Biblical Privacy and an American Question

I can't say I intended for this blog to touch on the intersection of religion and public policy quite so early in its life, but, as Virgil wrote in the Aeneid, fortune favors the bold. But really, it was simply a thought that struck me as I was reading the Bible tonight. So, naturally, I'm going to take that simple thought and make it much more complicated for you!

One of the major arguments against reproductive rights in America is that the US Constitution does not explicitly guarantee a right to privacy--an argument that is not at all new, ever since the Warren Court handed down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which saw a right to privacy famously in the "penumbras" of the Constitution in favor of reproductive privacy. It's a landmark decision. I may not agree with my more conservative brethren that reproductive rights are unconstitutional, but I at least understand the basis for what it is they are arguing, to the extent that I can without holding a law degree.

Here's the rub, though--many, many of the folks opposed to reproductive rights, access to contraception, and other such issues are Christian. Again, I get where they're coming from, even if I'm not on board. But the Bible, upon which many of their arguments are based, does in fact recognize an expectation of privacy. Consider the following verses:

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." -Matthew 6:6

"If you take your neighbor to court, do not betray another's confidence." -Proverbs 25:9

Granted, both of these example verses present issues--Matthew's comes in the middle of an arc in the Sermon on the Mount on the spiritual practices of almsgiving and fasting as well as prayer, so context matters. Whereas with Proverbs, a book of collected one-liners, context is nearly impossible to determine.

However, an expectation of privacy does endure throughout the Bible, with examples from the Old Testament and the New Testament. And so while I understand the basis of the views of someone who might oppose family planning on religious grounds of a right to life, or on constitutionality grounds of lack of privacy, I feel like those two arguments are tough enough to reconcile that if you are going to tell me the Constitution vetoes a right to privacy, bringing the Bible into it is nowhere near as cut-and-dry as you may think it is on this.

You would think that after seven years of post-secondary education in religious studies and theology that I would be more apt to have a cut-and-dry answer, but really, there are probably times when the Bible does not say what we think it says, and there are probably times when we are just kinda improvising as we go along.

Such is the life of a wayward child of God.

Yours in Christ,
Eric