• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

  • About
  • Books
  • Articles
    • Articles (single)
    • Articles (in series)
  • Audio/Video
    • Audio Interviews, Lectures, and Debates
    • Video Interviews and Lectures
    • Powerpoint Slides
  • Blog
    • Current Posts
    • Blog Archives
  • Podcasts
    • The Tentative Apologist Podcast
    • Archived Podcasts
    • Reviews

abortion

The Absolutist Prolife Position: A Critique

May 27, 2022 by Randal

The absolutist prochoice position (APC) says that elective abortion should be accessible up until birth. The absolutist prolife position (APL) says that elective abortion should be prohibited at all stages of pregnancy post-conception because the killing of the embryo/fetus at all stages constitutes the murder of a human person. Most people find themselves somewhere between […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, embryology, ethics, murder

How Strident Pro-life Christians Harm Human Fetuses

December 3, 2021 by Randal

I became an avid supporter of the pro-life movement back in the mid-1980s. At the time, I was an enthusiastic supporter of pro-life groups like Last Days Ministries. And in high school, I proudly wore an Operation Rescue t-shirt to school. Then I went on to university where I completed a BA followed by an […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, dialogue, ethics

Prolife Christians Who Support Child Killing

October 12, 2021 by Randal

Defending the morality of the Canaanite genocide has disastrous consequences for a consistent Christian ethic as I explain in this video. ?

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, biblical violence, genocide, infanticide, Jesus Loves Canaanites, moral epistemology, moral knowledge

Being Prolife is Not the Same Thing as Being Anti-Abortion

October 8, 2020 by Randal

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, ethics, prolife

Babies Aren’t Tapeworms and Real Feminists Don’t Revile Fetuses

February 18, 2020 by Randal

There are prochoice people who take seriously the moral weight of killing a human fetus and nonetheless side with the right of the mother to do so. And then there are prochoice people who dehumanize and objectify the human fetus, recasting him/her as a “parasite”. This is the same rhetoric used to eradicate populations in […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, bioethics, ethics, feminism

Is abortion a genocide?

January 4, 2020 by Randal

Dear fellow Pro-Lifers, Please do not refer to support for elective abortion as a “genocide”. The word “genocide” has a specific meaning in international law: it refers to the attempt to destroy an ethnic, religious, or cultural identity. To be sure, genocidaires may use abortion as a means to destroy an ethnic, religious and/or cultural […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, bioethics, genocide, rhetoric

On Anti-Abortion Extremists (and other unhelpful rhetoric)

February 6, 2019 by Randal

CNN just posted an article titled “Before judging ‘late-term abortion,’ understand what it means, doctors say.” I agree with the sentiment. There is way too much heat and not enough light in this complex and highly emotional debate. That said, I cannot help but reply to the comment of one of the two doctors interviewed […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, prochoice, prolife, rhetoric

Abortion: We may never agree, but can we at least concede the other side has a point?

May 2, 2018 by Randal

For decades, abortion has remained among the most volatile ethical and public policy debates in western society. This polarization is rooted in large part in the complexity of the issue itself, but it is also spurred on by uncompromising rhetoric on both sides. Thus, for example, prolifers disparage the prochoice position as “baby murder” while the prochoicers respond by invoking […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, debate, dialogue, persuasion

Elective abortion as the right to kill your children

January 26, 2017 by Randal

There are few political and social issues as controverted and fraught with mutual animus as the debate over abortion rights. Unfortunately, the heat is only multiplied by the common retreat to unfortunate and misleading rhetoric. Consider, for example, the practice among some prolifers of referring to abortion as a genocide. This is language that I’ve […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, bioethics, ethics

The Fight over the Fetus: Abortion, Ethics, and Politics

October 12, 2016 by Randal

Today Norman Geisler apparently defended his continued support for Donald Trump by claiming that Hillary Clinton is worse than Adolf Hitler. The reason? Her support for abortion. I first learned about this from Hemant Mehta’s blog and so I’m going to quote the relevant passage from his article “Christian Theologian: I Still Support Donald Trump Because […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, bioethics, ethics, Hemant Mehta, Hillary Clinton, Norman Geisler, politics

Fetus as Parasite? A disturbing trend in pro-choice rhetoric

June 28, 2016 by Randal

Throughout history attempts to justify killing members of outgroups has been carried out by invoking labels for members of the outgroups. David Livingstone Smith chronicles this lamentable aspect of human history in his book Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012). And so, for example, the Nazis called Jews and […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, bioethics, ethics, pro-choice, pro-life, rhetoric

On the Prolife rationale behind showing aborted fetuses

June 25, 2016 by Randal

Jeff Lowder just posted three tweets questioning the logic behind Prolifers showing aborted fetuses. Here are the tweets: Now first off, I have my own concerns about the way the Prolife cause has often employed depictions of aborted fetuses for the sake of their cause. So my point here is not to defend the practice. Nor […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, ethics, prolife

Should a Christian support a pro-choice candidate? Should a Christian support a pro-torture candidate?

April 8, 2016 by Randal

Occasionally I encounter Christian conservatives who insist that a Christian should not support a pro-choice political candidate. As a pro-life Christian, I agree with those Christian conservatives that Christians ought to be pro-life. But I don’t agree that a politician’s position on abortion can serve as a litmus test for a Christian’s support or opposition. In Canada’s most recent national […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, democracy, Democracy Now, Eric Fair, pro-choice, pro-life, Ted Cruz, torture

Abortion to save the life of the mother

May 17, 2013 by Randal

I’ve been a supporter of Amnesty International for several years now. As a result, I receive on a regular basis emails regarding current matters. Yesterday I received the following appeal via email: Today El Salvador’s Supreme Court continues to debate a young mother’s request for a life-saving abortion. However, the President, Attorney General and other […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, Amnesty International

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

Against Malaria Foundation

Against Malaria Foundation

Support Kiva

Support Kiva

Search this website

Archives



Copyright © 2022 • Randal Rauser • A Steady Site