Report 1

The ethical issue that I will be analyzing and discussing is abortion. For furtherance of my knowledge and understanding of abortion, I interviewed my boyfriend's brother, Jonathan Kinnick. He is the Youth Pastor at Archibald Ranch Community Church of the Nazerene (ARCC) in Ontario. The Senior Pastor at ARCC is Bob Babcock, who received his Bachelor's Degree in Religious Studies and Master's Degree in Theology from Azusa Pacific Univeristy. Jonathan headlines the youth ministry there known as The Gathering, which exists to reach teenage students, develop meaningful friendships, prepare each other for the journey ahead, express their love for God, and challenge one another to discover gifts through ministry. He received his Master's Degree in Economics from USC.
I started the interview by asking Jonathan about the views of the Nazarene Church regarding abortion. In response to this, he replied by quoting the Church of the Nazarene Manual: "The Church of the Nazarene affirms the sanctity of human life as established by God the Creator and believes that such sanctity extends to the child not yet born. Therefore, we oppose induced abortion (surgically or chemically), when used for either personal convenience or population control. We oppose laws that allow abortion. Realizing that there are rare but real medical conditions wherein the mother or the unborn child, or both, could not survive the pregnancy, termination of the pregnancy should only be made after sound medical and Christian counseling." Next, I asked Jonathan what his views on abortion are. He proceeded to explain that his views were fairly aligned with those of the Nazarene doctrine. He believes that generally, all forms of induced abortion are immoral and directly conflict with what the bible says, quoting such verses as "Thou shall not murder" (Ex. 20:13), "For you formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb" (Ps. 139:13), and "My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them" (Ps. 139:15-16). He feels that all of these verses, and more, convey how all of us were intricately created by God while we were still in our mother's womb. These verses, he posits, prove that even fetuses are human beings, and should be treated with the same dignity and respect that all other born humans are. For a mother to feel that she can rightfully take away her child's life just because it is unborn, according to Jonathan, is immoral. Not many people could (or would even try to) argue the validity and morality of a mother taking her child's life just because she didn't feel like having it. He feels that life does not start when a child is born, but when the child is conceived. However, as adequately stated in the Nazarene manual, there are circumstances that arise which open up the possibility for the life of the mother and/or child to be compromised by going through with the birth. Under these very rare circumstances, he feels that extensive prayer is required to determine where God stands in regards to your hardships, as well as counseling from learned members of the church. After these steps have been taken, he feels that God's will shall be revealed, and only then can further action be taken. He feels that, if possible, abortion should be completely avoided. Situations where the life of the mother and/or child is endangered are extremely rare, and so abortion need not be a possibility. Jonathan doesn't think that this is an issue of preserving women's rights, as many other pro-choicers do. He feels that it is an issue of preserving life, the only thing that we have in this world. He urges those who are pro-choice to think long and hard about the issue, and decide whether or not they would have wanted their parents to be advocates of abortion.
Before talking with Jonathan, I thought that I knew exactly the way I felt about abortion. While I interviewed Jonathan, his brothers got into a discussion about abortion and everyone’s point of view was very interesting. I believed that no matter what abortions are not acceptable. Everything happens for a reason, and just because having a baby is not in your plan at that point in your life, doesn’t mean that that specific baby was not meant to be born. No one should have a say in who should live or die. Only God has the ability to know when someone is going to die.
During the interview I realized that some people, such as Jonathan’s mother, believe in the same thing. Then Jonathan was asking us should someone have an abortion if they were going to die for sure if they had the baby? In that case I think that people should not because their lives are in God’s hands. Then he asked, "what if a person is sick? Should they go to the doctor then? Or should they just stay home and say that God will save them or that God will do what is supposed to happen." In a case like that I believe that a person should go to the doctor if they are sick. I remember a few years ago at my church the priest, Father Bob from Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church, told the congregation this story that deals with asking God for help and not following his signs.
"There was a huge flood and a man was trapped on his roof so he began to pray for God’s help. In mid-prayer a man on a row boat comes by and asks the man if he needs help but the man refused and said God will save him. Then he prays some more and a helicopter comes to airlift him out but the man refuses and says that God will save him. The man ends up drowning. When the man gets to Heaven he asks God why he didn’t help him and God answered by saying I sent you a boat and a helicopter and you refused my help so I thought you wanted to come with me in Heaven."
This made me realize that maybe getting a warning should be taken as a way of God helping you. God works in mysterious ways and humans will never fully grasp onto the reasons why God does the things he does. Then another point that was made was that maybe an abortion could be considered self defense because in the case of a baby being the cause of a woman to die, would killing it be self-defense? Personally, I don’t believe that it would.
I strongly believe that a woman should not have an abortion purely because they are too young, too poor, or not ready to have a child. Those reasons are copouts. There are so many alternatives that a woman can do besides killing a living being. They could leave the baby at a hospital or fire department within the first few days after birth without any charges being filed. A woman also has the choice of adoption. Even in situations where a woman is raped and ends up getting pregnant, I believe that God made that baby for a reason and the woman should have it.
I have realized through my discussion with Jonathan that there are some situations that are hard to judge on what you should do about abortion. This is only in the cases of the mother’s health being at risk. I think that people should not resort to abortions when they can trust in God. Personally, I would like to believe that if I am ever faced with making a decision whether to die and have my baby or kill my baby and live I would choose to have the baby. God has a plan for everyone and each person’s life is a part of God’s plan.
Through this interview I have learned that abortion is extremely controversial, even between people who believe that abortions should not occur. People have different interpretations of what is moral and ok. In the case of abortion, people can argue and argue about the things they believe. Overall, I learned that this subject is not extremely a black and white subject. Coming away from this experience I still believe that abortion is wrong in any circumstance but I can see how people would be able to see that they need to have one in circumstances where they would die if they did not have one.