By Sue Cyre / Theology Matters
The sanctity of human life isn’t just an abstract principle. It’s a practical challenge that confronts us regularly as we live amidst a world that values some lives more than others. We may come into conflict with the culture if we take seriously God’s call to care equally for the weakest, the most vulnerable, the least visible among us. We may even have to take a stand inside the church.
It’s for this reason that Theology Matters has repeatedly engaged these issues of life. Click here to read some of our past articles. Today I would invite you to consider some of the practical implications.
Scripture’s witness that life belongs to God
Scripture is clear that human beings are created in the image of God and are redeemed by the blood of Christ. Paul writes, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Cor 6:20).
The psalmist praises God for his life, saying: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place….” (139:13-15a)
God tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart…” (1:5).
There are major differences between denominations regarding these teachings.
Evangelical Presbyterian Church Statement on Life
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church has a strong statement affirming the life of unborn children that you can read on the EPC website here.
Fellowship of Presbyterians and ECO
Their “Theology Project” that can be read here affirms on page 8 that they will “recognize and honor the image of God in every human being from conception to natural death.”
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pays for abortions using the mandatory medical dues of installed pastors
By contrast, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) accepts abortion through all nine months of pregnancy as a legitimate choice. Its Board of Pensions, drawing on the mandatory dues of installed pastors, guarantees payment for any abortion for anyone covered under its medical plan. The 2006 General Assembly reaffirmed that the Board of Pensions will pay all claims for legal abortions without regard to the health or gestational age of the baby or the woman’s reason for choosing to abort her child.
Relief of Conscience
Your offering may be paying for an abortion for someone covered under the medical plan in which your pastor is required to participate. There is a way, however, that your church can refuse to pay for abortions. In 1998 the General Assembly of the PCUSA implemented a program for “Relief of Conscience.” It allows a session to formally declare that it does not wish its mandatory medical dues to cover abortions. Once the presbytery approves the session’s request for “Relief of Conscience” and the information is sent to the Board of Pensions, your minister’s medical dues will be separated from those that pay for abortions. The dues from your church that would have gone for abortions will instead go into a fund that assists couples in the process of adopting children.
If there are members of your church who object to paying for abortions, this Relief of Conscience provision is the only feasible way to respect their convictions. The session could keep two sets of financial books–a “shell game” of sorts–and claim that the particular dollars from pro-life members wouldn’t go to pay for abortions. But then the portion other members contribute would have to increase to cover the mandatory dues that fund abortions.
Instead of keeping two sets of books, it is far easier to ask for Relief of Conscience so that the church’s mandatory dues pay for adoption assistance and not for abortions. Then the session can explain to members who wish to support abortion that they may send a contribution for that purpose to the Board of Pensions. That way all donations given to the church for missions and expenses, including the mandatory medical dues, will not pay for a woman to abort her unborn child.
If your church has not so far exercised its Relief of Conscience rights, I invite you to consider that possible action bearing witness to the sanctity of human life. If your church has requested Relief of Conscience in the past, it should receive an annual letter from the Board of Pensions affirming its continued participation in the Relief of Conscience program.
To read more about this issue and to support life, click here to reach Presbyterians Pro-Life.