This College's Mascot Was 'the Fighting Christian,' Now Its Religion Prof Calls Abortion Rights a 'Christian Norm'

A Christian, pro-choice professor wrote an opinion piece on abortion recently that is getting attention as the debate over Roe v. Wade heats up with supporters and critics of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Those in support of Kavanaugh believe he would stand for life on the nation's high court. That is the very reason many liberal women's groups are campaigning nationally to keep his nomination from clearing the US Senate.

Rebecca Todd Peters is a professor of religious studies at Elon University in North Carolina. The university was started by Christians but is primarily considered a liberal arts school now instead of a Christian school. Elon's mascot, up until 2000, was "the Fighting Christian," and the school's mission statement still says it "embraces its founders' vision."

The professor uses many facts about abortion in her article that she says are "dominant" beliefs by Christians about abortion to make her pro-choice stand. In her opinion piece, "In My Words: Trusting women to make abortion decisions is a Christian norm," she writes that women should be able to make this decision for themselves and not be forced to have a baby just because she is pregnant.

Annabelle Rutledge with the conservative Christian group Concerned Women for America says Peters' commentary is a "misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Christian values."

"I would argue that trusting women to make abortion decisions is not a Christian norm. But even if we end up living in a world where it is propagated as a Christian 'norm' that doesn't mean that it is Christian. The very heart of Christianity is respect for human life," Rutledge told CBN News.

Peters notes research shows that many Christian denominations and religious groups agree there are a few cases where abortion is acceptable: prenatal health, rape, incest and health of the mother.

She says research shows only a fourth of abortions are for those reasons and the other three-fourths are what some have termed as "ordinary abortions."

"These ordinary abortions stand outside acceptability in the justification paradigm that conservative Christian voices have established for our public conversation about abortion," Peters wrote. "This justification framework supports a view of abortion that holds that when women get pregnant, we expect them to have babies."

Meanwhile, Rutledge says there is also research that shows a different attitude toward abortion in the United States.

"A Marist poll found that, as of this January, a majority of Americans (56 percent) continue to consider abortion to be morally wrong," Rutledge stated.

The latest research, according to Rutledge, shows that eight in 10 Americans want laws that protect both the mother and the baby. She also notes "a majority of Americans say that abortion does a woman more harm than good."

Peters went on to say in her opinion piece, "It is time for Christians to challenge the inadequacy, intolerance and misogyny of this paradigm of abortion. As my deeply Christian mother taught me, 'You shouldn't have a baby because you are pregnant. You should have a baby because you want to be a mother, because you want to have a family.'"

Rutledge, however, challenged that notion.

"In an ideal world, no baby would be conceived who was not wanted and deeply desired. That is not the world we live in and it is not the baby's fault that they were an accident or unwanted. Once conceived, a baby is a unique individual, a life with unknown potential!" Rutledge told CBN News in response to Peters comment.

"When we're using the words intolerance and misogynistic, let's remember that we have lost 60 million lives to abortion, and many of those would have grown up to be women," Rutledge added.

Peters argued in her opinion piece that, "Creating healthy families requires more than ensuring that babies are born."
 
"It recognizes that creating healthy families and raising children is a deeply spiritual and moral task requiring commitment, desire, and love on the part of the parent(s)," Peters wrote. "If we truly value women and healthy families, we must accept that 'I do not want to have a baby' is an imminently appropriate reason to end a pregnancy. And we must trust that pregnant women are the only ones who are capable of making these decisions."

But Rutledge says that Christians must look at abortion from God's viewpoint.

"When we look to the Bible we read that He knit us together in our mother's wombs," she noted. "He knew us before we were born. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and created in His image. You can use worldly standards and societal norms to make abortion sound appropriate, but from a biblical standpoint, it will never be appropriate."

Rutledge shot back, "From a cultural standpoint, I'm curious why feminists pick and choose which women to support, champion, and, in this case, allow to live? Millions of girls have lost their lives because of abortion. Why are they not fighting for them?"