Chesterton once said, “Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.”
Sadly, in the kerfuffle over President Trump and the CT article (which was horribly timed whatever your thoughts on the content), I see more and more people who claim to be pro-life giving over to one of the most subtle lies ever to come from the “father of lies.” They criticize their family in Christ who vote on a primary issue of abortion…indeed they are quite judgmental and harsh about it when it translate to a vote for President Trump…but offer the same false response to anyone who asks what option they have.
Hardly ever do I see from my friends on the CT and more moderate side (where I typically fall) anywhere near the level of scrutiny over those in the church who would vote for a now extremist and corrupt Democrat party candidate. Evidently, for a party of politicians to sell out to an industry that murders the innocent is excusable if they base it on reasons of “compassion” and “autonomy” (and we need not concern ourselves with the fact that these politicians are getting filthy rich in the process). Meanwhile, President Trump is far too embarrassing to be excusable; those of us in the educated class are embarrassed by everything the man does…and therefore equally embarrassed by the “Evangelical” support for him. So, that any Christian would support him or vote for him is the inexcusable sin (and we need not concern ourselves with the call to love and pray for the president…he is beneath our righteous indignation.)
Don’t get me wrong, I think the Jerry Falwells of the Evangelical world have sold out and need to repent. The difference is, I think we need to say the same thing about Jim Wallace. Sojo has become nothing more than the tool for whitewashing the corrupt left in religious jargon to make voting for them palatable and excusable.
Furthermore, if you feel as though the whole system is so corrupt that you cannot participate, you have my sympathy and not my judgment. However, I would caution you against too harsh a judgment of anyone voting for either side in this political morass. Total separation from the systems of the world is at times a proper response…but the temptation to aloof Pietism is a sin that has often led the church to abandon her post in the world. Discerning that line of when I can no longer participate in the process is not an easy one, and if you think it is easy you are self-deluded…and if you judge harshly those trying to do the right thing in hard times then you are likely in sin against them.
However, I digress. It is not my intention to say here who you should vote for and why. The things noted above are rather a call to sympathy and understanding. People who love Jesus and love other people may vote differently from you. You may be right and them wrong or visa versa…or you may all be wrong…but the obligation we have are first to love God and each other. From that love we must seek truth…for Love and Truth are inseparable. More importantly, we must…especially if we take a political side…speak the truth even when it hurts our side and not accept convenient lies. Nor can we work out of a position of hate and disrespect.
So what is the lie that I keep seeing passed on by Christians in regard to Abortion? It has several versions. Some say it in a way that is obviously false…”you can’t legislate morality.” Even the slightest bit of thought destroys this lie. All legislation is a political act towards moral purposes, be it legislation about abortion or taxes or medicare or guns or carbon emissions or drugs. When we legislate we are saying as a society that certain things ought to be…which is moral language.
The more deceptive and complex and nefarious version of the lie is that politics are downstream of culture. It implies that if we simply change cultural views the laws will follow. So, we need not worry about laws against abortion because we simply can’t enforce them if the culture at large doesn’t accept it. History belies this idea time and again. As James Davison Hunter (author and professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at University of Virginia) has noted in To Change the World, “[culture] often seems eerily independent of majority opinion” (22). Culture is influenced by people with power and money and other social capital in complex ways through media and education…and by laws, among other things. Note how Wilberforce and his crew worked to change opinions about slavery in England for years, but they ultimately defeated slavery in the British Empire by a clever political “cheat” of sorts. Or consider, how long would slavery and codified discrimination have persisted in the southern US if we had simply awaited a shift in majority views?
More to the point of Abortion at present…note how the Democrats support radical views of unrestricted abortion under any circumstances in opposition about 75% of the US population. It is well financed and radical abortion providers and certain other business interests that guide that extremist position of the democrats…not popular opinion or the “hearts and minds” of the people. If we bow to that, we will lose whatever current popular support we now have beyond the most devoted pro-life people. Just like with gay marriage, popular opinion will eventually follow the laws. Most people eventually go along with the norm.
So, if you feel for some other policy reason you must vote democrat, or you feel you must abstain from the whole process, recognize that it makes your obligation to speak for the unborn (those most innocent and defenseless among us who are currently being slaughtered in numbers up to the hundreds of thousands, all for money) quite important and difficult. Do not deceive yourself by thinking abortion laws are a non-issue. That is a lie. Making laws is part of shaping culture. Laws against abortion are important and are effective. To pretend abortion is a non-political issue in order to placate your own conscience in voting for Democrats, while judging those who have to choose between important principles (and perhaps hold their noses) while voting for the other side, is hypocritical.
Puddleglum Contra Mundum 