An Authentic Democratic Christian Position on Abortion

What can break the deadlock between choice vs. life?

Reflective Christians can offer something better. 

What is an authentic Democratic Christian message on
abortion?

The
language of choice vs. life, as we know from experience, is a losing
proposition for those of us who understand the need to protect the freedoms of
Roe vs. Wade.  It is a losing proposition
because it pits the seemingly self-absorbed concern with freedom of choice
against the moral weight of the protection of life.  It makes defenders of legal abortion appear morally frivolous.

But
for those candidates who wish to speak the language of faith, like the sincere
if unreflective Catholicism of John Kerry, there must be a clear, easily
digestible message to offer the country about the issue which, unfortunately,
moves most people of simple faith in their political decisions.  Kerry choked when asked about abortion in
the debates.  This must not happen
again.

Let
me cut to the chase- here is language that I think may be helpful in validating
people’s gut feeling that abortion is the taking of a life, while holding up
the grave responsibility to make good laws which do not make the situation
worse.

Simply
put, “I believe that abortion is a sin, but that a sin is different from a
crime.”

That’s the soundbite. 
The supporting ideas are that the law of God and the law of society are
two different things, and that both are important, but they cannot do each
other’s job.

The
wrongness of abortion is an issue that needs to be addressed with good
preaching, not with government.  We know
from experience that it does the country no good if we attempt to control it
through legal prohibition. 

This
simple theological insight supports the main policy emphasis of most Democratic
leaders today- that the best way for government to address the tragedy of
abortion is to work to create a society in which the desperate realities that
tempt people to choose abortion are reduced in severity.

Discussions
about whether a fetus constitutes a life lead us into the wrong territory.  While I like to say that I won’t call
something a human life until I can baptize him or her, I do think that to deny
that a fetus is still a potential life rings with a not e of dishonesty among
most people.

The
bible is silent on the practice of abortion. 
I found my own pro-choice position moderated, however, when I learned
that one of the distinctive points of the early church’s radical value of
nonviolence was that Christians did not practice abortion, as was common in the
Greco-Roman world.

To follow
the non-violence of Jesus, I think we need to be clear in our confession:

Violence
is always a sin.

Killing
is always a sin.

War
is always a sin.

Suicide
is always a sin.

The death
penalty is always a sin

And,
Abortion is always a sin.

But
Jesus died for sinners, and the purpose of our civil law is not to get us right
with God.

Our
civil law permits choices between greater and lesser evils, and respects our
right to privacy in our moral decision-making. 
Killing in self-defense is seen as justified.  We have fought at least one just war.  We are experimenting with getting the state out of people’s
decision to die with dignity.

The 90’s saw a marked
drop in the frequency of people resorting to abortion.  I think that it might be fair to say that
two cultural factors were responsible for this.  One is that a lot of Christians were getting the message out that
this was wrong.  I believe they were
doing this in the wrong way, but it did have it’s effect.  The other factor in reducing abortion,
however, was the Clinton presidency, with economic policies that were kinder to
the poor.  Clinton fostered a culture
that cared for life beyond delivery, a culture to which I hope we will soon
return and surpass.