Christianity and Abortion
Most Christians believe Abortion is wrong.
For the Catholic Church life is a gift from God which begins at conception and ends with natural death. In the ten commandments it says ‘You must not commit murder’. Catholics believe that this means abortion and euthanasia are both wrong, because they deliberately bring a life to an end.
The Roman Catholic Church strongly believes that:
Also, according to the Declaration on Procured Abortion (1974), the Roman Catholic Church regards: 'abortion and infanticide (as) abominable crimes'.
Together with the Orthodox churches, it forbids any Catholic to have an abortion.
Other churches within the Christian religion are not all as strict as the Roman Catholic Church. However, the Church of England and most Protestant Churches are opposed to abortion in principle:
Unlike the Catholic Church, however, most other Christian churches, whilst not condoning abortion as a form of contraception, do accept that in certain extreme circumstances, abortion is the 'lesser of two evils' and will consent to an abortion being carried out if:
Christianity - colour and race
For one person to see themselves as superior to another is wrong, for in God's eyes, no person is more 'special' than another. For a person to make another suffer or feel inferior for any reason is to break one of the Commandments given by Jesus:
Racism is widespread in many parts of the world, and the Christian Church itself has been guilty of such prejudice. Sometimes those who professed to teach God' s message did so at the expense of local communities and colonies.
However, Christians believe that when God made the world, he made human beings in his own image, and Jesus taught that his followers should love one another:
At the time of Jesus there was racial hatred between Jews and Gentiles and between Jews and Samaritans, but Jesus healed Gentiles and spoke to them, he also made friends with Samaritans. One of the most famous parables he told was about a Good Samaritan - a Samaritan who was not to be hated, but admired because he cared for a Jew.
Christianity and Animal Rights
The Rights of animals has never been very important for Christianity, and Christians may have been responsible for cruelty to animals in the past.
Some Christians have been vegetarians, but this was never because they thought it was wrong to eat meat, but only because meat was thought to be rich food, and these Christians were trying to live a simple life.
However, some Christians have been especially close to animals. Saint Francis of Assisi is known to have been close to animals. He would even talk and preach to them, as if they could understand what he said.
In the book of Genesis it states that God created the world and gave human beings the responsibility of taking care of it. Man named all the animals. Christians see this to mean that human beings are superior to animals, but also have to take good care of them.
Animals have played an important part in the Christian story. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, for instance. In the Old Testament there is even the story of Balaam’s ass, who could talk! The dove represents the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is described as a Good Shepherd.
All these stories show the basics of Christian teaching about animals, which is:
- Animals are part of God’s creation
- Human beings have a responsibility to care for God’s creation
- Animals should be cared for because they are created by God
- but human beings will always be more important than animals, and it may be right to kill animals, especially for food.
Many Christians nowadays are vegetarians because they think that this is a good way not just of caring for animals, but also of caring for the planet on which we live.
Christianity and Children
On one occasion a crowd of people brought children to Jesus for him to bless them, but the disciples told them to go away, because Jesus was tired. Jesus was annoyed with this.
Jesus used the child as a description of what the perfect follower would be like - joyful, simple and trusting. Obviously it would be quite wrong to do anything to harm a child deliberately.
It is fundamental Christian teaching that all people should be treated with respect, that ‘You must love your neighbour as yourself’.
It must always be wrong - from a Christian point of view - to do something which would harm a child.
Christianity and Bullying
In the book of Genesis it states that human beings are made in the image of God. For the Catholic Church this means that all people must given their full dignity as human beings, because each on is made in God’s image.
Jesus told a story about the judgement at the end of the world. All people are separated like sheep and goats. The Sheep go to heaven and the goats to hell. The ones who go to heaven are told that they go there because:
Puzzled, they ask how this can be, and Jesus says:
It is as if the poorest, most unloved person is actually Jesus himself.
In another story in the Gospels, we are told that Jesus invited himself to the house of Zacchaeus, even though he was a hated tax-collector.
Jesus did his best to show kindness to people who were hated by others. He said time and time again that human beings should always be given their dignity and be treated with respect.
Signposts
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