religious<\/em> conversation before and during the war \u2014 to the point where abolitionists were consistently scolded as religious zealots and fanatics. \u00a0And yet that searing evangelical witness eventually won the day, motivating not just union but abolition and \u2014 ultimately \u2014 the first, halting attempts at legal equality for freedmen.<\/p>\nThis historic reality flies in the face of the modern trend of even the most faithful politicians and culture warriors intentionally draining their arguments of religious content \u2014 as if there case for life or marriage isn\u2019t truly legitimate unless it can also be made in largely secular terms. \u00a0A case in point was Paul Ryan\u2019s abortion response in his vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, where he mentioned his religious faith but mainly grounded his argument in \u201cscience\u201d and \u201creason.\u201d<\/p>\n
While I appreciate the effort to make arguments appealing to as many people as possible, I do believe that by abandoning or minimizing the faith-filled argument we\u2019re actually abandoning or minimizing our best, most persuasive case. \u00a0Let\u2019s not forget, the call to cleanse our words of religion comes primarily from our most ardent opponents, not from the persuadable middle. \u00a0In fact, the middle largely (though passively) resists efforts to drive religion from the public square, disdaining politically correct cleansing of religious symbols and religious language from public conversation. \u00a0That\u2019s because the middle is still religious<\/em>. \u00a0They may not be orthodox, and they may not practice their faith consistently, but the language of faith still resonates deep in their hearts and consciences.<\/p>\nAfter all, when we speak about life or about marriage \u2014 and yet leave God behind \u2014 we are less than sincere. \u00a0I believe an unborn child is an unborn child not because of DNA or ultrasounds but because I know that we are \u201cfearfully and wonderfully made\u201d \u2014 known by God before we even before we were stitched together in our mothers\u2019 wombs. \u00a0I understand what marriage is and should be not by sociological research about child poverty and the psychological effects of divorce but because of the created order and the words of Jesus himself regarding the sacredness of the marriage bond.<\/p>\n
We should not leave behind our best \u2014 our truest \u2014 arguments simply because our opponents<\/em> rule them out of bounds. \u00a0Simply put, spiritual truth is far more powerful than contemporary \u201crules\u201d of discourse.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I just finished my second reading (the first was many years ago) of James McPherson\u2019s outstanding single-volume history of the Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom. \u00a0The first time I read the book I was primarily interested in his take on the military history of the war. \u00a0Was it a close-run conflict? \u00a0Was the outcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[875,67,874,513,52,654],"class_list":["post-4732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abolition","tag-abortion","tag-civil-war","tag-life","tag-marriage","tag-slavery"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/9\/2012\/11\/Battle-Cry-of-Freedom-by-James-M-McPherson.jpg\" "\\"Battle")
<\/a><\/p>\n