Good day. It's Monday, June the 17th, 2024. Welcome to the Daily Article podcast. I'm Chris Elkins,

narrating today's article written by Denison Forum co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison.

Some stories in the news appeal only to a certain percentage of us. Stereophonics win for best play in last night's

Tony Awards is relevant to you if you happen to follow the American theater.

Bryson de Chambos' dramatic victory yesterday in the U.S. Open is primarily interesting to

golf fans like me. The Hage pilgrimage that began Friday is obviously a Muslim event.

The annual meeting of the SBC, the Southern Baptist Convention, typically falls into the same category.

While the SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in America, its membership comprises less than

4% of America's population, and resolutions adopted at its annual meetings,

since they have no binding authority on any Southern Baptist Church, institution, or member,

typically are even less newsworthy to the larger culture.

But such was not the case last week in Indianapolis, where messengers, which is the SPC's term for those who vote at the annual meeting, adopted a resolution on IVF, in vitro fertilization.

The vote was widely understood to condemn or oppose the practice, which combines eggs and sperm in a laboratory to produce embryos. Full disclosure,

I became a Christian and a church affiliated with the SBC, earned two graduate degrees from a Southern

Baptist seminary, taught philosophy of religion on that seminary's faculty, and pastored three churches

connected in various ways to the SBC. However, my purpose today is not to speak to or for Southern Baptists,

but rather to explain the issues related to the SBC's IVF resolution as they relate to those interested in the subject,

some of whom are dealing personally with the pain of infertility. I will then offer biblical reflections on the larger

cultural context of this debate. In my website paper on this subject, a link to which can be found

in today's episode notes, I explain IVF in detail, including its history, five procedural options,

and various ethical issues. With regard to today's discussion, three positions

are typically supported by Christian ethicists today. One, some believe that any method of

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