Today is World AIDS Day, and Rick Warren pulled together an all-star panel to discuss ways that America can confront the scourge of AIDS in this country and around the world. One of the speakers invited to Saddleback Church in California was Barack Obama, whose invitation was almost immediately protested by Warren’s fellow evangelicals because of Obama’s pro-choice stance.
Warren has defended (and correctly, I might add) the invitation of Obama saying that for progress on an issue as big as the AIDS epidemic, people must be willing to cooperate with those with whom they might not fully agree. Thank you, Pastor Warren, for setting an example for your fellow evangelicals to follow—and I hope they do. None of this is what I have a problem with. Here’s my problem: Some of the evangelicals who have criticized Warren for his decision did so by either suggesting or outright saying that evangelicals had no business cooperating with someone responsible for 40 million abortions.
Say what? Someone’s gonna have to explain to me how Barack Obama is responsible for 40 million abortions. First of all, several million of those occurred while Obama was growing up and most likely didn’t have a fully developed political philosophy. Surely, even the Calvinists among us don’t believe that such sin can be ascribed to him. Secondly, has Barack Obama held a gun to 40 million women’s heads and forced them to have abortions? I think we would have heard something about that had it happened. Even better, has Barack Obama himself had 40 million abortions—newsworthy for a variety of reasons, not the least of which would be the Ripley’s Believe It or No factor? Don’t think so.
Evangelicals, listen up, because this is where you and I fundamentally disagree. Neither the devil, nor Barack Obama, nor Hillary Clinton, nor liberal judges are responsible for 40 million abortions. The 40 million women who had those abortions are each responsible for their individual decisions.
On Judgment Day, Barack Obama will not be asked to answer for each of those abortions. He may, as may I, be asked to answer for his political position, that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. If that is the case, his answer, I suspect, will be much like mine—Abortion should never be used as a form of birth control, but there are extraordinary circumstances in which it should be an option and legislating around those circumstances is incredibly difficult.
The devil—some evil force that takes away personal responsibility—has never once made me do anything. I alone am responsible for my own right- and wrongdoings. My actions are a result of my own sinful desires as they conflict with the Divine Will for supremacy. Sometimes, I do what’s right. Sometimes, I don’t. But in all situation, I, not the devil, not Barack Obama, not George W. Bush, am solely culpable for my actions.
Perhaps evangelicals would stop attempting to legislate morality if they came to term with the fact that legislation cannot save people from themselves. Christianity’s cause is advanced not by legislating morality or refusing to work with those whom don’t share your opinions or allowing itself to be co-opted by politics. Christianity’s cause is advanced in the taking care of the poor, the downtrodden, the sick and injured, and yes, the pregnant who are contemplating abortion.
1 comment:
it seems to me that dissident voices are eerily reminiscent of the pharisees who castigated jesus for associating with certain sinful individuals. i don't resonate with everything rick warren puts out there (nor obama), but the fact that two very different God-fearing people are able to come together in real community to advocate on behalf of hurting and the helpless *sinners* is a real portrayal of jesus' love to me.
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