Written by: Glyn Barrett on November 3, 2025

If human value is based in any way on degree, then there is no solid basis for all people having equal worth. This statement captures the cultural and philosophical fault line of our age. In 2025, debates on abortion, bioethics, and human dignity reflect far more than political polarisation; they reveal competing worldviews regarding the nature and meaning of personhood. As Jeff Myers notes in Understanding the Culture, when “dignity is detached from divine authorship, value becomes negotiable, contingent, and ultimately commodified.”[1] In such a landscape, Christian leaders must discern not only ethical conclusions but also the cultural liturgies and intellectual frameworks that shape them.

Conception, Light, and the Imago Dei

Twenty-five years ago, the birth of my daughter revealed a theological reality that no textbook could fully articulate: life is a sacred gift, not an accidental biological occurrence. Holding her was not merely emotional; it was revelatory, a tangible awareness of the imago Dei. The scientific discovery of the “zinc spark” at fertilisation, billions of zinc atoms emitting a literal flash of light, offers a striking parallel to biblical imagination.[2] While science does not prove theology, the convergence evokes a theological truth: human life is not conceived in abstraction or utilitarian function, but in divine wonder.

Competing Visions of Human Worth

Myers argues that secular culture is drifting toward a “performance-based” anthropology, where worth is determined by capacity, contribution, or societal approval.[3] In such a worldview, autonomy, productivity, and individual self-expression become supreme goods. If human value is earned, rather than given, the unborn, disabled, elderly, or dependent become morally precarious.

This aligns with Judith Jarvis Thomson’s influential argument in A Defence of Abortion, where she concedes foetal personhood hypothetically but elevates bodily autonomy as an overriding moral principle.[4] In contrast, Don Marquis asserts that abortion is morally wrong because it deprives a being of a “future like ours,” grounding dignity not in current capacity but future potential.[5] Francis Beckwith pushes further, insisting the unborn possess intrinsic value as the same individual persists through all stages of development, rooted in a “substance ontology.”[6]

Embryologists such as Keith Moore affirm that fertilisation produces a new, genetically distinct human organism.[7] Meanwhile, medical guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on viability thresholds reflect the complex boundary where science, ethics, and pastoral realities collide.[8] These secular clinical judgments do not negate personhood but reveal the tension between biological reality and pragmatic medical decision-making.

Synthesising these views, a pattern emerges: biological consensus on the initiation of a human organism; divergence on moral status and rights; and differing criteria (autonomy, potentiality, ontological identity, divine design) for assigning value.

A Biblical Vision of Personhood

Scripture presents a distinctive and counter-cultural anthropology. Psalm 139 depicts life in the womb as intimately known and intentionally crafted by God. Jeremiah is called before birth. John the Baptist worships in utero (Luke 1:41–44). Human dignity is rooted not in ability, consciousness, or stage of development but in divine authorship and purpose.

John Paul II describes this as the Christian “Gospel of Life,” where every human being possesses inviolable worth grounded in God’s creative love.[9] Thus, the Christian vision maintains ontological equality in the eyes of God, rejecting any hierarchy of dignity.

Cultural Formation and Christian Discernment

Myers urges Christian leaders to recognise that culture catechises. Language such as “choice,” “quality of life,” and “reproductive rights” shapes moral perception before ethical reasoning ever begins.[10] Therefore, Christian engagement must move beyond proof-texting or combative rhetoric. It requires worldview literacy, cultural discernment, and spiritual formation. Our public witness must be both theologically rooted and pastorally wise.

Implications for Christian Leadership

For pastors and Christian leaders, the value-of-life question is not an abstract philosophical concept; it is discipleship lived out in hospital rooms, crisis pregnancies, counselling sessions, and public discourse. The church must:

• Catechise believers to discern philosophical assumptions beneath cultural arguments.
• Cultivate compassion for women, families, and medical professionals navigating profound grief, fear, or trauma.
• Support practical ministries, pregnancy support centres, adoption networks, and wrap-around care for struggling families.
• Model public witness without hostility, conviction without cruelty, truth expressed through grace.
• Form leaders intellectually and spiritually to resist cultural reductionism with Christ-centred anthropology.

My pastoral commitment is not only to articulate truth from the pulpit but to create communities where choosing life is imaginable, supported, and celebrated, and where those carrying regret encounter grace, not shame.

Conclusion

The value of human life is not merely a doctrinal position but a cultural battleground and a pastoral calling. The zinc spark of fertilisation, the Scriptures’ poetic witness, the philosophical debates on autonomy and personhood, and the lived realities of families in crisis all converge to demand Christian leaders who think deeply, pray earnestly, and love courageously.

If dignity is conditional, then no one is truly safe. If dignity is intrinsic, then the church must testify, with conviction and compassion, that every human life, from conception to life’s final breath, is a gift to honour and protect.

[1] Jeff Myers, Understanding the Culture: A Survey of Social Engagement (Manitou Springs, CO: Summit Ministries, 2017), 206–7.

[2] Frances E. Duncan et al., “The Zinc Spark Is an Inorganic Signature of Human Egg Activation,” Scientific Reports 6 (2016): 24737.

[3] Myers, Understanding the Culture, 205–8.

[4] Judith Jarvis Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1, no. 1 (1971): 47–66.

[5] Don Marquis, “Why Abortion Is Immoral,” The Journal of Philosophy 86, no. 4 (1989): 183–202.

[6] Francis J. Beckwith, Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

[7] Keith L. Moore, T. V. N. Persaud, and Mark G. Torchia, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 9th ed. (Philadelphia: Elsevier/Saunders, 2013).

[8] Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Perinatal Management of Pregnant Women at the Threshold of Infant Viability (23+0 to 24+6 Weeks), Scientific Impact Paper No. 41 (October 2014).

[9] John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1995).

[10] Myers, Understanding the Culture, 205–7.

About the Author

Glyn Barrett

I am the founding & lead Pastor of !Audacious Church in Manchester, England. I was born in Manchester, but moved to Australia at the age of two. My wife and I were married in Australia and began married and ministry life in England 29 years ago. After serving as youth pastors for 12 years, we moved to Manchester to pioneer !Audacious Church. As a church we now have 7 locations. 3 in Manchester, Chester, Cardiff (Wales), Sheffield, and Geneva (Switzerland). In 2019 I became the National Leader of Assemblies of God in Great Britain. We have over 650 churches in our movement and have planted 98 new churches since May 2022 with a goal of planting 400 new churches between May 2022 and May 2028. I am the Global Chair for Church planting for Assemblies of God which currently has 420,000 churches and also chair Empowered21 Europe. I'm happily married to Sophia, with two children, one dog and two motorbikes. I love Golf, coffee and spending time with friends. I love to laugh, make friends and create memories!

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