Jesus Didn’t Condemn Women. So Why Do We?

A woman approached Jesus, her face etched with sorrow. "Lord," she said, "I made a choice to end a pregnancy, and now I am burdened by what others say. They cry out that I have sinned, that I have no place in the eyes of God. Is there hope for me?"

Jesus looked at her with deep compassion. "My child, you are loved beyond measure. The choices you made were not easy, and they do not define you. God sees your heart, not the judgments of others. In God's kingdom, there is no condemnation. Release your shame. Go in peace, knowing that you are always beloved."

–The Gospel according to Chat GPT when I asked it to write a story about Jesus and a woman who had an abortion.

Does This Story Challenge What You’ve Been Taught About Sin?

What does reading this story stir in you? Does it challenge the way you’ve been taught to see women who make an abortion choice? We have a deeply rooted problem in mainstream Christianity—a tendency to filter everything through sin and judgment, rather than compassion and grace. This filter has malformed our faith over generations. 

The Misuse of Scripture to Condemn

I posted on Threads last week that I don’t think Jesus would respond to a woman who has had an abortion with condemnation. My comments were flooded with folks citing a Bible story found in John 8 referred to as “the woman caught in adultery.” At the end of the story Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” On my thread, several people commented something along the lines of, “He wouldn’t condemn her, but he would tell her to go and sin no more.”

In general, I wish Christians would stop cherry picking verses and throwing them at people like weapons. But as I thought about why this bothered me, I realized that it’s because Jesus's words in this verse felt like a contradiction to my modern ears.

The Confusing Words: “Neither Do I Condemn You” and “Go and Sin No More”

“Neither do I condemn you” sounds like, “I don’t find you to be guilty.” But then, “Go and sin no more” sounds like,  “Don’t do things that make you guilty.”

What?

When I can’t make sense of something in the Bible, I remind myself that I must be missing something. In our modern translations of the Bible, we are missing layers of meaning because of years of translation and culture/context shifts. I get excited when I realize it’s time to do a deeper dive.