Overview

Today's Christian pro-life movement has misplaced its priorities. The issue of abortion is more complex than the movement often appreciates. For a start, Scripture is less clear about the moral weight of the fetus than we often think. In fact, early Christians took different positions on abortion because they also relied on different scientific sources about the unborn. Furthermore, Christian conservatives today do not acknowledge that in American history, as today, Christian stances on abortion were motivated by other political fears: White Protestant Americans developed different state laws on abortion to accomplish anti-immigrant goals in the North, but anti-black racism in the South. That messiness impacts U.S. constitutional law, including Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, Scripture commissions God's people to confront socio-economic factors that push abortion rates higher: male privilege and the disempowerment of women; the high cost of child raising; the causes of birth defects; the desire to care narrowly for just ""my children""; mistaken views about contraception and ""the culture wars""; and most of all, poverty. This book incorporates biblical studies, church history, science, social science, history, and public policy to argue that we must not approach abortion policy primarily from a criminal justice standpoint, as modern conservatives do, but from a broad social and economic standpoint meant to benefit and bless all children.

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9781725271890

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Reviews

Mako A. Nagasawa's Abortion Policy and Christian Social Ethics in the United States is a tough-minded, learned, and prophetic work of social history and political theology. . . . This book is a significant contribution to move some Christians from simply being reductionistic anti-abortion to more robustly pro-life. --Patrick T. Smith, Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics, Duke Divinity School Mako Nagasawa's book is an extraordinary contribution to the longstanding, deeply divisive, seemingly irresolvable debate over abortion in Christian ethics. No significant angle on abortion fails to receive Nagasawa's painstaking, detailed, convincing attention: biological science, biblical exegesis, theological and pastoral history, legal history and debate, ethical analysis, practical implications. This is a study that loves God, loves the miracle of life, and calls on Christians to promote responsible sexual and parenting behavior by men as much as women. --David W. Gill, author of Doing Right: Practicing Ethical Principles Amidst the toxic standoff of the culture wars, it is difficult to imagine a fresh Christian voice on abortion. But Mako Nagasawa's new book offers us a way beyond the impasse that is nuanced, visionary, and deeply biblical. If you think there's nothing left to say about abortion, this book will surprise and challenge you. --Gary VanderPol, co-author of Return to Justice

"""""Mako A. Nagasawa's Abortion Policy and Christian Social Ethics in the United States is a tough-minded, learned, and prophetic work of social history and political theology. . . . This book is a significant contribution to move some Christians from simply being reductionistic anti-abortion to more robustly pro-life."""" --Patrick T. Smith, Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics, Duke Divinity School """"Mako Nagasawa's book is an extraordinary contribution to the longstanding, deeply divisive, seemingly irresolvable debate over abortion in Christian ethics. No significant angle on abortion fails to receive Nagasawa's painstaking, detailed, convincing attention: biological science, biblical exegesis, theological and pastoral history, legal history and debate, ethical analysis, practical implications. This is a study that loves God, loves the miracle of life, and calls on Christians to promote responsible sexual and parenting behavior by men as much as women."""" --David W. Gill, author of Doing Right: Practicing Ethical Principles """"Amidst the toxic standoff of the culture wars, it is difficult to imagine a fresh Christian voice on abortion. But Mako Nagasawa's new book offers us a way beyond the impasse that is nuanced, visionary, and deeply biblical. If you think there's nothing left to say about abortion, this book will surprise and challenge you."""" --Gary VanderPol, co-author of Return to Justice"

Mako A. Nagasawa's Abortion Policy and Christian Social Ethics in the United States is a tough-minded, learned, and prophetic work of social history and political theology. . . . This book is a significant contribution to move some Christians from simply being reductionistic anti-abortion to more robustly pro-life. --Patrick T. Smith, Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics, Duke Divinity School Mako Nagasawa's book is an extraordinary contribution to the longstanding, deeply divisive, seemingly irresolvable debate over abortion in Christian ethics. No significant angle on abortion fails to receive Nagasawa's painstaking, detailed, convincing attention: biological science, biblical exegesis, theological and pastoral history, legal history and debate, ethical analysis, practical implications. This is a study that loves God, loves the miracle of life, and calls on Christians to promote responsible sexual and parenting behavior by men as much as women. --David W. Gill, author of Doing Right: Practicing Ethical Principles Amidst the toxic standoff of the culture wars, it is difficult to imagine a fresh Christian voice on abortion. But Mako Nagasawa's new book offers us a way beyond the impasse that is nuanced, visionary, and deeply biblical. If you think there's nothing left to say about abortion, this book will surprise and challenge you. --Gary VanderPol, co-author of Return to Justice

""Mako A. Nagasawa's Abortion Policy and Christian Social Ethics in the United States is a tough-minded, learned, and prophetic work of social history and political theology. . . . This book is a significant contribution to move some Christians from simply being reductionistic anti-abortion to more robustly pro-life."" --Patrick T. Smith, Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics, Duke Divinity School ""Mako Nagasawa's book is an extraordinary contribution to the longstanding, deeply divisive, seemingly irresolvable debate over abortion in Christian ethics. No significant angle on abortion fails to receive Nagasawa's painstaking, detailed, convincing attention: biological science, biblical exegesis, theological and pastoral history, legal history and debate, ethical analysis, practical implications. This is a study that loves God, loves the miracle of life, and calls on Christians to promote responsible sexual and parenting behavior by men as much as women."" --David W. Gill, author of Doing Right: Practicing Ethical Principles ""Amidst the toxic standoff of the culture wars, it is difficult to imagine a fresh Christian voice on abortion. But Mako Nagasawa's new book offers us a way beyond the impasse that is nuanced, visionary, and deeply biblical. If you think there's nothing left to say about abortion, this book will surprise and challenge you."" --Gary VanderPol, co-author of Return to Justice

Author Information

Mako A. Nagasawa is Director of The Anástasis Center for Christian Education and Ministry. He contributed to NIV God's Justice: The Holy Bible, as well as the Lazarus at the Gate Economic Discipleship Curriculum (2007). He is on the Elder Team of Neighborhood Church of Dorchester.

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