Pro-Life, All Life: Women, Refugees, Fetuses, the Earth and You

Last updated on: February 2, 2017 at 2:18 pm by Paul Louis Metzger

Pro-Life, All Life: Women, Refugees, Fetuses, the Earth and You 2017-02-02T14:18:48-08:00 Paul Louis Metzger

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The past few weeks have been quite eventful. We have witnessed the Women’s March, the March for Life, and the Travel Ban, to name an important few. In addition to fears I have about certain directions politically, I am afraid that many within my Evangelical Christian movement will be known more for what they are against—abortion and undocumented people—than others of us are known for being pro-life, all-life. I hope my Evangelical movement as a whole would be known for being expansively pro-life, which includes concern for women’s rights, refugee rights, environmental rights, and the right for civility.

The Evangelical Immigration Table and the Evangelical Environmental Movement are examples of a more expansive theology of life within our movement. We could also learn a great deal from the consistent theology of life found in Roman Catholic circles. Examples of the Roman Catholic tradition’s concern for human and non-human life are found here and here.

A recent Atlantic article raises the question as to whether or not Evangelicals will split from President Trump on social issues beyond abortion:

While they celebrate his apparent seriousness about limiting abortion, they don’t necessarily support his other policies that threaten life after birth.

Further to this quote, do we Evangelicals think that if Roe vs. Wade were overturned, it would severely limit or end abortions? Or would women still have abortions, though in ways that threaten their own lives, too? Will we address workplace inequality between men and women, to help women who might otherwise be driven to consider abortion from lack of financial and emotional support? Do we think that by claiming global climate change is false, we will steward the creation better for those we don’t abort? And do we think that by banning people, especially Muslims, from entering America, we will reduce the threat of terror, or will we simply turn moderates and people on the border of fanaticism into extremists who hate us?

I understand that many Evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump for a variety of reasons, and were slow in some cases to support his candidacy. Some hoped that he will be impeached and replaced by Evangelical darling Mike Pence. Others voted for him because of Mr. Trump’s commitment to placing conservatives on the Supreme Court. Others despised Ms. Clinton. Still others maintained that the Democratic Party had no interest in understanding or bridging the gap with Evangelicals and their concerns. No doubt, there were other reasons, or a combination of several of the items noted here.

Such Evangelicals may have been slow to support Mr. Trump’s candidacy and held their noses while doing so because of his various forms of misconduct. Still, will they be so slow or even unwilling to drop their support of his presidency if he continues down this path of being anti-life (apart from human fetuses) on a host of issues, including women, refugees, and creation care? If they fail to speak out, younger Evangelicals and those outside our movement will only hold their noses long-term when considering who we are.

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