Priorities for the Christian Voter
Most Americans are aware of the horrors that took place in Germany in the 1930’s, but many have no concept of how the quality of life and the standard of living improved under Hitler, as contrasted with the republic which preceded him. Unemployment became almost non-existent; health care improved; infant mortality decreased; it became possible for the first time in German history for a worker to own his own automobile. Many Evangelical Ministers and Catholic Priests supported him because he improved the economy so greatly. They overlooked everything else; the crucial issue was getting the economy going. As we all now know, the sanctity of innocent, human life was quite forgotten.
I wonder if we have learned anything from history, when I hear Christians and pro-life, pro-family activists seriously discuss the possibility of voting for a candidate they know to be pro-abortion because he might be able to save the Country from economic collapse. Such thinking from pro-life Christians is alarming.
Have some of our friends been co-opted by those of the world who place economic concerns above moral values? Is there a growing tolerance of abortion in the Christian community?
It is true that our country is in a precarious position economically. But, how can we hope for a remedy in this area, when the moral foundations of our society are crumbling? We cannot expect economic recovery until we experience moral recovery.
Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out when he visited America in the last Century that America is great because of the virtue of her people. When the people are no longer virtuous, she will cease to be great. The most alarming example of such a decline is the acceptance of our Country of the murder of 1.6 million babies every year. As the Psalmist reminds us in the Scriptures, “When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
We can hang on for a little while longer with a broken government and a collapsing economy, but for our society as we know it today to avoid dissolution, its moral foundation must be repaired. To ignore the cracked foundation and attempt to save the flawed structure built upon it is an exercise in futility.
Abortion is the critical, single issue of our day. It is also a qualifying issue. We would not elect a brilliant child molester; neither should we vote for any supporter of abortion, no matter how talented. Both are unfit and unqualified to hold public office. As Michael Schwartz has correctly noted, “We cannot allow our vote to help elect a person whom we know in advance will abuse that office by supporting the murder of the unborn, lest we share in the guilt of that crime.”
When we have an election at any level in which we can choose between one candidate who promises to perpetuate the slaughter of the innocents and another who pledges to protect them, there should be no hesitation as to who gets our vote, regardless of party affiliation. The pro-life voter is completely void of self-interest and often votes against a candidate who promises him a better quality of life, in order to vote for a candidate who promises life itself to the unborn. Liberals vote for conservatives, Republicans for Democrats and vice versa, because they set their own interests aside in order to achieve this one goal which unites them: the legal protection of our unborn children.
Why do pro-lifers single out abortion as the single issue by which a candidate is to be judged? Because the legalization of the deliberate killing of helpless human beings in what Grover Rees has called “the central horror, the yardstick by which all horrors are to be judged.”
The promise of economic recovery by itself offers no real hope for the future of America. It is only in the recovery of our moral values that we can ever hope once again to be a great Country. It can happen! But it will not occur in a society built on a foundation of 30 million slaughtered babies.
What will you trade for an innocent life? The late Francis A. Schaeffer, the brilliant and inspiring Christian author, said that by the end of the twentieth century, the secular world would trade anything for just the illusion of personal peace and affluence, even human life. When Christians vote for “abortion/choice” candidates, we indicate that we are already there.
Penned by Bill Price of Texans United for Life in the 1980’s.
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