Ethics

Abortion

The Church of England strongly opposes abortion and encourages people to think through the issue very carefully. The Roman Catholic Church believes that life begins at the moment of conception and says that deliberately causing an abortion is a grave moral wrong.

Animal rights

For most of history Christian thinkers believed that human beings were greatly superior to animals and ignored animal suffering. Modern thinkers say human beings have a steward's role.

Capital punishment

For much of history, the Christian Churches accepted that capital punishment was necessary. In recent times many Christians have argued against the death penalty on the grounds that Christianity should support life.

Circumcision

Since the early days of the Church, Christians have not been required to be circumcised.

Contraception

The Bible has little to say about contraception, so Christian ideas about contraception come from church teachings. They are often based on different ideas of Christian marriage.

Euthanasia

Christians are mostly against euthanasia. The arguments are usually based on the beliefs that life is given by God.

Organ donation

Sacrifice and helping others are key themes across all forms of Christianity, so a decision to donate organs is seen as a positive thing.

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is a divisive issue in many Christian churches, but not all. Quakers have been welcoming gay unions since 1987 and the Methodist Church reopened the debate at their 2006 conference.

War

Modern Christians think that war is rarely justified and should be avoided unless it is a 'just war'.