The avalanche of accusations highlighting the sexual abuse and harassment of women has resulted in a cultural phenomenon that will forever raise the bar regarding ethics.
(Of course, some extreme feminists will use this as an opportunity to disparage all men, and others will merely see this as a way to advance their political agenda. We also have to be careful not to receive any accusation against a person unless there is due process along with a consistent and cohesive narrative regarding the alleged harassment.)
As a committed Christ follower, I am very pleased with this development in culture because of my view that all humans are made in the image of God (both male and female according to Gen.1:27). Having “image bearer” status compels us to treat all human beings with dignity and respect—irrespective of their ethnicity or if we agree with their lifestyle and politics. Expanding this concept further also brings us to the idea of the Christian view of the “sanctity of human life.”
Throughout church history, Christ-followers have always fought for and advocated for the sacredness of human life—which includes humanity in its “pre-birth” and “post-date” stage of development. (This is why the church spoke out against abortion, infanticide and slavery from the very beginning of its existence, as we can read in documents like the first-century book called The Didache as well as numerous other historical records of early church practice.)
More importantly, biblical passages in Jeremiah (1:5), Psalm 139, Luke (1:41), give the Hebraic perspective that human life begins in the womb. Also in the book of Exodus (21:22,23) we have an instance of biblical case law in which doing harm to a child in the womb carries the same penalties as when harm is inflicted to a post-birth human.
Ultrasounds also give incontrovertible scientific proof that a baby just a few weeks old in the womb already has a beating heart and all human biological features in its embryonic stage. (If every woman were required by law to view the ultrasound image of the baby in her womb before she had an abortion —this horrific practice of infanticide would rarely occur.) Consequently, when the USA legalized abortion in 1973, it desensitized people regarding the sanctity of life—after all, if you justify the killing of an innocent human baby in the womb in the name of “women’s rights,” the overall regard for humanity quickly goes downhill like a domino effect.
Having less cultural regard for the rights of the most vulnerable in society (a human baby) can easily result in projecting less value to all other humans. Hence, the equation goes like this: A culture with less regard for innocent unborn babies can equal less regard for all other humans (Resulting in more post birth racism, crime, murder, rape and sexual harassment). Hence, this eroding of societal mores makes it easier for people to objectify one another for their own ends (like a mother terminating her pregnancy for economic reasons or to avoid embarrassment).
Does this mean that a pro-life individual will never sexually harass or abuse another individual? Of course no—since all humans are born in sin, we are all guilty of living duplicitous lives and compartmentalizing truth—however, a pro-life person who sexually harasses another person is clearly going against their core belief system, which can make it harder for them to act on their deviant sexual impulse.
Conversely, pro-choice people lack the moral foundation in their worldview necessary to protect the innocent—which can possibly result in making it easier in their conscious to objectify and mistreat (post-birth) human beings.
In conclusion, I believe that the current conversation regarding sexual harassment and abuse should also lead us to further dig down and re-examine the abortion debate—because the two are inexplicably connected.
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