In my years associated with CBHD, first as Director of Church Relations and now as an Associate Fellow, I’ve joined the ranks of others involved in the work of bioethics who are mystified by the challenge of bringing bioethics education to the church. For some of you here, you may not have realized it was a problem. For others, you know exactly what I am talking about. When the church has been able to focus its attention on issues closely related to bioethics such as abortion, educational resources available to those in the pew have been minimal. Many, dare I say most churches, limit their teaching in this area to Sanctity of Life Sunday and little else. Church leaders are sometimes afraid, and for many good reasons, to venture into areas they perceive as primarily political. So perhaps we in bioethics have failed to communicate the inherently spiritual dimension of these issues, something evidenced by the fact that politically conservative voices, the talking heads of cable news, have become a dominant resource, and not necessarily from an explicitly Christian worldview. As we consider more specific bioethics topics like egg donation, IVF, cosmetic surgery, or physician assisted suicide, the available teaching resources are almost nonexistent. Of course, those of us here know where to locate resources. CBHD, the CBC, Probe Ministries and similar organizations have resources available on their websites for those particularly inclined towards the study of these issues, with the hope that they will then be shared with others. But there still lacks a targeted approach to the people in the pew. Clearly, written curriculum has its practical challenges due to ongoing changes in research, technology and the political landscape. And while many including myself desire the seminary context to better emphasize bioethics in the curriculum of our future pastors, the reality is, no pastor can be an stay on top of every issue. It gets a bit more complicated in that the church's desire to influence and shape culture has come up against a culture that actively seeks to influence and shape the church. And much success they are having. It does not always follow that those who profess a Christian worldview also embrace a biblical understanding of human dignity. We live in a challenging time, but our call to discipleship remains. While the church reaches into culture with a prophetic voice, proclaiming truth to a people who believe no absolute truth exists, the church needs to more closely examine the full scope of discipleship, because while salvation is a matter of the soul, discipleship today is literally a battle for the mind. Belief in the God of the Bible and even a daily infusion of Scripture does not necessarily or immediately change the ethical thinking of any believer. And for each of us in the 21st century, bioethics issues are relevant to every believer. The scope of my presentation today is to share with you my vision for women’s discipleship as a pathway for bioethics in the local church. If you are a pastor, this should intrigue you in terms of how you can leverage, encourage, and train your women’s ministry leaders. If you are a medical professional in the local church, I hope you will be encouraged to team up with your church’s women’s ministry as a resource in bioethics, for those in leadership and for women in general. If you are a women’s ministry leader or considering how you can participate in this area of discipleship of women in the church, my hope is that you are able to influence a broader vision for this area of ministry and bring bioethics education to the women in your sphere of influence. This will require self-study and an active pursuit of resources, taking your knowledge of bioethics to new levels. For those of you who do not believe bioethics has any place in the local church, I have my work cut out for me today. As the ideal, we would all prefer to have opportunities to teach both men and women in our churches about bioethics issues on an ongoing basis. If this can be accomplished, it certainly should be the case. So why women’s ministry? There is a dominant culture of women’s ministry in the local church setting that is already established and commonly comprised of two key components. There is a proactive educational component where women regularly gather for bible studies, conferences, and seminars. In these contexts opportunities exist to plan bioethics education including its biblical and theological foundations as well as the specific issues. There is also the mentoring component modeled after Titus 2 which calls for the mature women to mentor those women who are not as spiritually mature. I refer to this component as the reactive educational component because it is within these relationships where private matters are discussed and where counseling among women generally occurs. These two aspects of the women’s ministry culture have become so embedded within the evangelical community that we would be remiss to not at least see the opportunity to train and teach as a matter of discipleship within this setting. As the church continues to seek and encourage moral reform within the wider culture, its ability to achieve its goals outside of the walls of the church may actually have a direct correlation to its discipleship ministry within the church. As the body of Christ is equipped to share the message of the gospel, the church must also dismantle the ideas that continue to be obstacles to spiritual maturity. In doing so, the church’s ability to fan out with truth for faith and living becomes even greater because there are so many on the inside of the believing community whose lives naturally reach into communities of unbelief outside of the church. Let me offer you some statistics. In the United States, the typical church congregation is composed roughly of 61% women and 39% men.