Viability Is No Way to Judge a Human Life

As the Supreme Court hears arguments on abortion law, bad rulings should get tossed out for good. So should the “surviveability” standard.

This week, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments about the state of Mississippi’s abortion law. Yet both sides know what’s really at stake: At question is not only whether the Constitution guarantees a right to abortion but also whether the state’s interest in protecting fetal life is determined by the child’s ability to live outside the womb.

This is the moment not just for the Court but for all of us to see that viability is no way to judge the worth of a human life.

In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court kept the core of Roe v. Wade. However, to determine the state’s interest in protecting fetal life, the Court replaced the arbitrary measure of trimesters with a “viability” standard—a scientifically determined idea of whether a child could survive outside the womb.

This idea has led to decades of political and legal debate, but it’s also a cultural issue. Is it right to determine rights and personhood based on such a standard? And how does that affect the way we view human life inside and outside the womb?

In defense of the pro-life position, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat summarizes a key pro-choice assumption enshrined in our law for almost 50 years: that “personhood is often associated with some property that’s acquired well after conception: cognition, reason, self-awareness, the capacity to survive outside the womb.” But this logic cannot be sustained with consistency.

“If full personhood is somehow rooted in reasoning capacity or self-consciousness, then all manner of adult human beings lack it or lose it at some point or another in their lives,” says Douthat. “If the capacity for ...

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The Worst (and Best) Passage for Generosity Sermons

The widow’s mite story is about more than her sacrificial giving.

These days, Ira Glass is famous for inspiring an infinite number of podcasts that want to be just like his public radio show This American Life. But back in the mid-1990s, Glass’s initial claim to fame was for raising money during public radio pledge drives. Glass initially grew his show by telling station program directors that they could have his pledge spots so long as they carried his program. They still do: He remains public radio’s most effective fundraiser by far, with his earnest pleas to “give selfishly” to keep listeners’ favorite shows on the air and reminding them why they love public radio.

Churches have an Ira Glass too—a ringer guaranteed to bring the checkbooks out every time. And what makes her even more remarkable than Ira Glass is that she doesn’t even say a word. She just throws two small coins into an offering box and walks away.

The “poor widow” of Mark 12 and Luke 21 gets more homiletical airtime than most of the apostles. She’s there for every Stewardship Sunday, front and center of every capital campaign. Her two small coins have inspired billions of additional gifts as she’s served as an example of the kind of giving God desires.

And so far as they go, the lessons we’ve taken from the story of the widow’s mite are true: God cares not about the size of the gift but about the size of the sacrifice. What matters is not the amount that one gives but the amount that one keeps for oneself.

But this isn’t the story where Jesus commands, Sell all you have and give. This is the story where Jesus commands, Watch out! Perhaps this story isn’t so much about how we should be more like the widow. Perhaps it’s more about ...

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Right or Left?

An Advent reading for November 30.

Read Matthew 25:31–46.

In Matthew 24–25, Jesus teaches about his return and uses several parables to describe what “the kingdom of heaven will be like” (25:1). Perhaps the most unsettling element of Jesus’ teaching in 25:31–46 is the surprise of both groups who are being judged. They don’t protest about being judged per se; after all, the Son of Man has come in glory, attended by an immense gathering of heavenly beings, and even his throne is glorious. This entrance confirms and conveys his authority to judge. He has the right to call every nation before him, and come they must.

The surprise is not about the fact of judgment nor the rights of the judge. Instead, both those on the right and on the left are confused about the evidence. The sheep are looking at this King of glory and thinking, Surely we would have known if we had served him. He is unmistakable. The goats were thinking the same, but in reverse. When would they ever have refused such a one? They couldn’t think of an instance.

In response, the glorious Christ reveals the key: He has always been identified, unified, with his brothers and sisters. This is more than mere affiliation; it is true identification. Who are his brothers and sisters? Jesus taught plainly, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matt. 12:50). No matter a person’s station, ethnicity, gender, or nationality, if they are united with Christ, then caring for them is caring for Jesus himself.

This is not works-righteousness, where each person gets a reward or punishment based on his or her deeds. This is a revealing of allegiance to or rebellion against King Jesus—which is why there ...

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How Archaeologists Are Finding the Signatures of Bible Kings, Ancient Villains, and Maybe a Prophet

Wet sifting brings us closer than ever to the world of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Hezekiah.

The closest I’ve ever felt to the prophet Jeremiah was sitting at the bottom of an empty cistern. About 20 years ago, I was taken to an excavated water reservoir in Jerusalem and told this could be the actual hole in Jeremiah 38:6 where the prophet was left to starve when four government officials decided they didn’t like his messages from God.

I sat on a bench and looked up at the stone walls. Jeremiah sank into the mud, according to the biblical account.

But maybe it wasn’t at that spot. Who’s to say it was this cistern, which was dug up in 1998, and not another one that has yet to be found? Or perhaps it will never be found. I could imagine the prophet trapped in that exact place, wondering if God would rescue him, but short of finding “Jeremiah” scratched on the wall, no one could say for sure.

In the time since I was there, questions have been raised about that cistern, casting doubt on its role in the Jeremiah drama. It’s not a place people visit these days.

Archaeology can take you so close to the biblical world and still leave you wishing someone had left a signature.

When people do find signatures, it’s a very big deal. In the past few years, in fact, archaeologists have been finding a lot of the impressed clay seals that ancient Israelites used to secure the knot on the string that tied up a scroll.

In 2005, Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar was directing an excavation of the oldest part of Jerusalem. Her team found the imprint of a stamp, and on that clay seal was a name: Jehukal, the son of Shelemiah, one of the men who threw Jeremiah into a cistern.

Three years later, Mazar announced the discovery of another “bulla,” as the seals are called. This one also ...

