Attempt a conversation these days on nearly anything related to justice (or social justice)—police brutality, mass incarceration, sexual assault, forced labor, human trafficking—and someone will respond, “Yeah, but what about abortion? More babies are killed every year than suffer in all the rest of these combined.”
That much is true. Although abortion rates have, thankfully,dropped in the United States in recent years, a lot of babies are still losing their lives in their mother’s womb. Via Vox:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the national abortion rate declined 26 percent between 2006 and 2015, hitting the lowest level that the government has on record.
The abortion ratio — the proportion of abortions to live births — is also down to historic lows. In 2005, the abortion ratio was about 233 abortions for every 1,000 live births; in 2015, it was 188 abortions for 1,000 live births.
Most Christians are opposed to abortion on demand, though there would be some disagreement among some on the traditional exceptions: rape, incest, and life of the mother. And, most Christians continue to pray and work diligently to see Roe v Wadeoverturned, have supported fetal-heartbeat bills, and given financially for decades to support alternatives to abortion and to provide for moms who choose life and their new babies.
For a generation at least Christians have recognized and responded to abortion as an unjust action toward children, yet unborn, who are created in the image of God. Many also see it as unjust toward moms who are often pressured by family, friends, or significant other to abort a child they don’t want to help raise.
The question for this exercise, though, is not whether abortion is unjust. The question is whether it is the most unjust injustice as far as can be determined from God’s word. Does abortion reside in a different category of injustice that has priority indefinitely over every other injustice? Or, should Christians oppose allinjustice and work to see allinjustice rectified with the same fervency we have worked against abortion-on-demand since the 1970s?
To my knowledge and research, the Bible never mentions abortion directly. The allusion that fits it best seems “the shedding of innocent blood.”
(Moses’ law addresses violent acts that cause a woman to miscarry, but not what we would consider elective abortion.)
A survey of Old Testament texts shows that God both threatened and carried out judgment for various unjust behaviors. He judged Israel, Judah, and numerous contemporary countries due to their lack of justice, failure to render true worship, and other sins. Note the variety of sins that anger God.
The faithful town—what an adulteress she has become! She was once full of justice. Righteousness once dwelt in her, but now, murderers! Your silver has become dross to be discarded, your beer is diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love graft and chase after bribes. They do not defend the rights of the fatherless, and the widow’s case never comes before them. (Isa 1:21–23)
Woe to those enacting crooked statutes and writing oppressive laws to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the needy among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless. (Isa 10:1–2)
For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers, with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongues mutter injustice. No one makes claims justly; no one pleads honestly. They trust in empty and worthless words; they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity. They hatch viper’s eggs and weave spider’s webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched. Their webs cannot become clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their works are sinful works, and violent acts are in their hands. Their feet run after evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths. They have not known the path of peace, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made their roads crooked; no one who walks on them will know peace. (Isa 59:3–8)
As I live—the declaration of the Lord GOD—your sister Sodom and her daughters have not behaved as you and your daughters have. Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but didn’t support the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable acts before me, so I removed them when I saw this. (Ez 16:48–50)
Then I said, “Now listen, leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Aren’t you supposed to know what is just? You hate good and love evil. You tear off people’s skin and strip their flesh from their bones. You eat the flesh of my people after you strip their skin from them and break their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.” (Micah 3:1–3)
Listen to this, leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert everything that is right, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with injustice. Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe, her priests teach for payment, and her prophets practice divination for silver. Yet they lean on the LORD, saying, “Isn’t the LORD among us? No disaster will overtake us.” Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become ruins, and the temple’s mountain will be a high thicket. (Micah 3:9–12)
God seems to be especially vexed by oppression, the misuse of power against the weak. The Hebrew word עָשׁוּקis related to tyranny. The writer of Ecclesiastes notes how oppression works, connecting it to injustice and unrighteousness. Oppression covers the category many would call “systemic injustice,” as those in power cover for each other to maintain control:
Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them. (Eccl 4:1)
If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them. (Eccl 5:8)
The prophets condemn all oppression:
Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from my sight. Stop doing evil. Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause. (Isa 1:16–17)
Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan who are on the hill of Samaria, women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to their husbands, “Bring us something to drink.” The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness: Look, the days are coming when you will be taken away with hooks, every last one of you with fishhooks. You will go through breaches in the wall, each woman straight ahead, and you will be driven along toward Harmon. This is the LORD’s declaration. (Amos 4:2–4)
The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: “The Lord of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.” (Zechariah 7:8–11)
How long, LORD, must I call for help and you do not listen or cry out to you about violence and you do not save? Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2–4)
Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing…They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate, and they despise the one who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates. (Amos 5:10–12)
King Lemuel, writing in Proverbs 31:8–9, addresses the issue of oppression in a passage often used to address abortion, but is clearly more inclusive.
