Christian faith marks the deliberation from polytheism in early human history to protect people from the cult of living offering, the infants or virgin girls. With the redemptive blood of Jesus, He manifests a moral life to keep away from the lust and self-indulgence. The distance of liberty and self-indulgence may lies within an inch.
The liberalization of drug use and gun selling market are some good examples legalized in the name of free market. The argument of human rationality and the legal regulation swings within the both ends. In the letter to the church of Galatians St. Paul indicated ‘Be careful’, since the Christian are called to true ‘liberty’. He also warned that liberty may open to self-indulgence. For Christian ‘liberty’ is the core result of faith as well as the redemption of Jesus. “My brothers, you were called, as you know, to liberty; but be careful, or this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence.
Serve one another, rather, in works of love, since the whole of the Law is summarized in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Gal. 5:13-14) The apostles St.
Paul repeated the teachings of Jesus.
Does the fetus have the right? While discussing the abortion, this question is rarely ignored. In liberal democracy the civil liberty and liberalism is acknowledged to protect the freedom of individual liberty from any deprival of governments or nations.
Right is an ambiguous word, especially when it relates to the authority and power. To some extent, human interactions contain the interactions among different authorities and powers. The human dignity of the unborn child relates to the right of the mother,
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father, and even many others of the families. Furthermore, the more complicated tensions among the different interest groups of condom companies, such as drugs of Morning After sellers, physicians and the authorities of governments. Like from The Middle Ages, the medical practitioners had organized themselves professionally in a pyramid with physicians at the top and surgeons near the base. Medical practitioners’
guild, corporation and colleges were gradually organized and merged into the public domain. The growing leading role of the medical professionals challenged the role of the modern states (Porter, 1999: 11)
Catholic teachings acclaimed that human bodies are the temple of God and it is also the temporal home for the soul. Christian has the duty of take good care for their bodies. Doctors are expected to recognize that they are the servants of divine will. The connection between soul and body are linked with each other toward the holistic health. And the sanctity of human life, including the human dignity of the unborn child has the long tradition in Christianity. There are three major branches in Christianity: Catholics, Protestant, and Orthodox due to different cultures and interpretation of Christian traditions. The concept of human beings are created by the image of God is the essential faith of Christianity. “God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth. God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female, he created them”. (Gen1:26-27)
Furthermore, Roman Catholic Church highly links with the Judaism and connected it as the origin of Christian history. Roman Catholic Church takes the strong position and believes that human life begins from the moment of conception. In the Psalm of Old Testament were written “You formed me in my inmost being. You knit me in my mother’s womb…my bones are not hidden from you, when I was been made in secret,…in your books all are written down, my days were shaped, before one came to be.” (Psalm 139：13, 15-16)
It is also evidently known that not only the Torah, the five books of Moses, but also many books of Judaism are included as the main context of Old Testament revealed the clear teachings of importance of protecting pregnant woman at the second book of Moses Exodus that those who hurt the pregnant women and caused the miscarriage would be fined. The text is ‘When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she suffers a miscarriage, but no further injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman’s husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges.’ (Exodus 21:22). The biblical archaeologists believe that the biblical text
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recounts magnificent Jewish memories of the Exodus. It may date about the 13th to 12th century B.C.E. as described the Israelites were oppressed to build the cities of Pithom and Raamses for Pharaoh (Exodus1:11; Biblical Archaeology Review May/June 2016).
Though the fetus in the womb is regard as the living being and under God’s care, the abortion is not a twentieth-century problem. If we trace the historical documents would find that it was not at all uncommon two thousand years ago. The most frequent reason of abortion was to conceal the illicit sexual activities. Wealthy women or legitimate fathers do not want to share their wealth with lower-class children. And in ancient time the rich women would seek abortions since they do not enjoy their figures with the trouble pregnancy of bouncing babies (Gorman：15). Based on the Jewish oral and written tradition, Didache represented as the code of Christian morality and the guidance of church life in the early church. It was known as “Two Ways: the Ways of Life or Light and the Ways of Death. Literally, it bore the statements as “Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery,…thou shalt not procure abortion…”(Didache：I:1 II:2). The actions of murder, adultery and abortion felt to the Ways of Death which offended against God’s love, creation as well as the destroy of humanity. The association of the use of drugs with abortion was identified as pharmakeia and referred at the texts of New Testament as sorcery or magic potion as in Galatian 5:20 and Revelation 9:21, 18:23, 21:8, 22:15.
The Greek physician Soranus had ever referred to this type of evil drugs (Gorman, 1982：48). The Greek apologist, Athenagoras, had also answered three frequent charges against Christianity: atheism, incest and cannibalism. He defended as “What reason should we have to commit murder when we say that women who induced abortions are murders, and will have to give account of it to God? For the same person would not regard the fetus in the womb as a living thing and therefore an object of God’s care…We obey reason and do not override it.” (Gorman：53-54)
The confirmation of human dignity of the unborn child mainly comes from the teachings of Roman Catholic Church. It indicates that ‘The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life’ (Donum Vitae, 1987: Sec1-1). Basically from the perspectives of Roman Catholic Church the concept of human dignity refers to the deep connection with human beings which is distinctively different from plants and animals.
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The Roman Catholic Church noticed the rapid increase of world population and foresaw many families and developing countries would be faced with greater hardships. The available resources, not only in housing, working and food, but also the greater demands in educational and economic situation were confronted with the shortage. The new understanding of the dignity of woman and her place in society, the value of conjugal love in marriage and family life became urgent. Based on the natural law and divine Revelation, Pope Paul VI reviewed the so called principle of totality and reminded of people of God the danger of planned family and control of birth. Roman Catholic Church provided the Magisterium to reply challenge of the modern reproductive technologies by issuing the encyclical letter of Humanae Vita ( 人 類 生 命 通 諭 1968) and encouraging Christian married couples to be more conscious of moral responsibilities and the doctrinal principles of the church. The Roman Catholic married couples are freely and responsibly to collaborated with God, the Creator, due to the free will and the fulfillment of the church teachings even though many difficulties and hardships are often entailed.
The Pontifical Council of Family, which was previously substituted the Committee for the Family created by Paul VI in 1973, was formally established by John Paul II in 1981. The Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (家庭團體勸諭) was issued at the same year, which was marked the significant guideline of Roman Catholic family teachings.
The values of marriage and family are seeking to live with the truth of human values.
The church is set at the service of family, marriage couples, parents, youth, children, and human life. Being rooted in the personal and total self-giving the conjugal communion of couple is characterized the unity, the unbreakable oneness between them and the commitment to fidelity. The family is the first communion which is established and developed between husband and wife. By virtue of the covenant of married life, man and woman are no longer two persons but one flesh. And they are called to grow continually in their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total mutual self-giving. Roman Catholic Church with her clear and strong conviction to protect human life, any public authorities or government activities attempting to limit the freedom of couples in deciding about children, such as the contraception, sterilization, and abortion are forcefully condemned and rejected (Familiaris Consortio: 1981: 24).