Instilling pro-life moral principles in difficult times: the experience of one faith community.

• Author: Wardle, Lynn D.
• Position: I. Introduction: The Challenge to Faith Communities of Maintaining High Pro-Life Principles in an Age (and Society

OUTLINE I. INTRODUCTION: THE CHALLENGE TO FAITH COMMUNITIES OF MAINTAINING HIGH PRO-LIFE PRINCIPLES IN AN AGE (AND SOCIETY) WITH LOW MORAL STANDARDS II. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE AND LEGALITY OF ELECTIVE ABORTION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1960-2010 A. The Transformation in American Public Opinion, Both Secular and Religious B. Efforts to Suppress, Censor, and Punish Pro-Life Free Speech in the USA III. THE ORGANIZATION, HISTORY, DOCTRINE, THEOLOGY, AND POLICIES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS CONCERNING ELECTIVE ABORTION A. Organization of the LDS Church, its Leadership, and the Importance of Teaching B. Teaching Correct Principles C. The LDS Church's Official Position on Elective Abortion D. Nineteenth Century LDS Condemnation and Rejection of Elective Abortion E. LDS Church's Response to the Movement to Legalize and Socially Accept Elective Abortion in Since 1960. F. Six Doctrinal Themes Emphasized by LDS Church Leaders G. Enforcement of the LDS Policy Rejecting Elective Abortion H. LDS Church Positions on the Legalization of Elective Abortion I. Foundational Theological and Moral Principles Underlying LDS Doctrines and Policies Regarding Elective Abortion J. LDS Teachings About Abortion Are Consistent with Biblical Judeo-Christianity IV. MORMONS' SUPPORT FOR AND ADHERENCE TO CHURCH OPPOSITION TO ELECTIVE ABORTION V. CONTRASTING CHURCH OPPOSITION TO ELECTIVE ABORTION WITH ITS POSITIONS ON OTHER BIOMEDICAL ETHICAL ISSUES VI. THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD: HOW TO CREATE AND MAINTAIN A STRONG CLOTURE OF LIFE IN A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY VII. THE LARGER SOCIAL IMPACT OF PRO-LIFE EXPRESSION WITHIN AND BY FAITH COMMUNITIES VIII. CONCLUSION: THE MIRACLES OF THE MESSAGE AND MODERN COMMUNICATIONS "I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves." (1)

1. INTRODUCTION: THE CHALLENGE TO FAITH COMMUNITIES OF MAINTAINING HIGH PRO-LIFE PRINCIPLES IN AN AGE (AND SOCIETY) WITH LOW MORAL STANDARDS

   One of the challenges facing any cultural community is to maintain and transmit from one generation to another commitment to moral principles, policies, and personal behaviors that are inconsistent with social values and practices that have become generally-accepted and widely-practiced. For example, how do church leaders create and nurture a faith community that maintains, with integrity, high moral standards in principle and in practice relating to behaviors, like elective abortion, (2) that it considers to be fundamentally immoral when such behaviors are becoming, or have become, socially popular?

   The challenge of cultivating a culture of respect for the sanctity of life in a particular cultural community is compounded by persistent, socially-tolerated efforts to suppress pro-life free speech. Censorial tactics range from the private to the public, from failures to extend ordinary respect and basic legal protections, privileges, and equal treatment to pro-life expressions, to positive attempts to intimidate, punish, suppress, and silence pro-life expressions. (3) The reason why efforts to stifle and gag the communication of pro-life information, beliefs, and arguments are so constant is precisely because opponents of those positions know that pro-life expressions can be powerful and effective deterrents to abortion and to popular support of elective abortion.

   This Article describes and discusses how one particular faith community--the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (herein sometimes "the Church" or "the LDS Church")--has responded to the challenge of social acceptance and legitimation of elective abortion. Elective abortion, which is contrary to long-established moral precepts taught by the LDS Church (and by Christianity in general for millennia), is a prominent example of a human behavior and social practice that once was socially proscribed and condemned as immoral but which, in recent decades, has become socially accepted and widely practiced in the United States. This Article will show how important and effective "teaching correct principles" can be in cultivating a culture of life in a particular faith community in pro-choice and pro-abortion times.

