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Blog Series: The Pulpit Is Responsible – Post #2, by Jeff Bayard, a message to the Pastors of Virginia: Defend Every Child
“If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it.”
— Charles G. Finney, 1873
In 1873, Charles Finney named the crisis plainly: when a nation’s conscience decays, the pulpit is responsible. When the church goes quiet, darkness advances. Today we face the same test around eugenics and the sanctity of life. Designer-baby marketing, embryo scoring, and “genetic optimization” all parade as progress. However, these trends reveal something deeper: a seared public conscience.PLEASE LISTEN TO ALBERT MOHLER BELOW:
The Making of ‘Super Babies’ (10:06) Some of the Eugenics Horrors of the 20th Century are Coming to Life in Silicon Valley
- Inside Silicon Valley’s Growing Obsession With Having Smarter Babies The Wall Street Journal (Zusha Elinson)
- Thursday, May 1, 2025 The Briefing (R. Albert Mohler, Jr.)
Silicon Valley’s “Super Babies” Market Is Real
The new marketplace promises “smarter” children through embryo selection. Companies sell polygenic scores for IQ and disease risk. Parents are urged to rank embryos and implant the “best.”
This is the language of optimization, not the language of love. It treats sons and daughters as projects to be engineered, not persons to be received. Meanwhile, embryos deemed “less fit” are frozen or discarded.
Bottom line: a well-funded industry is normalizing the idea that human beings can be graded and thrown away. That is the culture of death in a lab coat.
Why This Is Eugenics Reborn (Whatever They Call It)
The vocabulary has changed—polygenic scores, risk reduction, optimization. The sin has not. Historic eugenics sought a “master race” by eliminating the “unfit.” Consumer eugenics discards embryonic lives that don’t meet preferred trait profiles. Same pride. Same dehumanization. New packaging.
Children are gifts—never products. Parents receive; they do not manufacture.
The Divine Creation Order (Genesis 1)
God has already told us what humans are and how life is to be received:
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“So God created man in his own image… male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
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“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply…’” (Genesis 1:28)
Marriage, male and female, fruitfulness—these are gifts within God’s design. Dominion in Genesis 1 authorizes stewardship of creation; it does not authorize sorting children by genetic desirability. As Dr. Al Mohler rightly summarizes: there is nothing in Genesis 1 that grants us the right to engineer or rank our offspring by traits. Doing so steps outside creation order and into rebellion.
Therefore, Christians must name embryo scoring and discard for what it is: an assault on the Creator’s design and the image of God in the smallest neighbors.
Conscience in Scripture: From Good to Seared
Good/Clean conscience. Aligned with God’s law; seeks integrity (Acts 24:16; 1 Tim 1:5).
Weak conscience. Easily swayed and confused (1 Cor 8:7–12).
Defiled/Evil conscience. Stained by sin; judgment inverted (Titus 1:15; Heb 10:22).
Seared conscience. Desensitized by repeated resistance (1 Tim 4:2).
Pastoral implication: when pulpits neglect God’s law, consciences slide down this slope. Preach the law to awaken; preach Christ to cleanse.
Romans 1:28–32 and the Seared Public Conscience
Romans 1 traces a cultural spiral: suppress the truth → God gives them over to a debased mind → sins multiply → society approves those who practice them (v.32).
That last step explains our moment. Institutions do not merely do evil; they approve and market it. “Genetic optimization” sounds humane. In reality, it approves the sorting and disposal of human beings. This is what happens when a public conscience grows seared.
Pastors must name this dynamic from the pulpit. Otherwise, believers inhale the world’s air and call it oxygen.
The Science Isn’t There (And the Ethics Are Worse)
Even advocates admit limits: complex traits like intelligence involve thousands of variants plus environment. Predicted gains are small and uncertain. Trade-offs may ride along.
The ethics are not small. Ranking embryos by scorecards teaches families—and children—what makes a life “valuable.” That lie will not stay in the lab. It will reappear in classrooms, boardrooms, and laws.
When marketing outruns truth, only a formed conscience can resist. That is why the pulpit must teach, warn, and re-form the moral imagination of God’s people.
The Pulpit’s Responsibility: Watchmen Must Warn
Ezekiel 33:7–9 calls pastors watchmen. If we see danger and fail to warn, the blood is on our hands. This is not “politics.” This is sanctity of life—creation, dignity, and neighbor-love applied to the newest frontier.
Preach the Law to Awaken Conscience
God’s law is the mirror that reveals sin. Use it to unmask euphemisms—“optimization,” “choice,” “progress.” Without the law, people will not feel conviction; with it, their conscience can wake.
Preach Christ to Cleanse Conscience
Do not stop at conviction. Hold forth the cross and the cleansing blood (Hebrews 9–10). Couples suffering infertility need comfort, truth, and better paths. Grace empowers obedience.
Form the Church to Resist the Age
Catechize on life and family. Teach how a conscience is trained (or dulled). Encourage practical steps of integrity at home, in clinics, and in the voting booth. The church must be a contrast society.
Shepherding Your People Through IVF and Genetic Hype
Pastoral counsel matters. Couples often meet the sales pitch before they meet biblical wisdom. Meet them first.
First, honor their sorrow. Infertility is real suffering. Weep with those who weep. Then open Scripture and explain God’s design for life and procreation.
Second, give ethical clarity. Creating “extra” embryos and discarding siblings is not morally neutral. Small promised gains cannot justify certain destruction of life.
Third, provide community. Surround families with prayer, practical help, and testimonies. Offer vetted medical counsel that seeks to honor life at every step.
Finally, curate trusted resources. Point to solid Christian analysis (e.g., Mohler’s Briefing), and host Q&A nights so people can process with Scripture open and consciences engaged.
Conclusion: Speak Now
Eugenics is back—and it is fashionable. The terminology is new; the rebellion is old. The pulpit is responsible. Therefore, preach the creation order of Genesis 1, preach the law to awaken consciences, and preach Christ to cleanse them. Defend the smallest neighbors. Form a people who can say no to sleek lies and yes to the Lord of Life.
Because silence, now as then, is deadly.
REFERENCE: THE GOSPEL TRUTH and THE COMPLETE WORKS OF CHARLES FINNEY
- THE DECAY OF CONSCIENCE: THE PULPIT IS RESPONSIBLE
- ALL Finney resources on this Website are from the Original Documents: UnEdited and UnAbridged
Albert Mohler:
