My son's website has an entry in which he discusses a New York Times article from June 1 entitled "Taking Their Faith, but Not Their Politics, to the People". Much of the article revolves around the local church known as The Journey. After reading the article, I do have some concerns. However, I intend to limit this entry to the matter of abortion.
"The easy thing is to fight, but the hard thing is to put your gloves down and work together towards a common cause. ... Our generation would like to put our gloves down. We don't want to be out there picketing. We want to be out there serving."
These remarks from Scott Thomas, the director of the Acts 29 Network, seem to imply 2 things: (1) picketing is not serving and (2) Christians (evangelicals) are not serving today. As an "older" believer, I'm not certain how to take these remarks. Does Rev. Thomas mean that when I stand on a highway holding a sign promoting pro-life over pro-death I am not serving my Lord by pointing out the sins of others? Does he mean when I send my financial support to clinics and other medical facilities to assist those women who decide to give birth to their children rather than having them killed I am not serving the Lord? What exactly does he mean by this statement?
Earlier in the article, the author writes:
"They say they are tired of the culture wars. They say they do not want the test of their faith to be the fight against gay rights. They say they want to broaden the traditional evangelical anti-abortion agenda to include care for the poor, the environment, immigrants and people with H. I. V., according to experts on younger evangelicals and the young people themselves."
Like it or not, we will always be at war with the culture because we are opposed to sin whereas most mankind is not. This is certainly true when it comes to the matter of abortion. What are we expected to do? Do we "take off our gloves" and say to the pro-death crowd, "Now I oppose murdering our children. But I want to love and support everyone so how can we work together in this situation? I know. The pro-life group will continue to support women shelters, adoption, etc. and the pro-death group can continue to kill the unborn." Wake up, people, this is war, like it or not. We will speak out, we will protest, we will work to change our laws, we WILL continually engage in the culture war BECAUSE abortion is a sin of terrifying magnitude against our great God and Lord!
Later in the article, we read a quote from one "Journey" Bible study member to another: "Did you see my boy Barack today? I thought he did well, really well."
My response to him would be, "Brother in Christ, do you know that 'your boy' supports the killing of the unborn, including the procedure known as partial birth abortion? How can you, a man who professes to be a follower of Christ, ever support or vote for an individual who supports the killing of the unborn?"
You see, you cannot separate the morality from the politics on this issue. If you call yourself a Christian and can elect someone who supports abortion then I must conclude:
1. You do not consider abortion to be a sin.
2. You do not consider abortion to be a more important issue than, say, the economy, the environment, or illegal immigration.
3. You actually are not a true believer.
Well abortion is murder and that's a violation of God's commandments. If the commandment not to murder isn't good enough, then how about what Jesus says concerning children in Matthew 18? And those who have no problem killing unborn children can not be trusted in their dealings with anyone. If your heart is not moved by killing babies then how can I believe anything you say or do?
My goal in life is to bring glory to God and that goal is true in all areas of my life INCLUDING the political. On the subject of abortion, I am in a war against culture and my government because they support what God's law forbids. I will fight that war with whatever means I can which do not violate our nation's laws and the laws of our God. I will picket and protest. I will fund women's centers. I will counsel when I have opportunity. And I will be involved in the political process of our nation. I will NOT sit down with pro-death supporters and compromise God's Word.
As I have said on other occasions, I will never knowingly vote for any pro-death candidate at any level of office. If I am faced with a choice of only pro-death candidates, I will either not vote for that position or will write in someone else's name.
When it comes to this issue, Rev. Thomas, I will keep my gloves on, thank you very much!
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