Faith a Dividing Line

A new survey by the Barna Group was released today on Americans' attitudes towards abortion. As expected, the vast majority of Americans favor a middle ground, being opposed to both abortion with no restrictions and the outright banning of abortion in all circumstances. Most Americans think that there are some cases where it should be allowed. But the one statistic that jumped out at me was the faith divide. 78% of evangelical Christians thought that there should be at least some restrictions on abortion, while 72% of atheists and agnostics thought there should be no restrictions. That doesn't surprise me. If you do not think or are not sure that there is a God, then human life, while marginally more important that animal life, is still a part of the continuum. But if you believe that there is a God and that He has placed humanity in a special relationship with Him (in His image), then you cannot justify the indiscriminate killing of humans, especially not for convenience. None of this is very surprising. But what it does do is give the lie to the idea that religion is not necessary for morality. Yes, it is true that even atheists and agnostics are somewhat moral. But their morality is defined by themselves - they disagree with people of faith on other moral attitudes, choosing to redefine what constitutes morality. This is an example of just that. Killing a child before it is born is not immoral to some, and is to others, and it is their faith that determines that moral stand. Given the trajectory of our society, this is a very worrying idea.

Pastor Ken