Back in August, just after the conventions, I voiced my political opinion.
Since then, I have been reading a blog by George Grant, that has been articulating my feelings better than I did or could. The blog focuses on abortion and its effects on our country, but during this presidential race, he has included thoughtful insight as to why voting pro-life is more important than anything else. And in this election, it's especially important, since the pro-choice candidate is so liberal. His recent posts are more good thoughts and reminders about our responsibility as Christians in this day in America.
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From the blog, The Quick and the Dead, by George Grant
The Averted Gaze
Despite Barack Obama's staunch and unapologetic advocacy of homosexual activism and radical pro-abortion policies, new polling by the prestigious research organization, the Barna Group, indicates that the Democratic presidential nominee is making significant inroads among voters who are classified as "born-again Christians."
According to the Barna Poll, Obama is statistically tied, 43 percent to 45 percent, with Republican John McCain among "born-again Christian" voters. "Born-again Christians" are defined by Barna as people who say they have "made a personal commitment to Jesus" and believe they "will go to heaven" because they have "confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior."
Based on that definition, 48 percent of all voters in this election will be "born-again Christians."According to Dave Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, Christians voting for Obama say they are backing the Illinois senator because they believe he will "do a better job restoring America's reputation" and "handling the economy" and agree with his "stance on the Iraq War."
Thus, it appears Christians in 2008 will fulfill Francis Schaeffer's dire prediction in The Great Evangelical Disaster, that "personal peace and affluence" will cause us to "avert our moral gaze" from the "things that matter most" to the "things that matter least."
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A Vote for Obama?
Can a Christian of good conscience vote for Barack Obama? There are at least three reasons why I have trouble imagining how the answer to that question could possibly be "yes."
1. Obama's repeated pledge to sign the "Freedom of Choice Act"--a bill that would effectively strike down every guideline, regulation, restriction, and limit on the multi-billion dollar abortion industry in all 50 states.
2. Obama's determined opposition to banning or regulating "Partial Birth Abortion"--a barbaric ritualistic form of infanticide.
3. Obama's repeated and longstanding opposition to the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act"--a position from which even Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League cautiously backed away.
Whatever a thinking Christian's position might be on the war in Iraq, the crisis on Wall Street, the credit bail out, the war on terror, illegal immigration, the failure of government education, or soaring deficients, this bedrock issue must surely take precedence. If we cannot agree to protect this most basic right, the right to life itself, then every other right is ultimately at risk.
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I remember that during the election in 2000, I was working at a restaurant as a server and got into a discussion with one of my customers. He said then that Christian should always vote for the pro-life candidate and at the time, my thought was, "Dude, lighten up!"
But since then, I have grown to really feel strongly this way, too. I know it sounds simplistic, very conservative and ultra religious. But it comes down to the fact that I find it hard to trust someone with all of the tough decisions facing them concerning our country, if they can't be responsible with their least vocal but most important constituents: the unborn and future of this country.
Thankfully, Obama has given me many more reasons not to vote for him, so I can now be a multi-issue voter.
But this issue is at the heart of it. I think that it will always be.
1 comment:
Hi Sarah. John Beeler here. Long time reader, first time poster.
I am pro-life, and here's why I am voting for Obama. It's from an email I was going to send to everyone in the world, but that sounded like a bad idea. So you get to see it instead. Lucky you? Ha.
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After a great deal of thought, more recently as it seems the abortion email forwards have ramped up, I had to ask myself: am I pro-life in action or principle? Was it more important to be theoretically right, to hold to this idea that "Christians do not vote for pro-choice candidates," or was it more important to vote to save lives? Of the two candidates, I asked myself, whose overall policies and approach would result in a reduction in the number of abortions?
After a lot of reading and research, here's what I discovered. First, presidents generally have had very little effect on the rate of abortions. John McCain has postured towards pro-life, but may have done so knowing full well that there's little a president can do to affect Roe v. Wade. Litmus tests on Supreme Court judges are of course out of the question, and even if they were not, it is highly unlikely that John McCain could or would pull off what 26 years of Republican presidents and Supreme Courts have not. Secondly, McCain will face a significant Democratic majority that will make it difficult to affirm a pro-life judge. So the question becomes: what would McCain do that Obama would not? Simply being pro-life is useless to us if it does not result in operative action.
For his part, Obama has managed to do what McCain could absolutely never do: he shifted the national Democratic plank away from absolutism, and towards abortion reductionism. In fact, the paragraph on reductions is longer than the one describing the Democrat's belief that a woman has a right to an abortion. Here we have real action, compared to the rhetoric and party-line voting of McCain (who, by the way, tried to add additions to his party's platform - an environmental plank, for example - and failed miserably).
In this alone Obama has demonstrated a unique ability to lead his party towards this new middle ground. This is very much a situation in which "only Nixon could go to China." It is unlikely that McCain could convince the other side to reduce abortions. But Obama can. If the abortion debate is a tug-of-war, it's time for the other side to give. And I think Obama's overall policies reflect a respect for the "least of these."
For example, women who abort tend to be poorer and less educated. They also tend to be young, which often indicates a lack of sexual protection. That means that overall economic policies - giving people jobs, educating them, giving them positive role models - is a very legitimate way to prevent abortion. Economics and morals are innately linked.
Now, many of the forwards I've received or read mention his voting record. I'd ask you to do what I did: research. The Illinois State Senate bills and debates are all available online, and after a while it became clear to me that the information in these forwards was hyberbole. This is probably also true if you're decidedly pro-choice. Unfortunately (or fortunately), what I concluded was that Obama was fairly average and minor in his activity on abortion policy (it may be why so few NOW chapters, save Chicago's, refused to endorse Obama until Clinton had dropped out).
Is Obama pro-choice? Yes. Does he believe the fetus is a human being? No.
But he is willing to listen, and talk. He has shown overtures in this direction. A few of you have brought up slavery and civil rights as an analogy to abortion, as if compromise
In light of this, I came to the conclusion that to vote for Obama was to do two things in relation to abortion: vote for a package of policies that would decrease the number of abortions, and vote for someone on the "other side" that is willing to take real movement towards the middle ground.
I think that even when it comes to abortion, Obama is the man for the moment.
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