Will the real pro-life party please stand up? August 15, 2008
Posted by Zack in Florida , trackbackJoel Hunter is a conservative, Republican megachurch pastor in Central Florida. He’s giving the Democrats some free advice, if they care to hear it: Even if you stick with Roe V. Wade, you can show evangelicals that you are the pro-life party by showing us how you will actually reduce abortions—and how you will support “life” in other areas besides abortion. From Steve Waldman’s Beliefnet column today:
Hunter makes a practical argument: providing women with economic help in carrying babies to term can actually reduce the number of abortions more, and more quickly, than focusing on overturning Roe v. Wade. “With eight years of Bush the abortion rates have not declined. Every indication is that with financial support and different forms of supporting pregnant mother and then some post birth help also we could come close to 50% reduction in abortions. That’s huge. That’s huge.”
Continuing with the same culture war paradigm is therefore morally dubious. “If we insist on keeping this an ideological war we’re literally not saving the babies we could save. The Democrats have a huge opportunity here to really steal the thunder from those who are seen as traditionally pro life.”
Keep a look out for other Christian leaders popping up with the same message. What’s causing this is the complete failure of the Republicans to reduce abortions, even with 20 years of Republican presidency since the rise of the Christian right. Many Christians are finally getting fed up.
In my opinion, the Republican line on abortion—the singular focus on banning it—was just a cynical ploy. I know that many GOP leaders were sincere, but overall the strategy was simply to oppose abortion symbolically while doing nothing to reduce abortions in real life. Moreover, there is evidence from history and from around the world that banning abortion would not even reduce abortions (have we ever banned anything successfully?).
Pro-life Christians are finally getting this. If the Democrats take Joel Hunter’s advice, and stand up as the real “pro-life party,” they will not find formerly Republican Christians falling into lock step with them. Many of these Christians are so burned by their experience with the GOP that they will not join another party. However, in their pro-life calculations at the voting booth, many will choose the Democrat.
But how many? That depends on Obama, and if he will take Joel Hunter’s advice. If Obama can boldly articulate a pro-life platform to reduce abortion, care for children and families, reduce arms and prevent war then he could bring about a seismic shift in electoral politics that makes the “Reagan Democrat” phenomenon look like nothing.
For many pro-choice advocates, that will feel like a concession. But has the status quo stand off worked any better for them over the past few decades? Abortion is still legal, but access to safe abortions for women who choose them has all but disappeared for many working class and rural women—right alongside other medical and social services. For sure, embracing a politics of “life” is a risk for pro-choice advocates. But Christian leaders who reject the status quo are taken an arguably greater risk: with their own congregations, with their national reputations and with anti-abortion extremists.
Only one thing is certain: It’s going to be fascinating to watch how change and risk will be embraced or rejected by various advocates on both sides of the debate through this election and an Obama presidency.
[UPDATE: I cross posted this at HuffingtonPost. Please go check out the comments over there, which could get interesting if they feature the post.]
Tag: joel hunter
Comments»
Thank goodness, it’s nice to see a conservative leader offer a reasonable pro-life stance that actually has a chance to influence our culture and society. “Abstinence only” is never going to work here, and trying to shut down Planned Parenthood doesn’t really address the problem. Here, finally, is a good look at treating the cause rather than the symptoms.
Clinton spent the 1990s in the posture that abortion should be ’safe, legal, and rare’, and that is still the posture of the Democratic party today. If conservative Christians wanted to reduce abortions through the political system, they could just become Democrats. The onus is on conservative Christians, not Democratic leaders, to prove good faith.
Which is scarier?
1. Democrats that don’t believe that abortion is murder, or
2. Republicans and Conservative Chirstians that claim that it is and do nothing about it?
Seriously, if a person is truly convinced that this is murder (and I’m speaking to myself here) shouldn’t they be moving heaven and earth to stop it? If abortion is murder, then we are sitting idly by, or worse, relying on the political process, to end an unimaginably atrocious holocaust. Put another way, if abortion is murder, then it is the only things its opponents should be capable of talking about.
I often debate fellow Christians on the issue of Abortion. Here are a few issues I have:
You want to outlaw abortion? Ok, how many unwanted children have you adopted? Exactly how much money have you donated to struggling and impoverished mothers raising children? Why are you not handing out contraceptives in schools and elsewhere; a PROVEN way of reducing unwanted pregnancies? Care to put your money where your mouth is? *Spin, spin, backpedal, backpedal*
You call yourself “pro-life” yet support the death penalty, or the pro-death wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and what have you done to end genocide in Darfur? Or do you just think life begins and conception and ends at birth? *Spin, spin, backpedal, backpedal*
You think abortion is murder? Even though God doesn’t? According to Old Testament law the penalty for causing a miscarriage is not equal to that of murdering somebody. Where do you get this un-Biblical idea? *Spin, spin, backpedal, backpedal*
James,
I’m not sure if that post is a response to mine, but I can’t help but read it in light of what I posted.
I do believe that abortion is murder, and paid for one back in college. I can’t begin to tell you about how much guilt and shame I carry because of that. Just the same, to everything you have said, I say “AMEN!”
The church in America (or at least the part that I’m involved with) wants to address behavior without having to actually do the business of loving people. I say that if we would really seek to love the lost, bring our own brokeness into the light, surround and support the weak, adopt the unwanted (child and adult), grieve sin without hating the image bearer that committed the sin, and truly be salt and light to the world, then it wouldn’t matter if it was legal or not.
“The church in America (or at least the part that I’m involved with) wants to address behavior without having to actually do the business of loving people.”
^ This.
We won’t see a major decline in abortions, regardless if it is legalized or not, until the church offers a better solution. I think too much emphasis is put on banning abortion (and we see how well banning something worked out with Prohibition and the War on Drugs). Not enough emphasis is places on contraceptive, adoption, financial support for struggling mothers, etc. Some of the right wing extremist Christians seem to just want to outlaw abortions and dump a few boxes of free coat hangers in the inner city and walk away.
James,
Again….AMEN! I hope you know that I offer that as a criticism and not a badge of honor. How would it look if the church entered into the life of a woman with an “unwanted” pregnancy and committed to making her and that child a part of Christ’s family?
We need to be asking ourselves not IF girls SHOULD get abortions, and start asking ourselves WHY. Are we presenting a community of people that represent Christ’s body to the low and despised as a body of love, or a body that people want to get away from as quickly as possible?
I know that I have often been one of these, but I am trying to be the other. Pray for me. Pray for our churches.
I don’t get how anyone - Christian or conservative or otherwise - can seriously talk about reducing the number of abortions without thinking of the easiest and cheapest way: reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies.
Until I hear them talk about accurate sex education and accessible contraception, I can’t take these men seriously.