, for me the issue of abortion is not as straightforward. I’m not certain when life actually begins and I struggle with the balance between the rights of a woman and the life of an unborn child. As Christians we believe that people have a soul, the God-given essence that uniquely defines each one of us. Is that soul a part of us at conception or at the time of viability outside of the womb or at birth when we take our first breath? In Psalm 104, the psalmist says to God, "Send out your breath and life begins." (Psalm 104:30) The Reformed Jewish view of life is that the fetus is pre-human and becomes human as it is born. However, the defining moment for me was the day I felt the first fluttering kick, maybe around five months. From that time on, the mother and those closest to her begin to think of the pre-human as becoming more and more human. An interrupted pregnancy for any reason beyond that point, a spontaneous abortion or a medical abortion because of serious abnormalities of the baby or for the health of the mother, is a physically difficult and emotionally very painful experience. It is not something one would choose arbitrarily.

Should women have the option of abortion and under what conditions? In my last year of college in San Diego when I was living in the dorm, a crisis occurred in a suite of rooms near mine. Freshman girls were running in and out and up and down the stairs obviously very worried but afraid to tell me the details or allow me to help. I later learned that "Stephanie" had returned from having an abortion in Tijuana and was suffering from profuse bleeding. Luckily, she did recover but I don’t know if her ability to conceive was affected by the botched abortion. It was 1968, five years before Roe vs. Wade would have allowed her to have a safe abortion in a doctor’s office or a hospital in San Diego. Should this eighteen-year-old have been encouraged to carry the pregnancy to term and offer the baby for adoption? I don’t know what kind of counseling she had, if any, or what the circumstances were around her pregnancy and her physical and emotional care in the weeks that followed.

The denomination has discussed this subject many more times than capital punishment, probably because it is something that easily touches our own lives or that of a family member or friend. The church has repeatedly affirmed the position of choice. The PC (USA) has refused to establish a time when life begins because there are differing views held in good faith by Presbyterians and there is no specific Scriptural definition. A primary basis of the pro-choice stance is the Reformed statement that "God alone is Lord of conscience." The 1992 General Assembly stated, "We affirm the ability and responsibility of women guided by the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, in the context of communities of faith, to make good moral choices in regard to problem pregnancies. At the same time, we affirm that all life is precious to God. We are to preserve and protect it. Abortion should be the option of last resort….It can be a morally acceptable decision."1

Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10). His ministry focused on the relief of pain and suffering, on healing and restoration. In our lives may we live assured that abundant life and wholeness is his hope for each of us. As his disciples we are invited to let his transforming love work through us so that healing and wholeness may be experienced by all people; those considering the difficult choice of abortion and those in the midst of the capital punishment system, both the criminals and their victims. Let us pray….
 

1. 1992 Presbyterian Social Witness Policy. DO JUSTICE, LOVE MERCY, WALK HUMBLY