Episode #57: Ruth Chapter 5 - Termination

Jan,16 2026

<-#56: Ruth Chapter 4 - Church#58: Ruth Chapter 6 - Teenagers ->

The question that divides our fellowship most sharply now is the one Christopher never lived to hear asked aloud.

People say, "What would he have thought of abortion?"

Some are certain he would have condemned it.

Others are equally certain he would have defended the woman's freedom.

Both groups quote him with the same confidence, which tells me more about them than about him.

I can offer only a story.

When I was a girl, a young couple in our town lost a child before it was born. The mother wept for many weeks, not only for the loss but for the fear she had been taught-that the child's soul might wander in darkness because it had not drawn breath.

They brought this fear to Christopher.

He listened a long time before speaking. Then he said something that startled even those who thought they knew him well.

He said, "Life begins with the first breath. The book tells us so. God breathed into the clay, and it became a living soul. Breath is the doorway."

He told them that the child they had lost was not punished, not waiting in some cold corridor, but simply waiting for another chance to arrive, as seeds wait in winter for the right soil. He said the soul is not trapped by an unfinished body.

This comforted the mother more than any prayer she had heard.

From this I learned how Christopher understood beginnings. He did not treat the womb as a courtroom. He spoke of readiness, of timing, of the mystery that stands between desire and arrival.

He also often spoke of free will. To him, it was the greatest gift God placed in our hands. He said a field planted before the frost has passed does not honor the seed. Choosing when a couple can welcome a child was, in his mind, part of responsible love.

I know he died before the wider world began to argue this matter as fiercely as it does now. I will not pretend to place words in his mouth that he never had to form. Yet I remember how he always leaned toward mercy rather than punishment, toward patience rather than decree.

There was another conversation, whispered about for years. A married couple asked Christopher whether certain ways of loving one another, ways that would not bring a child, were sinful. My father heard this and was too embarrassed to record it, though he told me later with red ears.

Christopher answered simply, "Any love given freely within a faithful couple is not a sin."

He did not inquire further. He did not ask for details. He trusted their conscience more than his curiosity.

From these fragments I draw my own conclusion. I believe Christopher would have stood on the side of choice, not because he favored the ending of life, but because he feared the ending of freedom more. He would have asked whether a law could teach love, or only force obedience.

Others will read the same memories and reach different shores. That is the burden of living without a living prophet.

I offer this chapter not as a verdict but as a lantern. Hold it where you stand and see what shadows move.

<-#56: Ruth Chapter 4 - Church#58: Ruth Chapter 6 - Teenagers ->