know the difference between good and evil. Of all the animals in the Garden of Eden only one, the human being, was free to make choices. Humans were given the ability to choose between good and evil and, of course, the responsibility to face the consequences of their choices. In the New Testament, there is an emphasis on the priesthood of all believers: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" (1 Pet 2:9). Each believer has direct access to God and has the ability to know and do God's revealed will. We are not bound by any natural law derived from Greek philosophy; neither are we bound by the ancient Jewish law or by any other legalism handed down by any religious or spiritual leader. When Jesus said, "Man was not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27), he struck at the heart of legalism, or the imposition of rules for their own sake. The Bible tells us that we live by grace. This. means that God acts within human beings to set us free and to enable us to assume responsibility for ourselves, our environment,. and our future. If we make wrong choices, God's grace is available as judgment and forgiveness. Humans, by the grace of God, have developed medicine, surgery, and psychiatry to prolong and enhance life. These same medical approaches can be chosen to prolong or enhance the life of a woman for whom a specific birth would be dangerous. Catholic and Protestant doctrines differ in, among other things, the degree to which they are legalistic. The Catholic church would have us all obey the rules formulated by the Vatican, but Protestants believe that we are free by grace and justified by faith. The phrase "the sacredness of life" means one thing to Catholic bishops--that the life of the fetus is all-important--but to most Protestants and many others it means that there is a presumptive right to life that is not absolute but is conditioned by the claims of others. For us the rig...
