That appears to be changing. Along with Leatherwood’s letter to federal regulators, the ERLC published a resource against IVF, arguing the practice separates conception from sex between a man and a woman and turns children into products. It’s a position that echoes Roman Catholic teaching on IVF.
“Though we should be hesitant to call it sin, it is morally ambiguous enough to be problematic and should be discouraged as a matter of wisdom and prudence,” according to the ERLC’s resource.
The ERLC’s position on IVF falls short of Roman Catholic teaching that contraception is immoral — however, it does say “it is theologically problematic to separate procreation from the sexual union of the man and woman in the marriage covenant.”
In 1934, the SBC did pass a resolution opposing a proposed federal law that would have made it legal to publish information about birth control, saying such a law “would be vicious in character and would prove seriously detrimental to the morals of our nation.”
During their annual meeting in Indianapolis next week, Southern Baptists will likely vote on a proposed resolution that raises ethical concerns about IVF but falls short of condemning it. Instead, the resolution encourages Southern Baptists to adopt leftover embryos and to think about the ethics of IVF.
The proposed resolution, written by Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southern professor Andrew Walker, instead encourages infertile couples to consider “the ethical implications of assisted reproductive technologies as they look to God for hope, grace, and wisdom amid suffering.”
This article originally appeared here.
