Image via WikipediaGod chose the people of Israel and spent hundreds of years preparing them to be the chosen people in whose midst the Messiah of the world would be born. Through his word to them, he created a culture of life ("thou shalt not kill"); it was a culture that saw children as an heritage of the Lord, a culture that characterized what we refer to as "development of the fetus" as children being "knitted together in their mothers' wombs" by God. In other words, it was a culturally safe place for the Son of God to enter the world. Mary was ground-zero of that people and that culture.
Western leftist pro-aborts would assert Mary's absolute right to abort her child -- a Child who was intended by God. They would provide loving affirmation and support of her decision, her choice. The child wouldn't even enter into the equation.
Canada and the West would be a dangerous place for the Messiah to be conceived today.
He came into the world... to those who receive him, he gives the right to become a child of God.
Now that's a right worth considering.
For a thoughtful article on abortion, and pro-life in general, go here.
3 comments:
At the time of Jesus birth The Romans ruled Palestine. Pagan views on abortion were very straight forward. It all depended on the foetus worth to society and the family. Sometimes this would apply post birth and infanticide was not uncommon either.
The Jews at the time did not oppose abortion in the same way as the xtians would. In fact they went out of their way to define in the talmud when a foetus became a person and that was at the time that the greater part of its body was outside the birth canal.
The foetus was never regarded as being more than part of the mother as their legal system of punishments outlined. If a man attacked a pregnant woman and killed the foetus, then he paid a fine. If he killed the mother, he was put to death.
It was the second century xtian fathers that sought to stigmatise and criminalise abortion.
The time of Jesus birth was not an easy one for anybody alive, let alone a youngster.
(Sources: christianity today and religious tolerance.)
Thank you for your insights.
See Exodus 21:22:25, which I take to refer to the unborn child.
Also, further article which supports your position,
http://www.thatreligiousstudieswebsite.com/Ethics/Applied_Ethics/Abortion/abortion_judaism.php
Although, I think your phrase "The foetus was never regarded as being more than part of the mother" goes too far.
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