John Piper Quotes
How do you get from, "We do not know whether this is protectable human life," to "Therefore, we will not protect it?" Wouldn't the logic just as likely (some would say far more likely) be, "Since we do not know whether this is protectable human life, therefore we will protect it?" Why does the judicial uncertainty about the humanity of the unborn lead to unbridled license to destroy it?
Piper, John. "Ten Reasons Why It Is Wrong to Take the Life of Unborn Children." Desiring God, 1989.
Churches are political organizations too and are subject to the forces of their membership. In the case of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1971 they passed resolutions to assure the right of a woman to have an abortion to protect her health. The position on abortion changed steadily thereafter to even pass Constitutional amendments to ban abortions except to save the life of the mother. See {614356},54122, {614358}, {614359}, {614360}, {614361} for the dynamic history of the change.
One of the extreme religious fundamentalists in the Congress, Brownback was referring to Federally funded medical research which uses embryonic stem cells. The cells are generated from in vitro fertilization procedures and potentially if implanted in the womb of a woman could produce a child. Several cells are produced by the fertilization process but typically only one or two is needed. So some religious extremists believe that just because the cell has the potential for human life, it is human life. This is the same logic which opposes birth control on the grounds that sperm and egg cells are incipient life forms. It was as late as 1973 that bans on birth control devices were declared unconstitutional be the Supreme Court.
Churches are political organizations too and are subject to the forces of their membership. In the case of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1971 they passed resolutions to assure the right of a woman to have an abortion to protect her health. The position on abortion changed steadily thereafter to even pass Constitutional amendments to ban abortions except to save the life of the mother. See {614356},54122, {614358}, {614359}, {614360}, {614361} for the dynamic history of the change.
In most parts of the country, if the legislators did not carve out the exceptions for rape incest and danger to the life of the mother, they would lose the majority of their support as most Americans who oppose the freedom of abortion that existed after Roe v. Wade, but really do not view abortion in the early trimester as murder. They just think that the regulation should be greater than it is.
Cox’s 1974 prediction of the legal precariousness and temerity of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision on abortion.
John Stephen Piper is a theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper taught Biblical Studies at Bethel University for six years (1974-1980), before serving as Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980-2013).
