I love my Lord, and His Church, and I truly dislike abortion. I am an expectant father right now, and just today I got to see my unborn baby daughter on an ultrasound for the first time. Watching her wiggle around and kick, hearing her heartbeat and seeing her little feet and hands, I cannot imagine how it is good that today we could have walked out of the ultrasound after seeing this picture and still have “terminated” the pregnancy. So please understand that what I say now I do not say as an atheist, or as someone who supports abortion, but as someone who is very worried about the direction the Church is taking.
Recently, a splinter group of some of the most powerful evangelical Christian leaders in the US met in secret as they usually do (which is a scary concept, that Christian leaders meet in secret on a regular basis, not only secret about their discussions but also their very identities. Google “Council for National Policy” to learn more) and they were so distressed that Giuliani is the Republican frontrunner that they passed a resolution saying, and I quote “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate.”
At first when I read this it didn’t bother me, until I started thinking about it a bit more. These Christian leaders were making this statement in particular about Giuliani, and yet their primary concern was not his multiple affairs while in office, or a disagreement over his faith, or even the questions of whether he has faith in God at all. No, the primary thing that they brought up was that if someone who is pro-choice is nominated for the Republican party they will think about starting a new party.
Apparently one single issue, albeit an important one, is more important to these Christian leaders than faith itself. I want someone in office who matches my view on abortion, yes, but more than that I want a person who follows God and acts as he/she believes God is leading them. Following Christ with their whole life is far more important to me than abortion alone, or any other single issue. And yet these leaders of our faith are willing to support or oppose a candidate for office without even mentioning faith, and relying solely on one issue. Not even adultery sways these men as much as this one thing.
In another article it mentions that some of those same bastions of conservative Christianity are willing to support Mitt Romney for president, even though he is LDS and most of these men do not believe that the LDS Church is part of the Christian faith. So these people are willing to vote someone they do not even believe to be a Christian into office just because that person’s stance on abortion and homosexuality is “right.”
While Dobson was talking about Sen. Fred Thompson Dobson recently, Dobson said that he did not think the man was a Christian. It turns out that Thompson is, and when questioned, a Focus on the Family spokesman said “we use that term- Christian- to refer to people who are evangelical Christians.” So now, according to Focus on the Family, Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and many more are no longer Christians. I find this extremely disturbing.
Another disturbing thing about this group’s statement about a pro-choice Republican candidate is that they are assuming that only the Republican party is an option for Christian voters. One of the dissenting members of the group advised against creating a third party by saying that “I can’t think of a bigger disaster… than Hillary Clinton in the White House.” Apparently, anything is better than a Democrat in office.
Even in Dr. Dobson’s recent letter where he criticized Giuliani, he quotes Popeye the Sailor but not the Bible. He mentions Abortion first, then homosexuality, then comes adultery as reasons for why Giuliani is not a good fit. Faith, God, or anything else that is the province of the Christian is not even mentioned.
I don’t really care about all the politics that much, but what bothers me is that Christianity has somehow become associated with such a narrow view of life. How has Christianity become so narrow that only Evangelicals can be Christian? How has it become so small that only abortion, divorce, and homosexuality matter, with abortion winning every time? What happened to the commands that Jesus gave us? What happened to evangelism, discipleship, loving and serving others? What happened to being transformed into the image of Christ? How have we gotten to the point where our supposed leaders can talk for pages and pages about what is “important to Christians” without ever mentioning the Bible, faith, Jesus, or even God himself?
There are important issues, and then there are essential issues. How has Christianity become so mired in the important issues that we have neglected the essentials? Jesus told us to love God, love our neighbor, and make disciples for Christ all over the world. So where did we get so turned around that we can ignore those things, ignore the poor, the hurting, the underprivileged in favor of two small but important issues? How did we go from leading everyone to God and becoming like God, to Christians being narrowed down to only a small spectrum of Christ’s followers, almost all American, and to being defined by our political stance more than by our faith?