   This Article will describe and discuss both formal LDS Church policies and informal "Mormon" social values. The latter refers to "cultural phenomena" reflecting more informal or customary values and beliefs of members of the Mormon Christian community. (4) Most observant members of the LDS Church (herein "Mormon Christians" or "LDS" or "Mormons"), like the author, are pro-life. (5) But there is some diversity in the Mormon cultural community and some dissent regarding various abortion-related public policy issues.

   Part II begins with a brief review of the history of the legalization and social acceptance of elective abortion in the United States. It shows that 1973 was the pivotal year when the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (6) and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, (7) mandated by constitutional interpretation the legalization of abortion-on-demand throughout the United States. Since then, the Court has decided at least forty-nine significant abortion cases, including nearly forty major constitutional abortion decisions, that have entrenched the abortion privacy doctrine in American constitutional law and expanded it to cover a host of collateral matters. (8) It also shows how abortion has become widely-accepted and widely-practiced in the United States and how views various religious communities have generally shifted toward being less rejecting of abortion. It shows also that there has been persistent intolerance of, attacks upon, and attempts to suppress and punish pro-life expressions in our society, which chill the expression of pro-life moral, practical, and policy views.

   Part III summarizes the history of how the LDS Church leaders have treated elective abortion in Church principle, policy, and doctrine. It notes that since the early days of the Church, Church leaders have consistently and emphatically condemned the practice of elective abortion as a very grave personal sin and very serious social evil. Soon after the formation of the Church, abortion was clearly and publicly rejected, and in the last half of the nineteenth century, when the Church moved to the West, abortion was the subject of repeated and strong condemnations in many sermons by general Church authorities. In the past half-century and since the dawn of the modern "pro-choice" movement to legalize abortion-on-demand, official Church policy statements and a multitude of repeated teachings and sermons by the highest Church leaders continue to take a clear, strong position that abortion is a severely immoral and socially destructive act and that those who submit, procure, perform, pay for, arrange for, or assist abortion are subject to Church discipline--including possible excommunication. These doctrines and policies harmonize well with deeper principles of Mormon theology and with Judeo-Christian history. The strong position of the LDS Church condemning abortion has continued for 180 years, meaning that the rejection and condemnation of elective abortion in Church doctrine has been clear and consistent.

   Then, in Part IV, this Article examines how ordinary members of the LDS Church view abortion and whether their actions match their words. It shows that there is little dissonance between the official Church doctrine and the views and practices of ordinary Mormons. Most Mormon Christians believe, support, and practice the moral principles and positions espoused by their Church leaders regarding the immorality and social evils of elective abortion.

   Next, in Part V, the Church's public policy position regarding another highly controversial contemporary bioethical issue, Embryonic Stem Cell ("ESC") research is compared to its position on elective abortion. The contrast between the strong, emphatic, bright-line position against elective abortion and the LDS Church's general reluctance to take positions on political issues, especially its neutral, moderate position on some other bioethical issues, including ESC research, underscores the LDS position that elective abortion is considered to be a uniquely grave and repugnant sin and very dangerous social evil and threat to society.

   Part VI of this Article identifies eight elements that may have contributed to the successful effort by LDS Church Leaders to support a strong culture of life that is reflected in the actual beliefs and practices of Church members regarding elective abortion despite strong cultural dissonance. Of course, every religious community is unique and the approach that succeeds in one community may not be as effective in another community. However, the experience of the Mormon community indicates that some combination of constant, clearly-espoused, principle-based doctrines and expectation of sacrificial discipleship may be effective in creating and maintaining support within a religious community for values and behaviors that reflect the teachings of the church.

   Part VII notes the magnificent leadership role that the Catholic Church, its leaders, and many Catholic laity have taken in the abortion policy controversy in America, and also suggests that clear, consistent teaching of pro-life values, principles, and behavioral standards has not only been effective within particular faith communities, but appears to have had some positive spill-over effect on people outside of those faith communities to impact for good the general culture of American society. The persistent expression of pro-life viewpoints within a sub-group of society seems to have influenced opinions of people outside of any particular faith community. That seems to be true at the local level (for example, in Utah), as well as in the nation overall. The recent revival of public support for pro-life viewpoints in public opinion polls, the recent proposal of...