beastie wrote:Could it be that once the Christian religion became a seat of social and political power, it naturally became more conservative in order to conserve the system that endowed it with power?
Are you talking about conservatism as in attempting to resist change?
There are Christian movements that sought to unsettle the status quo. That there were splits even in early American history (slavery in the UK too -- Quakers) shows how when we talk about the Christian religion it just appears that those that have certain political ideologies seem to grasp to whatever they want to from the Bible to fortify their position. There are Christians that support stem cell research -- their reasoning is that it would save lives and that many embryos would be discarded anyway. I'm almost 100% positive the Episcopal and Methodist Churches both support stem cell research -- from those embryos that would be discarded. There are Churches that are pro-choice, as well.
Wow -- this is sort of interesting, for me - TIME magazine, 1998:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.htmlIf you continue reading the article you will see the Baptist Church changed it's position to reflect the congregates views who were conservatives!
Liberal Protestants have long been among the most ardent supporters of a woman's right to abortion. Consider the Rev. Howard Moody of Manhattan's Judson Memorial Church. In 1967, more than five years before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws that prohibited abortions, the Baptist pastor organized a referral and counseling service for women seeking the then illegal procedure. Moody was a minister in the American Baptist Convention, a confederation of congregations that was adopting its own high-profile prochoice position. In 1968 the denomination officially sanctioned abortions during the first three months of pregnancy "at the request of the individual" and during the last six months under special circumstances. Five years later, the A.B.C. became a charter member of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, a strongly prochoice lobbying network of religious agencies.
Here's from beliefnet in regards to abortion:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/120/story_12021_1.htmlWho is pro-choice and religious? Denominations with official and long-standing pro-choice positions include the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, and Reform and Conservative Judaism. These organizations have a diversity of views about abortion and recognize it as a morally complex decision that must be made by the person most affected--the woman.
Among religious groups, the pro-choice position is nuanced, recognizing that most people believe abortion--as well as bearing children-are matters for individual conscience, not government or religious mandate. Pro-choice denominations don't seek to impose their views on others or to make them law. They recognize that in our pluralistic society, politicians must not be allowed to impose laws about childbearing based on any particular belief about when life begins. The notion that life begins at the moment of conception is a belief held by some, but not all, religious groups.
In fact, the Bible never mentions abortion and does not deal with the question of when life begins. Genesis 2:7 (God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being") refers to the specific, unique event of the creation of Adam out of the earth. It says nothing about the process of conception, pregnancy, and birth.