Over the last few weeks, I've seen some articles about the Bible and abortion.  One of these articles even said something about how the Bible does not mention abortion.

It may be true that the Bible does not mention the word abortion.  Honestly, I have not done a word search.  It does not mention baseball or soccer, either.  Nevertheless, lots of fans pray the rosary or thank God when their favorite team is playing.

So Reverend Al Sharpton joined the discussion about it:

For Sharpton, the choice is not between abortion and no abortion, but "whether they're going to have a safe abortion. We always had abortions, but we had these back alley, very risky abortions and we're saying that rather than have people in those situations, they should be able to choose whether or not they want to do, even if it is something that I do not believe in."

Turning to the religious question, Sharpton claimed, "The Bible, if you're using this as a religious argument, the Bible is about choice. You can go to heaven or hell. There's nowhere in the Bible that says you had to go to heaven."

One hopes that when presenting the question of heaven and hell to his congregation, Sharpton does not go full relativist as he did here. The man who goes around portraying himself as a civil rights leader also failed to realize that owning slaves was also once considered a perfectly normal and legal choice.

Blind to that, Sharpton continued, "So, where do we get this theology of forcing something when the reality is you can't even Biblically base that. It's a question of choice. If you are a minister, as I am, you can preach to people to convert them, you do not make laws to compel them."

The doctrine of free will means that God is not a puppet master. It does not mean that government is forced to embrace the hellish side of the question, especially when it means the rights of a second individual are being taken away.

Yes, at one time, owning slaves was a choice.  I don't know if the reverend got that question.  At one time, we chose legally that women did not have the wisdom to vote.  The Bible does not say anything about women voting, either.

The Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade was about the 10th Amendment, the fact that abortion is to be decided by states or voters.  Justice Samuel Alito did not cite the Bible to write the majority opinion.

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Image: Chad Davis.