Speak up for those who have no voice, for the justice of all who are dispossessed. Speak up, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the oppressed and needy.
(Taking the entire corpus of the Old Testament, it is as easy to see those with “no voice” as victims of trafficking and unequal laws as the unborn. “All who are dispossessed” is not limited.)
Here’s an injustice that reads an awful lot like immanent domain:
Woe to those who dream up wickedness and prepare evil plans on their beds! At morning light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands. They covet fields and seize them; they also take houses. They deprive a man of his home, a person of his inheritance. (Micah 2:1–2)
It is noteworthy that Jesus is connected to both justice and compassion for the weak. Matthew writes, “He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick, until he has led justice to victory” (12:20).
God used the prophets to condemn all kinds of wrongdoing under the rubric of “injustice”:
For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in. He expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness, but heard cries of despair…But the LORD of Armies is exalted by his justice, and the holy God shows that he is holy through his righteousness. (Isa 5:7, 16)
Can I excuse wicked scales or bags of deceptive weights? For the wealthy of the city are full of violence, and its residents speak lies; the tongues in their mouths are deceitful. As a result, I have begun to strike you severely, bringing desolation because of your sins. (Micah 6:11–13)
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with injustice! (Hab 2:12)
Injustice was enough to cause God to despise his people’s efforts to worship him, bringing us some of the strongest language in all the Bible.
I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream. (Amos 5:21–24)
On the flip side, the restoration of justice was seen as evidence of God’s blessing:
I will restore your judges to what they were at first, and your advisers to what they were at the start. Afterward you will be called the Righteous City, a Faithful Town. Zion will be redeemed by justice, those who repent, by righteousness. (Isa 1:26–27)
I will take you to be my wife forever. I will take you to be my wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. (Hos 2:19)
Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the city gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5:15)
There are two places in the Old Testament where God’s people adopted the pagan practice of child sacrifice. God, speaking through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, condemns it:
Say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder because they have abandoned me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.’ (Jeremiah 19:3–5)
Then the LORD said to me: ‘Son of man, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare their detestable practices to them. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; they have committed adultery with their idols. And the children they bore to me they have sacrificed in the fire as food for the idols. They also did this to me: they defiled my sanctuary on that same day and profaned my Sabbaths. On the same day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered my sanctuary to profane it. Yes, that is what they did inside my house.’ (Ezekiel 23:36–39)
Is child sacrifice the only detestable act? Consider this partial list of things called abominations or detestable in the Old Testament.
The LORD hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil, a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16–19)
You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable. (Lev. 18:22)
Burn up the carved images of their gods. Don’t covet the silver and gold on the images and take it for yourself, or else you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 7:25)
Do not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or sheep with a defect or any serious flaw, for that is detestable to the LORD your God. (Deut 17:1)
Do not bring a female prostitute’s wages or a male prostitute’s earnings into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God. (Deut 23:18)
The person who makes a carved idol or cast image, which is detestable to the LORD, the work of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret is cursed. (Deut 27:15)
Things detestable or abominable to God? Arrogance, lying, hands that shed innocent blood, a wickedly plotting heart, eagerness to do evil, lying in court, a divisive person, homosexual relations, making or worshipping carved images (idols), insufficient offerings, and giving wages from prostitution.
The Old Testament nowhere lists a hierarchy of abominations. Each sin is evil in its own right. Each abomination endures the anger of God and potentially his wrath. But, “hands that shed innocent blood” is in the same list as “lying tongue” and it isn’t even first. A “person who sows discord among brothers” is just as detestable as the one who offers a blemished offering. Taking wages earned from sexual immorality is just as evil as lying in court under oath.
And, nowhere in scripture is the number or amount of abominations committed the basis for God’s judgment or displeasure. He was angered when the land was filled with sin, but that includes all sins. God never ranks injustice by the number of times people commit them.
It isn’t God who created the hierarchy; it’s humans.
Rather than limiting ourselves to a single injustice, telling ourselves it is worse than all others, let us take up the prophetic mantel against all injustice. Injustice is an affront to the righteousness of God. To ignore injustice or excuse it is to say in effect that God’s righteousness is not the standard by which human behavior is judged. When we turn a blind eye to prison sentencing disparities because “abortion is worse” we are not elevating God’s righteousness, we are denigrating it. When we refuse to condemn the oppression of the poor (through exploitative cash-bail, for instance) because “more children are aborted than people are sitting in jail,” we do not draw attention to the judge of all the earth who does right. We find ourselves in league with the oppressors. Lemuel said to speak for “all those who are dispossessed.” We don’t get to pick and choose. God has already made the choices for us. And he’s made it pretty clear.
