Activists say most churches are silent on pro-life issues. Heather Tomlinson asks if Christians are avoiding the subject and, if so, why?
Before I had any significant contact with the Church, I thought I knew exactly what it believed about abortion. Somehow I had picked up the idea that Christians were pro-life, and that they really, really cared about the issue. So it’s with some surprise that after 15 years of faith, during which I have regularly attended church and been to many Christian events, I can recall very few mentions of the subject.
There has been little to inspire me out of what is, admittedly, my own personal apathy, despite seeing a friend in distress after an abortion. I have occasionally heard a message of mercy and forgiveness for women who have had abortions, and once or twice heard support for Christian pregnancy counselling charities. There was the occasional email mentioning upcoming abortion legislation with a petition or request to write to an MP. Apart from that, nothing. No sermons on why abortion is wrong, or encouragement to take up the pro-life cause. I can’t remember any large Christian festival taking it on, though plenty of other social justice issues are covered.
It’s an observation confirmed by others. “While Christian parachurch groups like CARE, Christian Concern and Christian Institute are active in addressing it, the issue is seldom addressed in churches, and in many, not at all,” argues Dr Peter Saunders, head of the International Christian Medical and Dental Association and a long-standing pro-lifer during a 27 year career at the Christian Medical Fellowship. John Deighan, chief executive designate of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, agrees. He says the Church is “too reticent to speak…many lives are being damaged as a result”.
Though hard data is sparse, an Evangelical Alliance survey in 2015 found that only 21 per cent of evangelicals had heard abortion publicly talked about in their church in that year – compared to 66 per cent for poverty, and 50 per cent for human trafficking.
“One of the things that Jesus taught us is that our actions are a good measure of whether we care about something,” says Dr Calum Miller, a medical doctor, ethicist and Christian philosopher. “By that measure, the UK Church by and large does not care about abortion.”
Though hard data is sparse, an Evangelical Alliance survey in 2015 found that only 21 per cent of evangelicals had heard abortion publicly talked about in their church in that year – compared to 66 per cent for poverty, and 50 per cent for human trafficking.
“One of the things that Jesus taught us is that our actions are a good measure of whether we care about something,” says Dr Calum Miller, a medical doctor, ethicist and Christian philosopher. “By that measure, the UK Church by and large does not care about abortion.”
WE AREN’T EVEN MANAGING TO CONVINCE OURSELVES TO BE PRO-LIFE, LET ALONE OTHERS
With more than 200,000 terminations in this country in 2020 – and rising every year – activists think it should be the Church’s top priority. Access increased during the pandemic with the introduction of ‘home abortions’. A woman can now talk to a doctor over the phone and get abortion pills sent to her home. Among other ethical issues, there are fewer checks to prevent coercion and less access to counselling or other support services.
“Most of our clients tell us that they are asked [by an abortion provider] if they are sure it’s what they want to do,” says Judy McGibbon, who runs the Pregnancy Centres Network (PCN), a group of Christian counselling charities. “If they say yes, then no more questions are asked. We have many anecdotes of women saying: ‘I said yes, but inside I was sobbing my heart out.’”
There are individual Christians who care about abortion. They write to this publication, and ask their churches to do more. Last month an attempt by Diana Johnson MP to legalise abortion up to birth prompted thousands to write to their MP – she backed down.
Some feel guilt and regret for their own involvement in a termination. Certain churches and individuals are praised by activists, such as evangelist J. John, Rev Vaughan Roberts, rector of Oxford’s St Ebbe’s, and Rt Rev Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. The Roman Catholic Church is considered more vocal on the issue too. But, by and large, pro-life campaigners believe church leaders avoid the issue. Every pro-life group bar one told me that the Church’s response is weak. Certainly, in researching this article, few of the usually chatty ‘talking heads’ of the UK Church would comment. The same leaders who quickly responded to requests for comment on anything from poverty to politics were silent when I asked for their views on abortion.
CONSEQUENCES
The Church’s silence was blamed for the recent legislation to expand abortion access in Northern Ireland. This was controversially imposed while the region’s own power structures were temporarily suspended.
“Westminster was able to do what they did in the summer of 2019 because, for over 40 years, the majority of the Church in Great Britain has been silent on the issue,” says Dawn McAvoy, an Evangelical Alliance researcher in Northern Ireland, who runs the award-winning pro-life Both Lives Matter campaign. “That silence contributed to the continued normalising of abortion there and the disrespect and overt distaste for the law and culture here in Northern Ireland.”
She says the Church in Great Britain “seems broadly to have lost the centrality of the doctrine of being made in the image of God when it comes to the unborn child”.
“When it comes to abortion, UK evangelicalism is not working,” says Dave Brennan of Brephos, one of the most forceful voices on the subject in the UK. Writing on his blog, Brennan added, “Not even in proportion with its small size. Not even internally. We aren’t even managing to convince ourselves to be pro-life, let alone others. Pro-choice ideology is dominating within the Church.” Premier Christianity.
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