This article seeks to guide a discussion on three ethical issues which confront society and the church today.
The issues are abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment. World over, this society and the church is divided on these issues, and yet in our prophetic role, it is our inescapable task to give theological guidance on these matters.
This is the first instalments on a series of articles on ‘Sanctity of Human Life’.
The bible attaches a very high value to life, particularly human life. The creation narratives in Genesis 1 and 2 establish an unbreakable connection between the life of God and the life of humans. According to these narratives, the life of humanity flows from God. Not only is a human being created in the image and likeness of God (GN 1:27), the creation of a human being is accomplished with the essence of God (GN 2:7). The breath of God is infused unto the human so that the air our lungs pump every second is the air of God. This identifies the life of a human being as sacred. The Psalmist is not very far from this theological insight when he writes in Psalm 8:4 – 6.
What are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or
a child of Adam that you care for him? Yet you have made him a
little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty,
made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things
under his feet.
In effect, this theological anthropology is not very far from the African view of life. Although in the African mythologies there isn’t a definite connection of substance between the human and divine, there is a connection at the end of human life. Africans believe that physical life is only a phase which precedes the spiritual realm of the ancestors. Ancestors are humans, not deities, and yet, they are not human in the way that those who are still living are human. African theologian John Mbiti names them the living dead.
For although they are physically dead, their life continues in another form. There is a sense in which they have attained a sacredness that one is incapable of while he/she is physically alive. The fact that this sanctity is attainable at some point, suggests it is innate in every human being.
In Setswana, there is a saying that motho ke Modimo. This translates into something like, a human being is a god, the point being that the life of a person is of such great value that it could be likened to that of a god. The apostle Paul expresses a similar thought when he likens the human body to a temple of God.
As we mentioned above, the creation stories talk about a human being created in the image and likeness of God. However, the New Testament offers another perspective: that of God taking the form of humanity in order to redeem us. (Phil. 2:6 – 7). This is significant because God’s entry into human life and God’s assumption of human form is a divine seal on the sanctity of life. For this reason, human life should be valued as God’s life. Human life is not only sacred because it is a gift from God, but it is sacred because of the interconnecting relationship that exists between humanity and God. One of the pivotal themes of the New Testament is the testimony of God’s reconciliatory work between God and humanity. John 17:21 records Jesus’ prayer that they may also be in us, thus testifying to the possibility of oneness between humanity and God. The reconciliatory possibility hallows human life and gives it a value that no other creature is able to attain.
This article will be presented in three parts, focusing on the ethical issues of abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment, whose discussions begin from the premise that human life is a gift from God, shared by God, and that it is sacred.
Catch me in the next edition, as we discuss the concerns surrounding abortion.
(Reverend Jan A Scholtz is the former chairperson of //Kharas Regional Council and former !Nami#nus constituency councillor and is a holder of Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA.