LifeWay Research, the research and survey branch of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, has partnered with the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission to survey Americans on a host of moral and social issues facing American society.
One controversial issue surveyed concerned physician-assisted suicide. When Americans in general were asked their opinion of the statement, “When a person is facing a painful terminal disease, it is morally acceptable to ask for a physician’s aid in taking his or her life”–30% “strongly agreed” and 20% “somewhat agreed” that it is “morally acceptable.” While 33% of Americans “strongly disagreed” and 11% “somewhat disagreed,” clearly a significant shift has taken place in American culture on this issue.
When Americans approve physician-assisted suicide in terminal patients by a 50% to 44% margin, it is clear that the morally relative “quality of life” ethic has made substantial progress in changing the hearts and minds of Americans away from the “sanctity of life” ethic upon which our nation was founded–“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Interestingly, only 6% of Americans responded “don’t know” about physician-assisted suicide, suggesting that most people have given the idea at least some serious thought–enough to state a definite opinion, yea or nay.
When the same poll asked Southern Baptist pastors this question, however, the results could not have been more opposite to the population at large. Among Southern Baptist pastors, 88% strongly disagreed and 9% somewhat disagreed that physician-assisted suicide was “morally acceptable” in terminal cases. Only 1% of Southern Baptist pastors “strongly agreed” and 1% “somewhat agreed” that such assisted suicide was “morally acceptable.”
Once again, a cavernous worldview divide is revealed between Southern Baptist pastors and the nation they are called to reach on a fundamental ethical and moral issue of foundational importance–“What and who is a human being, is a human life ours to end, and should we allow those dedicated to healing (physicians) to become dispensers of death?”