As Christians we cannot let ourselves be bullied into going along with the flow, even from important leaders of our faith, if where they are going is taking us away from the essentials of the Christian faith. And I am sorry, but I cannot follow a group of men who meet in secret, cloaking their decisions and identities in shadow, who decide that Christians belong only in one party and that abortion and homosexuality should be more important issues than faith, evangelism, or a relationship with God.
Recently, a splinter group of some of the most powerful evangelical Christian leaders in the US met in secret as they usually do (which is a scary concept, that Christian leaders meet in secret on a regular basis, not only secret about their discussions but also their very identities. Google “Council for National Policy” to learn more) and they were so distressed that Giuliani is the Republican frontrunner that they passed a resolution saying, and I quote “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate.”
At first when I read this it didn’t bother me, until I started thinking about it a bit more. These Christian leaders were making this statement in particular about Giuliani, and yet their primary concern was not his multiple affairs while in office, or a disagreement over his faith, or even the questions of whether he has faith in God at all. No, the primary thing that they brought up was that if someone who is pro-choice is nominated for the Republican party they will think about starting a new party.
Apparently one single issue, albeit an important one, is more important to these Christian leaders than faith itself. I want someone in office who matches my view on abortion, yes, but more than that I want a person who follows God and acts as he/she believes God is leading them. Following Christ with their whole life is far more important to me than abortion alone, or any other single issue. And yet these leaders of our faith are willing to support or oppose a candidate for office without even mentioning faith, and relying solely on one issue. Not even adultery sways these men as much as this one thing.
In another article it mentions that some of those same bastions of conservative Christianity are willing to support Mitt Romney for president, even though he is LDS and most of these men do not believe that the LDS Church is part of the Christian faith. So these people are willing to vote someone they do not even believe to be a Christian into office just because that person’s stance on abortion and homosexuality is “right.”
While Dobson was talking about Sen. Fred Thompson Dobson recently, Dobson said that he did not think the man was a Christian. It turns out that Thompson is, and when questioned, a Focus on the Family spokesman said “we use that term- Christian- to refer to people who are evangelical Christians.” So now, according to Focus on the Family, Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and many more are no longer Christians. I find this extremely disturbing.
Another disturbing thing about this group’s statement about a pro-choice Republican candidate is that they are assuming that only the Republican party is an option for Christian voters. One of the dissenting members of the group advised against creating a third party by saying that “I can’t think of a bigger disaster… than Hillary Clinton in the White House.” Apparently, anything is better than a Democrat in office.
Even in Dr. Dobson’s recent letter where he criticized Giuliani, he quotes Popeye the Sailor but not the Bible. He mentions Abortion first, then homosexuality, then comes adultery as reasons for why Giuliani is not a good fit. Faith, God, or anything else that is the province of the Christian is not even mentioned.
I don’t really care about all the politics that much, but what bothers me is that Christianity has somehow become associated with such a narrow view of life. How has Christianity become so narrow that only Evangelicals can be Christian? How has it become so small that only abortion, divorce, and homosexuality matter, with abortion winning every time? What happened to the commands that Jesus gave us? What happened to evangelism, discipleship, loving and serving others? What happened to being transformed into the image of Christ? How have we gotten to the point where our supposed leaders can talk for pages and pages about what is “important to Christians” without ever mentioning the Bible, faith, Jesus, or even God himself?
There are important issues, and then there are essential issues. How has Christianity become so mired in the important issues that we have neglected the essentials? Jesus told us to love God, love our neighbor, and make disciples for Christ all over the world. So where did we get so turned around that we can ignore those things, ignore the poor, the hurting, the underprivileged in favor of two small but important issues? How did we go from leading everyone to God and becoming like God, to Christians being narrowed down to only a small spectrum of Christ’s followers, almost all American, and to being defined by our political stance more than by our faith?
As Christians we cannot let ourselves be bullied into going along with the flow, even from important leaders of our faith, if where they are going is taking us away from the essentials of the Christian faith. And I am sorry, but I cannot follow a group of men who meet in secret, cloaking their decisions and identities in shadow, who decide that Christians belong only in one party and that abortion and homosexuality should be more important issues than faith, evangelism, or a relationship with God.
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