"We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better."
Thurgood Marshall
We are at an interesting place in our political climate in the United States of America. We have had a shift from a mostly liberal leaning governement to a mostly conservative leading government. American evangelicals are excited because, for the first time in years, even the Supreme Court has a conservative majority now with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. People are excited about the possibility of reversing the Roe vs. Wade decision in regards to abortion and base this on an idea of morality.
I do believe that the amount of babies being aborted in our nation, especially as a form of birth control, is a moral outrage.
I do believe that, if given the chance, we should outlaw abortion.
I also believe that people striving soley for an opportunity to outlaw abortion are missing the point.
Back in high school I ended up in a debate about abortion with some friends and I was surprised when one girl, who I knew to be a passionate Christian, was not supportive of banning abortion. She felt it was wrong but did not feel that we should make a law against it. She argued that, even with a law against it, women would still abort their babies but they would do it in less safe environments putting their own lives at a greater risk. They would end up in places that were not following the same regulations that our hospitals and doctor's offices had to follow for health and safety in the procedure.
I immediately rejected this argument with the thought, "Should we legalize murder since people murder others even when it is illegal?" When it comes to whether or not I would vote for a law to make abortion illegal my stance is the same. However, I think there is also an underlying point here that I initially missed.
There is a deeper issue when it comes to abortion than whether it is legal or not.
There are women who are hurting, confused, and scared. These women don't look at abortion in the same way that we do because they have been taught differently. They see the fetus as still an extension of their own bodies rather than a baby. They see abortion as a way out of a mistake that may or may not be partially their own fault. Even if it was their decision it was generally one moment of passion that is now threatening to ruin their entire life.
This is the first reason why I think we are missing the point when our focus is entirely on outlawing abortion.
As Christians we are called to reach out to the hurting, the scared, the lost and to help them find a way.
Making abortion illegal does nothing to help these young women who are hurting and scared to find a way. There are organizations out there who are trying to help women in these situations and I feel that this should be a greater focus of ours and of those we elect into office.
The second reason I feel why we are missing the point is that we are basing our entire voting process on policy issues like outlawing abortion.
While we were waiting to hear what happened with Kavanaugh, there was an article going around that stated 48% of Evangelical Christians in America felt that Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if it was proven that the allegations were true. In other words, 48% of Evangelical Christians in America felt having a conservative slant in the supreme court was so important that they didn't care if someone was appointed who had sexually assaulted mutliple people and had shown no regret for doing so.
This goes in line with how many Evangelical Christians are still supportive of Trump despite his multiple insults thrown at anyone who disagreed with him, his proven history of female degradation, and his refusal to admit or apologize for any previous mistakes.
In other words, both cases show a willingness to ignore blatant immorality based on policy.
The Bible has a lot to say about requirements for leadership. For example, Paul explains to Timothy what the requirements of leaders in the church should be:
Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate,self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.
1 Timothy 3:1-4
This of course is specific to leaders in the church but since we, as Americans, have some say in the election of leaders in the political sphere I think we should make our decisions similarly. When you look at that list notice what is not there, there is no talk about doctrine or policy. Even when we look for leaders in the church realm we seem to always look at doctrine first, does there doctrine match up with that of our church, ministry, etc.
Paul is telling us very clearly that character in leadership is more important than doctrine!
The natural follow-up question to recognizing this truth is, "How can we demand good moral character when so many of our politicians are so corrupt?"
My response to that is, "Finally we are asking the right question!"
I don't have the perfect answer to how to do this, but I do know that we, as Evangelical Christians in America, need to step up and demand more from our leadership. Agreeing with someone on policy should no longer be enough, we need to demand good character.
We need to stop making excuses for the behavior of politicians who we happen to agree with!
We need to start holding all politicians, regardless of their political stance, to a higher standard!
We need to allow morality to guide our vote, not just in policy issues but in character issues!
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