I’m on vacation this week, so I didn’t intend to write anything, but the Southern Baptist Convention did something really hard last week.
As the largest Protestant denomination, what they do and say holds a certain degree of weight. So when they voted to formally denounce the practice of in vitro fertilization, it meant something.
In a world where fertility rates are in a steady decline and the average age of first time parents is creeping higher and higher, IVF matters to people. Many are told it is their only option for having biological children.1
Before this past week, only the Catholic Church has been boldly against IVF. But here come the Southern Baptists!
This feels significant to me (maybe because I grew up in a church that was partly Southern Baptist). Southern Baptists are vocally pro-life and that life begins at fertilization, but they have largely avoided discussing what this means for artificial reproductive procedures. Likely because it’s tough! In this culture context, it’s tough to say that couples who are told IVF is their only option should not have the option at all.
How can we look in the eyes of women and couples who desperately want children and say no? The Church has long been pro-life and pro-family. Yes to marriages! Yes to children! Yes to family! How can we possibly pass a resolution that seems to say no to that?
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