Committee rejects proposed Biblical study of abortion
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, June 28, 2000
LONG BEACH, Calif. — The committee on Theological Issues voted Tuesday afternoon not to establish a task force to study abortion focused solely on explicating the Biblical witness in a manner faithful to the Scriptures and consistent with the confessional standards.
Despite a plea from a youth advisory delegate who said she would really appreciate a more in-depth study of what the Bible says about abortion, the committee voted 12-43-2 against the overture.
YAD Beth Caldwell, who said she was in favor of the motion, paraphrased 2 Timothy 3:16 which says “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
She said she wanted to see “culture measured against the Bible, not the Bible against culture.” The more she saw of culture, she said, the more she cared knowing what the Bible says, “because I know what culture says.”
Two ways to do theology
Overture advocate Mark Patterson told the committee there are two ways to do theology. “One is to start from below,” he said. “What is it that matters? What are we? Who are we? And from here, how do we meet God?”
The second way, he said, is from the top down. “It never asks a social question. It starts with Scripture. … It asks who is God and what is his demand on our lives?” Then he said the second way is what the overture is asking for — to start the study with Scripture.
Previous studies, he said, “start from below.
It’s not devoid of Scripture, but the methodology is coming from below.” Howard Rice, who chaired the special committee of the General Assembly which produced the 1992 Abortion Policy, also spoke to the committee.
He said the 1992 document did start with Scripture, that the first nine pages of the document were theology.
When commissioner Fred McNally asked Patterson how the proposed study would be different from the 1992 policy, Patterson said he respectfully disagreed that the first nine pages of the 1992 policy was theology. He said the first pages included medical terms, committee member names, etc. “This is sociology — good things but not theology.”
Rice replied that as soon as the context of the study was set out, “we immediately began with the theological.”
Youth Advisory Delegate Emily Gress asked if the proposed study would actually help church leaders assist people in the church who have actually had abortion.
Patterson replied that “my hope would be that something helpful would come out of this.”
“I think this overture strikes me as an attempt to change the results of the previous study through actions that would stack the deck,” said Commissioner Wayne Mell. He called it an “attempt to move us in a particular direction.”
The General Assembly will vote on the matter later in the week.