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I will let you decide if this is coincidence or not. In the American Medical Association initiated the biggest change in abortion views ever recorded in history. With these efforts, the AMA managed to put some of its competitors out of business, restrict the public role of women in bourgeois society, and strengthen the control of conventional male doctors over the field of medicine.
In a very real sense, the medical profession transformed abortion from a moral issue into a medical procedure and imposed the authority of physicians over it.
This major shift came about not as a result of a new Christian doctrine or new book added to the Bible there was no Dead Sea Scroll on abortion found in … , but through political efforts by the GOP and conservative groups. There is no doubt of the sincerity of many Christians who hold an extreme anti-abortion view. This essay is not making an argument in any way that the topic of abortion is not an important one, or to be taken lightly in any way.
However, it is difficult to justify the prioritization of the abortion issue over a host of other issues from a Biblical and historical viewpoint, especially when Biblical passages concerning other social and moral issues are so prominent.
There are 3, verses in the Bible that are concerned with social justice, taking care of the poor, the stranger, attitudes of kindness and compassion. It is dominant in the Old Testament and the New Testament and there is no ambiguity.
Freemium Recommend to your library for acquisition. The great risk run by those who employ semiotic analysis is that of remaining at the level of a formal study of the content of texts, failing to draw out the message. He argued that Moses put together a coherent text but that subsequently, copyists, out of laziness, ignorance or presumption, muddled everything up. It is in the context of this movement of a part of the Canaanite population that the establishment of Israel must be seen. Each of the historical episodes he explores-from the beginning of Christian monasticism to the emergence of Pentecostalism-is evidence of the dynamic interplaybetween Scripture and the social and cultural context in which it is interpreted. Moreover, since the biblical texts were written for communities, it is to communities in the first place that the reading of the Bible has been entrusted. Used Quantity Available: 1.
So why is it not our dominant concern, as Christians, today? It simply cannot be argued that abortion did not exist in Biblical times or during the time of Augustine and every other century until the 19th — the only thing that did begin to change was a liberation for women due to progress and a change in cultural and social values in the late s, and a political tool with increased use of propaganda tools that took over thousands of churches in the s.
As I stated earlier, late-term abortion has always been unacceptable in the Church and I agree there must be moderation and laws in place to respect and protect the life of the unborn in late stages of pregnancy. Most, except maybe some on the very far left, believe that once a child is able to live on its own outside the womb, abortion should be out of the question with the exception of cases of the viability of the fetus and health of the mother.
Furthermore, only 1. It is a heart-breaking decision for parents and one that has had to be made for hundreds of years, amidst great devastation. I am simply bringing the truth of scripture and history to light. The church has moved to the extreme Right on this issue, to the point that someone like myself, a Christian Democrat who holds a moderate view on abortion, is portrayed as a far left radical and in fact an accessory to murder!
And consider this…my views as a progressive are in fact to the Right of the Bible and the founders of our faith. The major point here is: if more Christians would only start prioritizing the things Jesus told us to, our focus would look drastically different than it does now as a Body.
If abortion continues to be the number one priority for so many Christians at the expense of the issues the Bible does instruct on, are those who make it their only priority not giving the issue an almost idolatrous seat? There are over 3, scriptures directly pertaining to helping the poor, showing love, character, giving, social justice, and asking the governing authorities to show justice and fairness.
These methods generate intense controversy among communities of believers, and have encountered rejection from conservative Christians, and increasingly, from Muslims. Nevertheless, critical exegesis interpretation of a text, especially within its original context is crucial for adherents of a religion to better understand their scriptures, especially as the context in which it was written illuminates the meaning of a text.
Scripture serves a variety of roles in the spiritual life of a religious community. There are three major functions of scripture in a religion: personal guidance and inspiration, communal worship and instruction, and bibliomancy using scripture for magical purposes. Though limited literacy and primitive copying methods prevented the widespread dissemination of religious texts for many centuries, scripture has always had a personal aspect—at least, for those with access to it.
In modern times, with the promotion of literacy and the advent of printing and telecommunications many individuals are able to experience the scriptures from their own traditions first hand.
Following the greater access allowed by the advent of the printing press, most religious traditions now place a great emphasis on devotional reading of religious texts. For example, an individual relationship with the Qur'an has always been a focal point for practicing Muslims. A hafiz "memorizer" or "protector" is one who has committed the entire Qur'an to memory. Though this skill is of great use within a communal setting, it cannot be achieved without a great personal commitment.
The community also sees it as a great act of personal piety. The Lutheran insistence on "sola scriptura" by scripture alone highlighted the individual's perceived need for scripture in the faith of a Christian. In many religious communities scripture forms the basis for their social, legal and moral codes of conduct, as well as providing instruction on rituals and rites of passage. Scripture also serves as the foundation of law for some religious communities.
The Qur'an and the hadith traditions are outstanding examples of scripture used as the foundation of law Sharia in Islam, as is the Torah of Judaism. In both cases we find rules for the proper conduct of the pious, including but not limited to the treatment of spouses, children, the poor and enemies. The Vinaya writing of Buddhism also fulfills a similar role, serving as rules for those who are practicing within a monastic community. The use of scripture for magical ends has been widespread amongst the world's religions, though often times not sanctioned by governing bodies or the clergy.
