PSA: You can't believe in "good bloodlines" & "that stuff" & be pro-life. There's no Venn diagram for this one, friends.

If we believe in a Creator who makes us in his image, we do not believe that our genes determine our value.

If we believe in the sanctity of human life, we do not believe that some humans are more sacred than others.

If we believe that every life is precious, we do not believe in eugenics.

If we say that life begins at conception, we do not talk about bloodlines.

If we believe it is wrong to abort based on sex or disablity, we have no category for "good blood."

Please understand: These are basic, foundational principles about the sanctity of human life. They are also principles that are not clear to many. Even those who call themselves pro-life.

I used to think that the pro-life movement was a resistance movement, fighting sn increasingly progressive culture. I now believe that our nation has never yet held a pro-life ethic.

One of the central Qs of our nation has been "Who is a person & what divine rights & protections are theirs because of their humanity?"

We have yet to get this right.

I say this b/c talk about "bloodlines" & "good blood" is not an aberration. It is not uniquely sinister. It is an ideology pervasive in our history & national consciousness.

And it's imperative that those who claim pro-life values understand this. It's imperative that we recognize that a true pro-life stance is going to push against *traditionalist* positions as much as progressive ones.

A pro-life ethic that truly honors the sanctity of every human life is a radical thing & cuts against the grain of many of our cultural values, including meritocracy & radical individualism.

All that to say, our culture does not honor life as it should & it never has. But those who desire to be champions of life must acknowledge the extent to which traditional culture has been warped by a history that valued bloodlines over the imago Dei.