Ross Douthat's Slippery Slope

I felt one proposition of Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, deserved its own post aside from my book review.

At the last Wesleyan General Conference (GenCon12), the North Michigan District offered a memorial (#79) to amend The Discipline, putting in a stronger statement against abortion and to actively work to protect the life of unborn children. This memorial did not come to the General Conference recommended for passage. I was not a delegate to GenCon12, but followed the proceedings as closely as I could. I admit, reading memorial #79 made me wearily remember the 1980s, when this debate seemed more fierce.

As a child of the 80s I saw a lot of good done, a few wackos doing evil in the name of good, and several people for whom the pro-life/pro-choice issue seemed, at least to my youthful mind, to be of greater importance than the gospel itself. In the end, for all the pro-life effort, some lives were saved, at the time no laws were changed, and I doubted if any minds were changed. I did not think memorial #79 needed to become a part of The Discipline.¹ I believe living as a disciple of Jesus does mean bringing physical, social, as well as spiritual good to the world, but I tend to decry church and politics (although I am considering narrowing my stance to decrying church and partisanship). Ross Douthat made me take time to reconsider my position on how strong we should be in our pro-life stance.

Stay with me for a moment as we briefly discuss ordination. The Wesleyan Church ordains women. Before I became a Wesleyan, I was among those who considered women’s ordination against the command of Scripture, and the start of a slippery slope. As an example, although The Wesleyan Church does not fall into this category, it seemed to me that denominations that allowed the ordination of women became those who now allow the ordination of those who continue to practice a homosexual lifestyle. Yet Douthat does not mark the beginning of the Church’s changing ethic on homosexual behavior with women’s ordination.² Instead he proposes the slippery slope toward acceptance of homosexual behavior began with the Church’s softening stance against abortion.

Douthat claims the Church began to soften its stance against abortion in response to the sexual revolution. Prior to this, as far back as The Didache, abortion is equated with infanticide. His assertion is that once we lowered our moral stance on sexuality to allow murder, even if only endorsed or allowed in a limited way, our sexual ethic in general more easily shifted away from orthodox tradition, and now we have little foundation remaining to disallow homosexual practices.³ However, recent polling shows evangelical Millennials now tending toward an orthodox sexual ethic with respect to sex belonging within marriage, and abortion issues,⁴ despite the fact their generation as a whole has the greatest acceptance of homosexual behavior.⁵

What do you think of Douthat’s choice of “abortion allowed under some circumstances” as the beginning of the decline of our Christian sexual ethic?

March for Life is January 25, 2013.

References:

Regarding abortion, the 2012 edition of The Discipline states:

The Wesleyan Church seeks to recognize and preserve the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death and, thus, is opposed to the use of induced abortion. However, it recognizes that there may be rare pregnancies where there are grave medical conditions threatening the life of the mother, which could raise a serious question about taking the life of the unborn child. In such a case, a decision should be made only after very prayerful consideration following medical and spiritual counseling. The Wesleyan Church encourages its members to become informed about the abortion issue and to become actively involved locally and nationally in the preparation and passage of appropriate legislation guaranteeing protection of life under law to unborn children.” (410:11)

Glenn D. Black, G., Cady, D., Heer, K., Kind, K., MacBeth, W., Mansell, J., McClung, R. (editors). (2012). The Discipline of The Wesleyan Church 2012. Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House.
Douthat does see women’s ordination as a bridgehead of misguided inclusion and accommodation, a point which I challenge in my review.
Ross Douthat, Ross. (2012). Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. New York: Free Press A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Pages 90-91.
“Sex & Unexpected Pregnancies: What Evangelical Millennials Think & Practice” Conducted May 2012 by Grey Matter Research and “Evangelicals on Unplanned Pregnancies & Abortions” Conducted Summer 2009 by Gallup, Inc. Retreived from http://www.nae.net/church-and-faith-partners/projects/generation-forum/polling
Saad, Lydia. (May 14, 2012). “U.S. Acceptance of Gay/Lesbian Relations Is the New Normal.” Gallup Politics. Princeton, NJ. Retreived from http://www.gallup.com/poll/154634/Acceptance-Gay-Lesbian-Relations-New-Normal.aspx