[1] Consider the larger picture: there are 13 million more adult women in church on Sundays than men.[2] Twenty-five percent of married women who do attend church will go without their husbands.[3] Participants in midweek church gatherings involve 70-80% women.[4] And “fewer than 10% of U.S. churches are able to establish or maintain a vibrant men’s ministry.”[5] Generally, this data is viewed in a negative light and is seen as evidence of the church’s feminization. Some suggest that it is pointing to something that is wrong with the way we do church that causes men to avoid church. While I agree that the statistics point to a problem with male attendance, I prefer to take a “glass half full” approach to interpreting these stats. Here is what I see: I see all kinds of women in critical numbers who are attending church. Many of these women are what I describe as being on the fringes. These are single mothers of children who have no fathers in their lives, or are grandparents raising their grandchildren because their own children have lost their way. These are the Generation X and Baby Boomers who have waited until their 40’s to have children and opt for the laboratory IVF method, independent of any father figure in their child’s life. These are also very young mothers who for whatever reason decided that having a child as a child would cause the love of their life to never leave, and now they find themselves struggling to raise children alone—still children themselves. These might also be the June Cleavers in your church who look like they have it all together, but then shock you with the announcement that their sister has offered to sacrifice of her womb to be her surrogate. But here is where it gets interesting. The women who are attending church today wield a significant amount of influence in their families and in culture. They are leaders in their families and in the marketplace. Stepping up our efforts in discipleship, especially in the realm of bioethics, will benefit them personally as they become equipped to confront ethical dilemmas and will have a trickle down effect to our culture through their influence of friends and family, especially their own children. These are mothers of teens who are being seduced by the latest birth control methods, are choosing abortion as a birth control method, and believe all the rhetoric being touted about the morning after pill (Plan B). And it’s not just about their daughters, but it is also about how they answer their own bioethical questions such as the problem of infertility. In my sphere of influence I have run into Christian families who are the proud parents of multiple frozen embryos and unsure how or unwilling to implant these embryos. Each of us here have heard similar stores from WITHIN the church, evidence that we need to initiate a movement of discipleship that includes basics of bioethics. Liberal writer Christine Wicker, author of The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church, stated that she believed within the Christian community abortion is occurring more frequently than we would care to admit. She made this suggestion on the basis that in our pews on Sunday there are few unwed mothers. This is what she wrote: As I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, targeted resources for people in the pew are few. In my role as a women’s ministry leader in a denominational setting, I have the opportunity to train other women’s ministry leaders on these issues, and with almost every speaking engagement I bring these discussions directly to the women in the pew. Each of you can choose to be a resource to the women and women’s ministry leaders in your church, directing them to intellectually appropriate materials and sharing with them the immediate need for bioethics in this area of ministry. Talk to your pastors and enlighten them about the statistics and the impact that can be had in church and in culture, a gospel-driven moral reform. If you are a women’s ministry leader here or have a particular level of influence on someone in that kind of position, encourage them to move toward a lifestyle oriented method of discipleship that encourages Christian worldview thinking, that places every aspect of our life at the feet of Jesus. By providing the bioethics foundations in the proactive educational setting, we are preparing women to mentor other women who find themselves in the midst of bioethical decision making. Paths are intended for traveling, for getting from one location to the next. I encourage you to be willing to take this path for bioethics in the local church and walk alongside women who are living in the trenches when it comes to making decisions about their beginning, middle, and end-of-life bioethical dilemmas. Do not underestimate the impact bioethics education will have in this sphere is influence. [1]“U.S. Congregational Life Survey – Key Findings,” 29 October 2003, www.uscongregations.org/key.htm.
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Transcript from 16th Annual CBHD Bioethics Conference Parallel Paper Presentation
