Download LifeDate Summer 2023
by Dr. Donna Harrison
Love: self-giving, self-effacing, scary. Our journey to love is tortuous. Parents, siblings, friends, spouse, children—all calling us to more self-giving, more forgiving, more painful introspecting. As Christian women, we are frequently driven to ask this question: “Who is my neighbor?”
Who do we protect as our own? Who should be protected and included in our circle of belonging?
As Christians, our circle includes all human beings. Why? Because all human beings, by the very fact that they exist, bear the image of God. The image of God isn’t like clothes that are put over our body. It isn’t like intelligence, which varies from person to person. Scripture teaches us that every living human being bears the image of God simply by the fact that they are a living human being. Period. Even the tiniest. So for a Christian, the terms “human being” and “human person” are describing the same thing.
But we live in a culture now which is at war with God. Our culture wants to include some human beings in the circle of belonging and call only those human beings “persons.” Our culture wants to push other human beings outside this circle of protection and call them “non-persons.” Exclusion from the circle allows the excluded human beings to be treated as property rather than persons.
How we view our fellow human beings, whether as persons or as property, determines what we are okay with doing to them. Embryo research, elective abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and slavery all have two very important things in common:
- They all have been or currently are legal in the USA and,
- They all assume that there are human beings who should be excluded from society’s circle of protection and treated as property.
And unfortunately, that is the position most comfortable to our fallen human nature. Dehumanizing our neighbors allows us to do terrible things to them and then not feel remorse or guilt for what we have done. How do we manage this psychological gymnastic and still feel good about ourselves? We change the language! We call human beings we want to protect “persons” and those we don’t want to protect “non-persons” (and other things) so that we can treat them as property.
A few years ago, I was writing an amicus brief on a legal case which would decide the fate of human embryos who were being stored in the deep freeze while the mother and father divorced. One spouse wanted them to be implanted in a caring mother’s womb and given a chance to thrive. The other spouse wanted them destroyed to avoid the responsibility of being a parent. In the amicus, I argued that scientifically these embryos are undeniably tiny human beings, and their custody should be decided according to family law, which considers what is in the best interest of the children. The other side argued that the tiny human beings are just property and the fate of these living human beings should be decided under property law, which would mean that they should be destroyed.
As Christians we are called to include all human beings in our circle of protection. As Christian women, we are especially called to embrace our children as gifts.
As women, we have been given an incredible gift of being the indispensable link between the past and the future of the human race. That is pretty awesome. A woman who nourishes her tiny neighbor in her womb is beautiful, especially in God’s eyes.
But sometimes finding out that you are carrying a baby in your womb doesn’t feel like a gift at all. Doesn’t God understand how hard it is to do what I want to do if I am required to take care of this human being for 20 years or even for eight months?
The answer is “Yes, He does.”
And that is one reason I love the story of the Good Samaritan. I really doubt that the Good Samaritan was on some kind of an emotional or spiritual high when he was pulling his donkey along the mountainous road from Jerusalem to Jericho. I have been to Jerusalem, and I have driven up and down that tortuous mountain road. When the Samaritan picked up his very inconvenient neighbor, it is very likely that he still had a long journey to go to get to Jericho. And now, he would have to walk it. Because someone else was slumped over his donkey. I’ll bet he was tempted many times to dump the guy off and get back on his own donkey and ride. What many other people would have done, he didn’t do. God had made him see the human being who needed him, who would die without his help. That is real love.
I can finally perceive that God put some of the most difficult neighbors in my life at some of the most difficult times in order to bring me to the end of myself. Jesus didn’t say that what God asks us to do would be easy. What God asks is impossibly difficult if God were not actually alongside us, helping us every step of the way. But the good news is that He is alongside us, helping us every step of the way. And His real, tangible love transforms us in ways we can’t even imagine, into someone beautiful. That is why we love, because He first loves us.
Donna Harrison, M.D., is Director of Research at the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (aaplog.org).