Politics & Abortion

​​Preparatory note:  
Here's a confession - I am something of a political junky...  Yes!  Sadly it is so...  Now, of course I try very hard to keep my preaching, teaching, counseling, and blogging free of politics (ordinarily)...  

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Of course,  in my interpersonal relationships my political views do tend to leak out from time to time.  When this happens it usually results in loud sighs, snores, and/or statements from bystanders such as (but not limited to):  "You are a complete nut, Crabtree!"

Not wanting to dispute this reasonable assessment I, as previously mentioned, refrain from discussing politics in my pastoral capacity.  I've come to realize that as a pastor I have a desperate need to be taken seriously. Not wanting to undercut myself in this respect I freely accept that my political views might all too easily become an unintended hinderance to gospel ministry.

"How easily our outspokenness on some temporal issue can stop the ears of our hearers when we begin speaking of eternal truths."

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​Here's a solid truth for all Christians to consider; How easily our outspokenness on some temporal issue can stop the ears of our hearers when we begin speaking of eternal truths.

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​Having said all of that it is at this point that some of my readers might begin wondering aloud if I have suddenly developed a brain fever or something.  

That is to say, if one states that it is wise to avoid politics in one's ministry, and if one acknowledges that said discussions of politics might have the unintended consequence of hindering one's effectiveness in communing the gospel....  why, outside of some sort of head trauma,  would one devote the rest of today's blog-post to what is perhaps the most polarizing political issue of the last 45 years - ABORTION?

The answer is because I do not believe abortion to be merely a political issue.   

Yes, I understand that ultimately the question of abortion must enter the realm of politics but it should not, in my opinion, begin there.  Answering the abortion question must start somewhere far away.  It must start with theology - i.e. our understanding of who God is and what God requires of man.   Sadly though even Christians don't often start with theology.  Like the rest of our culture, Christians seem to find it far easier to start with the false and unhelpful rightwing vs. leftwing linear model of politics.  That is to say, if we lean "right" we unthinkingly adopt the so-called right-wing view of abortion.  And if we lean left...  you get the idea.

But is this satisfying?

I would contend that this isn't satisfying at all...  and we all know it...  Let's think this through for a moment...

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​Some of us are people of the so-called "political right" and we've adopted the right's "answer" to the  abortion question.

The so-called "right" declares that  "abortion is unjust because every life is sacred."  But then after after a painful pause the political right bashfully looks to the floor and adds, "well...  I mean....  every life except in the cases of rape and incest."
 
Is this a satisfying answer?  Is it biblically-defensable?  

Is it consistent to argue that all life is sacred and therefore abortion is unjust... but here are some exemptions? 

Surely if EVERY life is sacred there aren't exemptions.

And surely if we oppose abortion in the name of justice how could we ever argue for the abortion of babies produced through rape or incest?  There's nothing just about punishing an infant for the crimes of his father.

Not only is this unjust and unsatisfying but it suggests that the so-called political "right" has a pretty flexible definition of the "sanctity of human life."  We see this not only with the abortion question but also with the political right's enthusiastic support of the death-penalty and their love of an interventionist foreign policy that has killed countless people across the globe.

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So called “feminist-leader,” media darling, and elderly grandma, Gloria Steinem, inadvertently demonstrates how a lack of critical thinking produces to a less-than-cohesive worldview.

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But then there is the so-called political "left," and others of us have adopted their answer to the abortion question. But frankly, their answer is as unsatisfying as the right's answer.  In fact it's bitterly ironic...

The left claims abortion is a matter of "human rights" and there has been a great amount of emphasis placed on this thanks to the bumpersticker-ready slogan "a woman's right to choose."  

But is abortion really a matter of human rights?  Or is abortion ultimately a practice that strips human beings - namely, infants in the womb - of the very source from which human rights derive... you know,  that supposedly "unalienable," and God-given "right to life" enshrined in our nation's founding documents. 

And dare I add - shouldn't someone on the left take note of the fact that aborted babies are disproportionately minority and female?  What about the human rights of these "oppressed" people groups ?  What about the systemic injustices done to them?  Aren't causes like this the bread and butter of the left?  

Shouldn't some leftist somewhere begin "raising awareness?"  Shouldn't some leftist somewhere insist that we begin a "national dialogue?" 

One might think so...  and yet to my knowledge there has never been a single leftist who has ever printed a bumper sticker, chanted a slogan, marched in the streets, organized a sit-in, petitioned their congressman, boycotted a Chick-fil-a, burned down their campus library, sued the Boy Scouts, bought off the media, or made an appeal before the US Supreme Court regarding the human rights violations, injustices, and institutional discrimination perpetrated against the most dependent minority-group of all - unborn children.

​Surely, whether one is of the political right or left (or somewhere in between) neither of their positions on the abortion question are satisfying.  And surely, the more we look to the equivocation, prevarication, and postulation of the so-called political "wings" and their political spokespeople to answer the abortion question for us the more anyone with one iota of critical thinking skills will conclude that the answer is not to be found in the  political arena (though as stated earlier, politicians must eventually make a determination on the issue.)  
 
The point I am trying to make is this: I contend that we will only begin to answer the abortion question when we, as individuals, look at the matter from a theological standpoint.  And it's no good dismissively saying, " well, maybe so...  but I'm no theologian."  

Of course you are!  

You have certain thoughts about God don't you?  Did you realize that that is all that the word "theology" means - a system of thought about God.  Therefore even atheists (whether they like to admit it or not) have a highly developed theological framework...  a false and fairly silly theological framework in my opinion, but it's deeply theological nonetheless...  Out of this framework we are enabled to develop our own answers to questions like the abortion question.

​We must resist the laziness that tempts us to embrace positions on abortion (and other important questions) that are merely the sloppily constructed creation of some  political "wing."  We must think theologically and recognize the dangerous siren calls of media talking-heads who promise to do all of the thinking for us.  We must get down to the rough and challenging work of  answering tough questions by starting with our understanding of God, His holiness, His law, and the value and dignity of every human being who He has made in His image.  

It is only after a person has considered tough questions like the abortion question in this light that he/she can develop and offer to others  a robust and genuine ontological and ethical determination regarding the abortion of unborn children.

Yes, this is hard.  Yes, it requires putting the elbow-grease of our brains to work.  

Yes, it is easier not to challenge ourselves in this way.  But once we do this hard preliminary work we can responsibly take action if we so choose. 

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For those of you who have developed your position on the abortion question in the aforementioned manner I offer you a letter (right) that I received a few weeks back from prolifealliance.org 
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The letter was written by Congressman Alex Mooney, of West Virginia, and it describes some legislative action that he and other congressmen are hoping to take regarding the practice of abortion in America.  Furthermore the letter calls on like minded individuals to sign the "Pain Capable Abortion Ban" petition .

Please read the letter, consider it theologically, and offer your support.

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Though personally I do not think that the "Pain Capable Abortion Ban" goes far enough I have signed the petition in hopes that it will one day lead to the passage of H.R. 816, Life at Conception Act which will extend equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to unborn/preborn children and thus effectively overturn Roe v. Wade.