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Why Don’t Christians Care About Women’s Rights?

It seems as if Christians are singularly focused on babies more than they are of the precious women who carry and birth them.  Do Christians not care about the right of women to control their own body?  If you ever hope to have an understanding to that question, it helps to take a close look at how Christians view the world.  I’m not calling the reader to agree with Christians, but if anyone is in a disagreement with any person or group, the best way to a favorable outcome is to see their worldview whether you agree with it or not.  This approach is effective in any argument or negotiation whether it be with a religion, political party, boss, or even spouse. 

More often than not it is easy to see Christians through one lens; stubborn and more concerned with their morality than what is good.  How do Christians think it is right that women cannot do to their body whatever they want when these choices don’t have anything to do with them or their lives? 

sean Fitzgerald

The beginning of questions like these starts with authority, then moves to autonomy and personhood.  Christians believe that they do not have ultimate authority over their lives; rather, all authority starts with God (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:21).  This is very difficult to understand if your worldview is void of God.  To many, the idea that there is a God that created all things and rules over all things is a preposterous proposition; yet, if you want to begin to understand a Christian, you must understand how they view the world. Christians believe that they are not the god of their own lives, rather what is morally right and wrong has already been predetermined by God based on His attributes.  He has delineated between right and wrong and it is not up to the government, the church, the family, or any individual to change those positions.

So if Christians believe that all authority belongs to God, what do they make of autonomy?  Do women still have the choice as to when to have sex or when to start a family? Christians believe that God has given us free will, but in that freedom to choose right or wrong, mankind eventually chose the wrong and suffered the consequences of choosing themselves over God (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12).  So in short, yes, Christians believe humanity can choose to do what they want, but they can’t choose the consequences.  Some choices people make please God while others oppose God which they call sin. So Christians would say that if people choose to have sex outside of God’s design for it, then they are also faced with the consequences of broken relationships and potential pregnancy.  And in the case of pregnancy both Christians and modern science identify that fetus as human life; dependent on a mother for safety and sustenance, while independent from the mother in identity and being.

That is ultimately why the argument has shifted from when life begins to when personhood begins.  Some people argue that personhood begins at some stage of the pregnancy while others argue it is not until the baby takes its first breath that it is a person.  Christians have a slightly different understanding of life than most people.  Remember that Christians believe that God defines morality and not mankind, so Christians generally agree that the Bible teaches personhood begins when life begins; the two happen simultaneously.  The Bible teaches Christians in multiple places that people exist in the uterus.  King David said that he was conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5), the prophet Jeremiah rued the day he was even conceived and wished he had died in the womb (Jeremiah 20:17), and there are strict penalties for anyone who hurts a baby in the womb (Exodus 21:22).  You may have heard the saying, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  That is from the Bible in regards to hurting an unborn baby.  If two men conspire together to hit a woman so that the baby comes out, any damage done to the baby is done to the one who hit her.  If the baby dies from the action, the one who caused it will also be subject to death (Exodus 21:23).  This is God’s version of capital punishment.  This is why Christians see abortion as a moral evil and should not be permitted.

So it is not a question as to why Christians prefer morality over what is good.  From a Christians perspective, what is defined as moral by God is good.  Life is precious and needs to be preserved, and since the baby has no voice, Christians want to stand and protect that voice.  We Christians are not opposed to women’s bodily autonomy.  Christians were the first ones in history to defend women’s rights.  They argued that women are not second-class citizens and need to be treated in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7).  They protected women in a patriarchal society from being abandoned and abused (Deuteronomy 24:1-4).  They defended women as equals among men and must be cherished (Galatians 3:28). 

We Christians are for protecting and saving lives.  A woman has the freedom to choose right or wrong over her body, but she does not have the right to choose to impose that freedom on another person.  All people are created in the image of God and it is only God who has the right to give life and to take it (Genesis 1:27; 1 Samuel 2:6).  We Christians are happy to hold that line firmly as we defend the rights of the baby to also have life, liberty, and the pursuit of their own happiness, and in doing so, we will also come alongside mothers to help them in times of crisis whether that is volunteering or donating to churches and pregnancy centers like Tender Care. 

While Liberals keep defending the freedom of choice, we Christians are happy to keep defending life of all people God created.

sean Fitzgerald
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Sean Fitzgerald is Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Gettysburg

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Shannon
Shannon
5 months ago

It’s interesting that the author assumes Liberals and Christians are two totally separate groups. I know many, many people who are both. Political persuasion has nothing to do with religious faith. Politicians and 24 hour news cycles may like to convince us that this is the case, because it’s easier for people to put “the other” into some little box that makes sense to them, but humans are much more complex than that. We have a wide range of views and beliefs, and conservatives don’t have a monopoly on faith.

Wanda L Gallimore
Wanda L Gallimore
5 months ago

Love like Jesus, with compassion, without compromise.
As for the laws of the Old Testament the moral laws are written in stone. That would be the ten.
The religious laws are no longer applicable by the death and resurrection of Jesus
The civic laws are governing

K E
K E
6 months ago

Christians have every right to make decisions about a pregnancy that align with their values and faith (recognizing that Christians also might differ in those decisions). What I oppose is Christians imposing their values and faith on laws that pertain to all (not just Christians). If we treasure our religious freedoms to believe and worship as we wish, the Christian worldview on abortion should not be the rule of law.

P J
P J
6 months ago

As a Christian, I have decided to follow God/Jesus and chosen to live by standards I find in the Bible – essentially, Love God and Love your Neighbor. There’s also Welcome the Alien, Help Others, and Let the Relationship between an Individual and God be theirs, not mine. Nowhere am I commanded in the NT to enforce that code on anyone else. It’s solely for those who choose to follow God. Voting Blue this coming election as I see their views aligning far more with the NT Bible than the Red side does. Love all neighbors, not just those who… Read more »

Marietta Witt
Marietta Witt
6 months ago

I don’t know if Mr. Fitzgerald doesn’t realize that all Christians don’t hold with his explanation of what Christians believe or if he does understand that and therefore thinks I am not a Christian. I’m a Lutheran Christian. I don’t think God believes that one life is more valuable than another.
My second question is to wonder how he knows what God thinks.

Kylee de Angelis
Kylee de Angelis
5 months ago
Reply to  Marietta Witt

Where in this article is he claiming that he knows what God thinks? Everything he states can be backed up by Scripture. And where does he say that God or Christians believe one life is more valuable than the other? Christians don’t believe this, which is why we are against abortion. Not sure you even read the article.

Jules Mermelstein
Jules Mermelstein
6 months ago

This brings up several questions: 1) If they believe that the bible, which for Christians also includes what they call the “Old Testament,” is actually from God and sets down unchangeable morality and laws, why do they pick and choose (like ignoring that mixing materials to make clothes is “an abomination” to God)? 2) Where in the bible does it say that non-marital sex is bad? 3) And how do they square their opposition to abortion with the Genesis 2 verse that explains that human life begins once they take their first breath (i.e. not in utero)? 4) How do… Read more »

Jim Neely
Jim Neely
6 months ago

Jules, by what standard are we to determine if an actual life is more important than a potential life? Would you say the “standard” by which we make this determination to abort or not abort is relative to the individual determining what is best for her because she has the authority and right over her body to have an abortion or not to have an abortion? I think we have to distinguish between a legal right to have an abortion and a moral right to have an abortion. There are professing Christians who are “pro-choice” on abortion as being a… Read more »

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