A call to examine Jesus' words on life during Lent

                              Is all life sacred?
                             This question began my column last May.  I thought God would answer "yes," but we humans would answer "no."  If we did think life, or at least human life, was sacred, we would not kill any humans for any reason whatsoever.  Yet we do.
                             In exploring this question, I presented the thesis put forth by Rob Arner in his book, "Consistently Pro-Life, The Ethics of Bloodshed in Ancient Christianity."  He asserts the early Christians, before 313, when Christian worship became legal, had a much different attitude towards bloodshed than the modern church.  Today, regarding abortion, the church is divided.  Here is a look at the early Christian stance on abortion.
                            In the culture into which Christianity was born, the Greek and Roman culture of the 1st century, the killing of unwanted or deformed infants, either born or unborn, was commonplace.  Unwanted infants were commonly killed by exposure ----just leave them out in a field or on a mountainside.  Abortions were carried out by means of mechanical or chemical (poisonous) means.  "In Greek and Roman law, all rights, including the right to life, 'were subservient to the welfare of the state and had to be sacrificed if the best interests of the state demanded it."  The Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law in the Roman Republic (509-27 BC).  It established basic procedural rights for all Roman citizens, as against one another.
                            In contrast to this culture of the state above all else rose the early Christian doctrine of the sacredness of human life, which prevented Christians from taking life either before birth or after.  The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early second century.  The text, parts of which constitute the oldest surviving written catechism, has three main sections dealing with Christian ethics, rituals such as baptism and Eucharist, and Church organization.  It is considered the first example of the genre of the Church Orders.  Didache 2.1-2 says "do not murder,......do not kill a fetus by abortion, or commit infanticide."  Such an explicit command was necessary because of the prevalence and acceptability of abortions and infant exposure in that era.
                           I quote here from Rob's book part of footnote 9 on page 59, because I think it speaks to the heart of the conflict regarding the question "What would Jesus do?"
                          "To ask the question 'Is the fetus a person?' is equivalent to the Pharisee's self-justifying question 'Who is my neighbor?' (Luke 10:29).  For just as the Pharisee wanted to know whether he was exempt from his responsibility as a Jew to care for his neighbor by defining 'neighbor' in a narrow, exclusionary way, the one asking the question of the fetus' seeks to justify him-orherself by avoiding the responsibility as a human being to care for a fellow human being by defining personhood in an equally exclusionary way."
                         This week Christians entered the season of Lent, a time of fasting, reflection and prayer as we follow the journey of Jesus to the cross.  During this time, Christians may want to consider, why did Jesus come?  Consistently, the Bible tells us, the answer is "life".
                         For example, John 6:35:  "Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty'."  John 6:47:  "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life."  John 10:10:  "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
                        This may be a good time to reflect on his journey, and consider if abortion is consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus.  For readers of other faiths, now is as good a time as any to consider if abortion is consistent with the teachings of your faith.