Well, I just saw Krooks' wake up call to the fools, so I thought I would wake up.
Something I have been thinking about lately might generate some discussion on here (that is if there are still some readers checking this blog). It has to do with Christians and political views. How does our allegiance to Christ and the Word inform our decisions in the political sphere? There seems to be a trend among younger evangelicals to lean more to the left than older generations of evangelicals did. Maybe I am misreading the landscape here, but I think this is the case. At this point, I am not commenting whether this is a good or bad thing. I am of the firm opinion that no one political party can capture what Jesus would have us to do, and thinking that this is possible is a dangerous road to travel. With that said, are there specific issues that are non-negotiable for Christians? Say - abortion? There does seem to be a particular party that is united in supporting women's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion legally. Should this issue be debatable among Christians? Can Bible believing Christians come down on either side and still be being faithful to Jesus? How are we to think about this issue?
I understand some of the complexities of the issue (the role of poverty in abortion to name one), and I also understand that simply withholding votes from a pro-choice politician does not guarantee anything. However, it seems as if the arguments for a Christian advocating pro-choice beliefs are weak, at best.
Most common is to say that we should attack the problems that cause the demand for abortion (such as poverty), rather than trying to slowly push back against legalized abortion, which probably will never be banned anyway. But why must it be an either or for a Christian? Could we not do all we can to fight poverty in our communities, advocate for adoption, and also oppose legalized abortion? Further, simply because we cannot imagine a world where abortion is illegal does not mean we should concede, and give up on that prospect.
Another argument I have heard is that women would have unsafe, illegal abortions were it to be banned. I don't deny this might be the case, but would it be at the massive, millions of babies scale that we are allowing legally in our country today?
The last argument from pro-choice Christians I will mention is this: voting for a pro-life candidate does not guarantee abortion will be banned. As I said earlier, there is some truth to this statement. However, do we think that voting for a pro-choice candidate will help ban legalized abortion? It is true that we over-estimate the power of the President if we think a pro-life president can change things on his own, but what if Senators, Representatives, State legislators, local officials, were all pro-choice. Would that make a difference?
So, what do you think? Is pro-choice a legitimate position for a Christian to take, and still be faithful to Jesus? Are there other arguments that I am missing? Why the shift among younger evangelicals?
Geez, nothing like politics to ease back into the conversation! Good to hear from you again, Fitzy. And thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteWhile politics lends to plenty of passionate conversations in the breakroom, I find it very difficult to care enough to have strong opinions on much of the nonsense that gets thrown around in it. I do think, however, that your observations are correct and I suspect that the trend of younger evangelicals will continue in the 'leftish' direction. I wonder though if the trend is indicative a shift to the 'left' or just an increasing awareness of
sorry - accidentally published in mid-thought... I wonder if the trend is indicative of a shift to the 'left' or just a developing awareness that the whole of christian influence is greater than any single issue. To illustrate, let me refer back to your post. Although the aim is to discuss the influence of one's Christian beliefs on his political leanings, the discussion quickly slips into a single issue. Too often ones political leanings are wrapped around a single voting point, as if that yea or nay adequately defines who and what they represent as a person and as a follower of Christ. We like simple. Pro-life, pro-family, pro-... fill in the blank. But isn't life messier than that? And because of that mess, casting a vote, at least to me, will always seem to be a choosing of the lesser of two evils.
ReplyDeleteProbably not the discussion you were looking for, but its a start, right?
This discussion is fine. I wasn't suggesting that our position on single issues make up all of our Christian influence. I do think there are specific issues that demand our influence more than others though. Abortion just seems, at least to me, to be a very important one. I was trying to make it a bit more specific, rather than keeping it vague. For me, this single issue is massive for a Christian. Much more significant than your stance on economic policy, immigration, foreign policy, to name a few. Not that those are unimportant. Christians should be led by Christ in their position in those areas too. We definitely shouldn't withdraw from politics because of nonsense in it.
ReplyDeleteYou said, "We like simple. Pro-life, pro-family, pro-...fill in the blank. But isn't life messier than that?" That is exactly what I am trying to get at in this post. Explain how life being messy will allow a Christian to endorse legal abortion?
Rachel Evans tries to do this in a very long blogpost. She is trying to be in the middle, it seems. At one point she writes about her reaction to the Gosnell story, and how her pro-life friends were asking why she didn't tweet about it. She wrote,
"When I explained on Twitter that a post about abortion isn’t simple enough to fit into 600 words, a guy tweeted back, “Sure it is. I can fit it in three: It’s always wrong.”
Is it?
When the life or health of the mother is at stake?
In the case of rape or incest?
When a woman’s body naturally disposes of a zygote?"
Is she really suggesting that these are reasons to continue to allow millions of babies to be killed in the womb legally, year after year? She talks about 'nuances in this debate.' If these are the nuances she is talking about, then there is no debate. These things don't make up a fraction of the majority of reasons why women abort.
I guess I should have titled my post a bit differently. Maybe: Christianity and Abortion. But I don't know that there is any other issue that is more pressing for us. Younger evangelicals love to talk about social justice. Is there a greater social injustice in our country? Once again, I know that our influence as Christians can't stop at abortion, and call it good. There is much more we need to do.
If this is an issue people don't want to discuss, that is fine. It is just one that I am concerned about. Hence the post.