The current dilemma for Christians in politics is indeed a dilemma. How are we to care for our neighbor within the Republican agenda? How are we to defend the innocent within the Democratic agenda?
In light of this dilemma, a growing number of Christians, Protestant and Catholic, are settling. The possibility of reversing Roe v. Wade is so remote that the pragmatists are winning. Waves of Christians are shifting allegiance from conservatism to social justice. The problem with this justification is that social justice is founded on human rights. What however, is the fundamental human right? According to Article 3 of the UN's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the fundamental human right is that of "life, liberty, and security of person." All other rights are rooted in this right. Are we all entitled to health care? Do we all deserve a paid vacation? Is property ownership essential? Who knows? I do know however, that those superfluous entitlements are corrupted when the fundamental right to life is undermined. In short, a human rights agenda that does not defend the right to life has no integrity. As such, ending legalized abortion must be a socially conscious Christian's foremost goal if their ideas of universal healthcare and women's rights are to have any legitimacy.
Below you will find an incredibly well articulated exploration of this current dilemma, please read:
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?ft_skip=1#skip_hp (simply scroll down to reach the article titled Change.)
If interested the UN's Declaration of Human Rights is linked below:
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
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5 comments:
I find the bigger question to be here unanswered. Yes, we know that the Republicans own the pro-life issue and it has been a key issue especially for evangelical christians over the years. And on the other side, we have the democrats who defend human rights beginning after birth. My question and I have only done a bit of research is, how much is this issue used to win over christian voters and then in house, very little to perhaps nothing is done about it. Maybe a bill or two is passed, and then we declare war on a country and kill thousands. I would like to see a history of the changes in relationship to this issue, alongside the parties who have implemented the changes. Also it would be necessary to understand what the underground abortion rate is, when it is not a publically available option. This has been a key issue for Republicans to hold in the past, but I don't think the way of dealing with it is to close ones eyes to all the other disrespect for life that goes on after birth. Republicans will go to war and kill a pregnant woman from Iraq to protect the land of the free. I just think altogether it is a much more complicated issue than recognizing that the Republicans are pro-life and then voting for them.
So Pete, this is only tangentially related to anything in your blog.. but then again it's intrinsically related because it's about faith:
I had this epiphany the other night, as I watched the networks declare BO our next dear leader. I realized that he is the culmination of a seismic shift from personal morality to public morality.
While GOP has long been the party of trickle-down economics, I now realize that it has also been the party of trickle-down morality. Gone are the days of Bill Clinton needing to lie about whether or not he inhaled. Who cares anymore? It's not who you are at home, it's what you can get done. Conventional wisdom used to dictate that who you were at home belied who you were publicly, and would frame what you could accomplish in the public eye.
Let me propose the demigod Bono as Example A. By his own admission he has not lived the life of a saint. While still married to his highschool sweetheart, he's the first to admit that during the 80s he was not particularly focused on faithfulness. So, here is this man, not particularly ashamed of his past (though honest about it) who is an ambassador for goodwill around the globe. No one gave a rat's ass when he was photographed in St. Tropez arm in arm with Penelope Cruz last year... it didn't hurt his PUBLIC MESSAGE. One organization is still sending millions to help AIDs ravished Africa. And that is wonderful.
The GOP has said that your private life's message should reflect your public message. So, when Larry "wide stance" Craig gets busted in the Minneapolis airport for soliciting gay sex in a bathroom, there's a public outcry, because there was such an obvious chasm between who he claimed to be and who was.
Now we have Obama. A man who has admitted to copious experimentation with drugs. A man whose past would preclude him from joining the CIA, due to his friendships and liaisons. Everyone knows. Nobody cares. No one questions the validity of faith (as they always do of GOP candidates) because it's not who you are, it's what you can do.
Yes, you can say that Bush used cocaine, too. Yet the ardent fervor with which he proclaimed his faith nullified the effects of his past. Obama has made no such black and white conversion claims. Read his book. His conversion experience amounts to an "understanding" of how to help black America more than anything else.
The GOP has lost it's message, because they thought that people would care about who he was. But the only care about what he can promise.
I am saddened on many levels, yet trying to hope for his success, for our fragile country's sake. I realize these arguments are only rough scattershot. I'd love to flesh them out with some theo/philo backbone some evening over cigars.
Just say when ...
Pete you are a really good writer! Today, Obama stated that he will explore using executive action to reverse course on stem cell research, increasing funding. That's just one example amongst many that we as a nation will be debating over for years to come. Interestingly, I don't know if we, as Americans, are morally liberal or conservative. Recently, we voted to ban same sex marriage in California but now support physician assisted suicide in Washington State. Part of me thinks we easily make mistakes, grasping for choice and bite off more than we can chew- as evidenced by our backtrack on same sex marriage. Will the public regret allowing PAS in W State five years from now? Will re-opening stem cell research be an easy solution, avoiding promising research that isn't destroying embryos? Will Barack realize the basic idea you are communicating, only after the fact? Basic principles that protect human rights are more foundational than altruism as the first defines the second.
Keep writing!
"Waves of Christians are shifting allegiance from conservatism to social justice"
I respectfully disagree with this statement. I believe that traditional religion is outweighing liberal religion. It may not be in our states or on this continent, but i believe it to be happening.
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