Jeremy Carr, lead pastor at Oxford Bible Fellowship, has started a new blog. One of his first posts speaks to tough questions and answers about relationships.
. . . What about sins that interplay (or result) from each other? For example, if you are raped, have the child, and end up giving the child a crappy life.
Yes, sin is messy, complicated, and damaging in its ongoing effects. Yes, it could be a bad life for the child born out of rape. But consider the alternative logic. Should you abort the child conceived by rape in order to spare her a terrible life? How do you know for sure if she will have a terrible life? There are many examples of God’s grace breaking into the life of someone who had it terrible growing up, only to embrace the Gospel as a young adult. The alternative is to abort (murder/sin against God) in order to spare the child possible (not even definite) trouble for the future. This is bad ethics. Is it ever right to sin in order to do right?
Another question to consider: As evil as the rape is, did God still know and allow it? And if he did, does he not have a purpose for it? He is a God of healing and grace. It seems that compounding the pain of rape with the guilt of abortion would only add to suffering. . .
Read the whole thing here.
