When Life Is Cheap

With apologies to Jim West
http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com/2005/06/when-life-is-cheap.html

When life is cheap, there are some very interesting consequences that are important. Let us use abortion as an example. The early Christians prohibited abortion and infanticide. More women joined the Christian community at a greater rate than men because they were more respected in the Christian community than the society at large. A church that prohibits abortion holds its women in higher regard than a church that does not. At least this was true in the early years of Christianity. I suggest it could be true today. In the early church, women were permitted to control their own wealth and were not forced to remarry when their spouse died. Women held church office and were influential in the early church community and because of their status, were also influential in the community at large.

Some of those who oppose abortion today claim that that they are also concerned about children born out of wedlock. Now a new study demonstrates that “Tough Child Support Laws May Deter Single Men from Becoming Dads” http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/512427/. “States that are strict in enforcing child support have up to 20 percent fewer unmarried births than states that are lax about getting unmarried dads to pay, the researchers found.” “The main purposes of child support enforcement, of course, are to improve children's wellbeing and cut public welfare costs, but the researchers concluded that a reduction in unmarried births was an overlooked side benefit.” It will be interesting to see whether or not this study influences policy decisions in states with lax enforcement of child support laws. I mention this because the emphasis ought to be on the quality of life not the question of pro-choice or pro-life.

My interest in the subject is related to the position of women in the early church, their quality of life and what that may mean for the rise of Christianity. Because life was not cheap in the early years of Christianity among Christians, the birth rate among Christians was higher than the birth rate for the general population. In addition, Christian women were not forced to marry at an early age.

I will be blogging the role of women in the growth of the Christian Church.

copyrighted 2005