Letter to the editor: Abortion and the Bible

If you follow the Bible, you can vote in favor of abortion. That runs contrary to what the writer of the letter “If you follow the Bible, you must vote against abortion” (June 9, TribLive) claims: “If you are a follower of its teaching, you must vote against it (abortion).” Jeremiah 1:4 and the Sixth Commandment (Thou shalt not kill/murder) are offered as proof.

But so many biblical passages justify abortion and killing. Hosea 13:16 has God ordering the slicing of babies from the womb and thrashing infants against rocks. Numbers 31:17-19 has Moses ordering the killing of every male among the little ones. The Passover is another mass killing of children. Deuteronomy 28:53 has a God who delights in punishing people to the point they will eat their young and afterbirth. In Deuteronomy 32:25, the “virgin and sucking child” are to be destroyed. In Numbers 5:11-31 God prescribes to Moses a “law of jealousy” abortion/miscarriage potion to cause suspected adulteresses to abort even though this would not prove that the child was not the husband’s baby.

The Old Testament is a book replete with mass killings of men, women and children. I could cite many other passages for you. So please do not use the Bible as your justification for voting against abortion. Instead, you could use it as the textbook or manual for abortion and other killing. The God of the Bible is not a pro-life God. Regrettably, that God is a killing God of the born and unborn.

Bruce Braden

Carmel, Ind.

The writer is a Mt. Pleasant native.