By Bob Allen
A Baptist minister said Feb. 28 that Oklahoma’s proposed “personhood bill” would violate religious freedom because it makes a particular theological view of when life begins the law of the land.
Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, told about 1,000 people gathered at the state capitol that one reason his group opposed the 2000 version of the Baptist Faith and Message was a clause asserting that “life begins at conception.” He said many Oklahoma Baptists back then didn’t take him seriously when he warned that it would put Southern Baptists on record opposing in-vitro fertilization, stem-cell research and some forms of contraception.
That view, Prescott said, is now enshrined in Senate Bill 1433, that passed the Senate Feb. 15, saying that life begins at the moment of conception. While many Christians believe that is what the Bible says, Prescott said it isn’t the only biblical view.
Prescott said the “theological construct” behind the law is easily refuted by a literal interpretation of Exodus 21:22: “When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him.”
“In the Law of Moses an unborn child is respected for its developing potential for personhood, but this potential did not make an unborn child a person with a legal and moral standing equal to that of the mother,” Prescott said in remarks later posted on his blog. “If the mother was killed, the law stipulated ‘a life for a life.’ Only a monetary fine was stipulated for the loss of an unborn child.”
He said that rabbinic tradition taught respect for the “developing potential for personhood” in the womb but did not consider the child a living “soul” until the head emerged from the birth canal. Under the influence of Greek philosophy, Prescott said, some early Christians came to believe that souls pre-existed in a disembodied state and were infused into a body at conception.
Prescott said theologians of the medieval church came up with a “middle ground” — that the fetus received its soul 60 to 90 days into gestation. He said the modern Catholic doctrine that life begins from fertilization stemmed from the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to contraception and family planning and concern about the sanctity of life in the face of advances of modern science and technology.
“Their commitment to preserving the sanctity of life is highly commendable, but there is wide disagreement among Christians (even within the Roman Church) over the timing for when a fetus has developed sufficiently to begin actualizing its potential for personhood,” Prescott said.
Prescott said Protestants also are concerned about the sanctity of human life but historically have not viewed fertilized eggs and embryos as persons. He said most denominations regard decisions about family planning a matter of personal conscience.
“Among most Protestants, these matters are perceived to be too personal and too sensitive to be predetermined by either ecclesiastical or government decree,” he said. “Wise and prudent decisions on these matters can only be made under private consultation with licensed physicians, with the counsel of family members, and under the spiritual guidance of the family’s own ministers and clergy persons.”
Prescott said the government has no business interfering with “the right of fully conscious and sentient persons to make vital decisions — life and death decisions — regarding their own life and their own health under the liberty of a conscience formed by their own religious beliefs and convictions.”