Collins opens with a swipe at @ReverendWarnock: “There is no such thing as a pro-choice pastor. What you have is a lie from the bed of Hell. It is time to send it back to Ebenezer Baptist Church.” #gapol #gasen pic.twitter.com/FsoPiMelQr
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) November 28, 2020
Collins undoubtedly was referring to Jeremiah 1:4-5, in which, according to the prophet, "The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'" God set Jeremiah apart for a definite purpose at the time he formed him in the womb.
It is typically implied- as Collins did here- that God has formed everyone in the womb and has for him or her a definite purpose. That would apply also to Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin, a significant but unrelated matter.
It is understandable that Collins would quote Jeremiah 1:5 in defense of his long and faithful support of forced-birth mandates. Similarly, it is understandable that the Georgian would not cite Genesis 2:5-7:
When no bush of the field[ was yet in the land and no small
plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up
from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God
formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
And so we have a problem, because as this medical site for laypersons explains
Even when a fetus’s lungs are fully developed, it’s impossible for the fetus to breathe until after birth. Developing babies are surrounded by amniotic fluid, and their lungs are filled with this fluid. By 10–12 weeks of gestation, developing babies begin taking “practice” breaths. But these breaths provide them with no oxygen, and only refill the lungs with more amniotic fluid.
Thus, according to Genesis (which Collins surely would maintain is divinely-inspired), man (or woman) does not become a living creature until he/she begins to breath. And that is.... at birth.
Representative Collins cites an Old Testament verse which makes the case that God creates life early in the womb, or even before that; another Old Testament verse makes the case that life does not begin until birth or perhaps soon before.
If Scripture is indeed God-breathed, it cannot be pick or choose. Doug Collins, a stalwart abortion opponent, has chosen his Bible verse. A less presumptuous Reverend Warnock has chosen not to cite Scripture to defend his pro-reproductive rights stance. He probably realizes that God created human beings with a functioning brain, one which would permit men and women to make their own decisions about their own bodies.
That does not mean Doug Collins is wrong about abortion (though he is). But he is wrong in quoting the Bible selectively for political purposes and trying to corner the market in religious faith.
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