Frequently, scriptures have been pored over for secret information encoded in a myriad of different ways, likely unrelated to the text that appears in plain sight. Those searching for secret messages are confident of the divine nature of the book, even the information that appears for everyone to see; however, they also believe that in the divine creation of scripture, secrets are planted in the text for the devout to discover.
This is found in the Jewish Kabbalah tradition, which attempts to reveal mystical messages hidden in the Hebrew Bible. In recent times there has been a surge of bibliomancy in Christian and Muslim circles, each with their own re-examination of scriptures. Most notable is the "Bible Code" phenomenon, in which passages from the Hebrew Bible are arranged in a pre-determined way often a specific number of characters per line, without spaces and checked for key words, found by counting letters at certain intervals.
Both the number of characters per line and the intervals at which letters are counted are manipulated, often requiring a computer to handle the multitude of calculations. Sometimes the alleged Bible Code is used for predicting future events. Thus, attitudes to sacred texts differ between religious traditions, and can change within a faith group.
Some religions make written texts widely available, while others hold that sacred teachings must remain hidden from all but the loyal and the initiate. Some religions make texts available gratis or in subsidized form; others require payment. The Guru Granth Sahib of Sikhism always appears with standardized page numbering while the Abrahamic religions and their offshoots favor chapter and verse pointers. Scripture plays the central role in the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism , Christianity, and Islam that have been called "religions of the book.
Christian tradition attributes the canonical gospels to disciples of Jesus. In Hinduism , the Vedas are thought to have been recorded by rishis. Though all these traditions accept that their texts were recorded by human hands, they also believe that these works are in some way "heavenly books. The Qur'an is believed to be of complete divine origin, recited by Muhammad after having it revealed to him by the angel Gabriel.
The Vedas of Hinduism are not thought to have been composed by the rishis, but rather heard. The Buddhist tradition sees the power of their scripture in its insight into the nature of reality. The Tanakh is an example of a collection of scriptures written at different times by different authors in different locations. However, the various writings are thought to be equally inspired by God , and thus are said to have unity in spirit and consistency.
Within Judaism there is also a strong oral tradition, preserved in the Talmud ; however, there is disagreement within the Jewish community as to the importance of the Talmud. The Talmud is made up of the Mishnah , the recorded oral law, and the Gemara , commentaries on the Mishnah. Another work sometimes recognized as scripture in Judaism is the Zohar , a collection of mystical writings used in Kabbalah.
The New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, comprised of narratives, letters and apocalyptic writings. Among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily in the Apocrypha , a list of works that, though not considered fully scriptural in any major Christian denomination, are regarded with varying levels of respect.
As well, there exists a group of somewhat unrelated works known as the Pseudopigrapha—texts whose authorship is attributed wrongly to others. Attitudes towards the Bible also vary amongst Christian groups. Roman Catholics , Orthodox, and many Protestant groups stress the harmony and importance of scripture and tradition, while other Protestant churches focus on the idea of sola scriptura, or scripture alone. This concept arose during the Protestant Reformation , and many Evangelical groups today continue to support the use of scripture as the only source of Christian teaching.
The central scripture of Islam is the Holy Qur'an , which was recorded in the seventh century C. Islamic tradition holds that the Qur'an existed in its same form in heaven before its revelation to humanity by the angel Gabriel through Muhammad. There is a great deal of importance attached to the integrity of the Qur'an, especially the degree to which the original text has been preserved over the centuries.
Additionally, the ahadith the Arabic pluralization of hadith , which record the words and actions of the prophet Muhammad, is another revered text in Islam. However, the hadith are not considered as authoritative as the Qur'an. Muslims also recognize the Hebrew and Christian Bibles as scriptural, but corrupted by humanity over time, and not maintaining the purity of the Qur'an. Hinduism is a broad and vast religion, both in terms of beliefs and time. There is a great deal of material, both oral and written, that is considered scriptural in the Hindu traditions. The oldest and most authoritative scriptures in Hinduism are called the Vedas , meaning "Wisdom texts.
Each of the Samhitas is further connected to commentaries that elucidate these works known as the Brahmanas and Aryanakas. The highest or ultimate teachings of this corpus are known as the Upanishads , which are of great importance philosophically, and thus classified as "Vedanta" culmination of the Vedas. The entire collection of Vedic texts is classified in Hinduism as shruti , meaning "heard wisdom.
In addition to the Vedic "shruti" scriptures, several other Hindu writings are revered as scripture. Collectively these other writings are known as smriti "remembered wisdom". A chapter of the Mahabharata called the Bhagavadgita has become the most popular and widely read scripture in Hinduism today. Other smriti texts include tantras, agamas, legal sutras and shastras, and the texts of philosophical schools. There is no set of scripture that is universal throughout all of Buddhism.
Most traditions have a tripitaka Pali tipitaka , a Sanskrit word meaning "three baskets. The first tripitaka was the Pali Canon, recorded in the first century B. This set of teachings makes up the scriptures used by Theravada Buddhists. As new schools of Buddhism developed new canons were prepared. The Mahayana Buddhist tradition produced sets of works thought by Mahayana Buddhists to be superior to the Pali Canon, but still a product of the Buddha.