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Most Pastors Say 2021 Giving Is on Track

But those who waited longer to resume in-person worship, such as in mainline and African American traditions, still see severe declines in the offering plate.

Heading into Giving Tuesday and the year-end giving season, most churches don’t seem to be underwater financially, but many are treading water.

Around half of US Protestant pastors say the current economy isn’t really having an impact on their congregation, according to a Lifeway Research study. The 49 percent who say the economy is having no impact on their church marks the highest percentage since Lifeway Research began surveying pastors on this issue in 2009.

Almost 2 in 5 pastors (37%) say the economy is negatively impacting their congregation, while 12 percent say the economy is having a positive impact. Both positive and negative numbers are down from September 2020, when 48 percent said the economy was hurting their congregation and 15 percent said it was helping. The last time fewer pastors than this year said the economy is playing a positive role for their church was May 2012.

The two years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2018 and 2019, mark the only two times in the survey’s more than 12-year history that more pastors said the economy was having a positive impact than a negative one.

“Most churches are taking a deep breath financially following the uncertainty of the height of the pandemic,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “While the official recession ended quickly in April 2020, economic growth has been uneven, and few churches are feeling actual positive impacts from the economy at this point.”

After many churches faced budget shortfalls and decreased giving in 2020, 2021 saw most churches meet their budget and stop the decline in giving.

Seven in 10 pastors say offering levels at least met the budget this year. Almost ...

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No One Took Christ Out of Christmas

Let’s dispense with our worries that Christmas as we know it isn’t Christian.

Sometimes it’s hard to be a Christian at Christmas. Okay, it’s not that hard. After all, we do it every year. Still, it seems harder than it ought to be. Why does a holiday that is supposed to put the focus on faith often seem tinged with doubt? Why does a celebration of peace on earth seem to bring with it so much anxiety and fear? How can we somehow simultaneously worry both that Christmas has become overblown and that it is being canceled? Where are you, Christmas? Why can’t I find you?

I once heard a psychologist lecture on how avoidance increases anxiety. This happened to a friend. She began to refuse to go on trips that involved an expressway. The more she avoided getting out and about, the more restrictions accumulated. Eventually, she did not want to leave the house at all. Avoidance doesn’t work; it is time to face our ambient anxieties about Christmas. When we look them straight in the eye, they turn out not to be as frightening as we thought. There is a kind twinkle in that eye.

Let’s begin with doubt. There are a lot of improbable things in the Nativity story: the star, the angels, the Magi, and of course, the Virgin Birth. If you have never doubted the Virgin Birth, then you have probably never really thought about it.

And it’s not a bad thing to really think about it. The Virgin Birth is meant to make you wonder. It is a deliberate, divine provocation. Like the burning bush, it is intended to draw you in because you cannot resist engaging with it, even if your first response is doubt.

There’s a scriptural parallel to Mary’s conception of Jesus in Hannah’s conception of Samuel (1 Sam. 1). The high priest Eli is a busy man who is not easily distracted from his ...

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We Begin at the End

An Advent reading for November 28.

Read Titus 2:11–14 and Revelation 1:7–8.

We begin at the end. Not at the manger. Not with the Magi offering gifts of worship or the shepherds rejoicing in wonder. Not with Mary’s visit to Elizabeth or Joseph’s angelic dream. We begin not with Christ’s First Advent, but with his Second. Like a mixed-up storybook with the chapters all out of order, the season of Advent—and indeed the entire Christian liturgical year—starts with the end.

It’s not a tame, pleasant, “they all lived happily ever after” ending. It’s beautiful and fearful, awesome and terrifying. It’s an ending that expands far beyond the limits of our human comprehension: He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Advent begins with the eschaton: with Christ’s power and glory, his righteous judgment, his ultimate victory and eternal reign. It shocks us out of our sentimentality about Christmas, inviting us into the far grander and more expansive story of the cosmos, in which the incarnate God who was laid in a manger and went to the cross will one day sit on the throne, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess he is Lord (Phil. 2:6–11).

Like Isaiah’s response to his vision of God’s holiness, our only natural response to contemplating the wonder and glory of Christ’s second coming is to say, “Woe is me! I am a person of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:1–5). As we ponder Christ’s holiness and power, we’re drawn to our knees in repentance and humility. And like Thomas in his encounter with the risen Christ, we too proclaim, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

The Second Advent ...

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The Gospel of Advent: Good News for the Season

Daily devotional readings from Christianity Today.

“I bring you good news ...” (Luke 2:10). With these words, the angel began a stunning gospel proclamation: The Savior, the promised Messiah, the Lord, had been born! When we think of the gospel—of the Good News—we rightly think of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We think of our sin, of Jesus’ sacrifice, of the salvation and eternal life Christ offer. In this sense, it’s only natural to think of Easter as the “gospel” holiday—it marks the central events that make our redemption possible.

But in this online devotional resource, we invite you to consider what the season of Advent can teach us about the Good News. Many core tenets of the gospel reverberate powerfully throughout Advent’s traditional readings and themes. In Advent, we reflect on the mystery of the Incarnation, on Christ’s purpose as the long awaited Messiah, on our sin and need for repentance, on God’s promises of salvation and justice, and on our firm hope in Christ’s return and everlasting kingdom. We prepare to celebrate the “newborn King” who was “born that man no more may die,” as Charles Wesley’s beloved carol declares. And we’re reminded again and again throughout Advent that the gospel is not just for us, but it is a message of “great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10)—it’s good news that’s meant to be shared.

As you read and reflect on God’s Word each day during these four weeks of Advent, our hope is that you engage with core truths of the gospel afresh and that, like the shepherds who encountered the Christ child, you glorify and praise God for all the things you hear and see (v. 20).

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