Three newer hermeneutical positions appear in the
abortion debate. First, there is a quite unprecedented biblical
fundamentalist hermeneutic asserting itself in many Protestant
cultural contexts. This new fundamentalism is developed
particularly to resist change in issues involving gender,
sexuality, family, and reproduction. On all of these issues,
restoration of a premodern interpretation of sex/gender and
the reproductive system is the primary goal. Human gender
and sexual identity, this approach insists, are rooted in
“nature” and in “divine decree” central to the presumed
“biblical” message. Using both the language of natural law
and tradition of the mandate of divine revelation as synonymous
and as equally legitimated by scripture, the new
fundamentalists contend that the essence of the biblical
witness is the biological-religious “givenness” of male/female
nature and the revealing of the proper “telos,” or end, of
human sexuality. Abortion is unthinkable, a violation of all
of the norms of faith and morals. This hermeneutic aims to
make even the discussion of abortion taboo in Protestant
theological and moral discourses, to make it literally unthinkable.
This approach tends to drive from the field several
generations of historical-critical study by Protestant theological
liberals. Previously, liberal biblical scholarship had
successfully persuaded interpreters of the Bible within mainline
Protestantism that interpretation of scriptural texts had
to be guided by awareness of different historical times and
variations among cultures. Liberals recognized that biblical
worldviews do not presuppose modern ideas about the
origin and nature of the universe and its inhabitants. Such
considerations undergirding previous Protestant biblical interpretation,
once widely accepted, are often forgotten in the
wake of the force of the new fundamentalist hermeneutic.
Second, although the new fundamentalism gains force
in Protestant communities, most “oldline” Protestant denominations
(rooted in Europe) remain informed by

Three newer hermeneutical positions appear in the
abortion debate. First, there is a quite unprecedented biblical
fundamentalist hermeneutic asserting itself in many Protestant
cultural contexts. This new fundamentalism is developed
particularly to resist change in issues involving gender,
sexuality, family, and reproduction. On all of these issues,
restoration of a premodern interpretation of sex/gender and
the reproductive system is the primary goal. Human gender
and sexual identity, this approach insists, are rooted in
“nature” and in “divine decree” central to the presumed
“biblical” message. Using both the language of natural law
and tradition of the mandate of divine revelation as synonymous
and as equally legitimated by scripture, the new
fundamentalists contend that the essence of the biblical
witness is the biological-religious “givenness” of male/female
nature and the revealing of the proper “telos,” or end, of
human sexuality. Abortion is unthinkable, a violation of all
of the norms of faith and morals. This hermeneutic aims to
make even the discussion of abortion taboo in Protestant
theological and moral discourses, to make it literally unthinkable.
This approach tends to drive from the field several
generations of historical-critical study by Protestant theological
liberals. Previously, liberal biblical scholarship had
successfully persuaded interpreters of the Bible within mainline
Protestantism that interpretation of scriptural texts had
to be guided by awareness of different historical times and
variations among cultures. Liberals recognized that biblical
worldviews do not presuppose modern ideas about the
origin and nature of the universe and its inhabitants. Such
considerations undergirding previous Protestant biblical interpretation,
once widely accepted, are often forgotten in the
wake of the force of the new fundamentalist hermeneutic.
Second, although the new fundamentalism gains force
in Protestant communities, most “oldline” Protestant denominations
(rooted in Europe) remain informed by