I am giving you fair warning – I am about to meddle. But before I meddle too much, let me give you a little background about myself so that you know who is writing this post and where I come from.
I grew up during the Reagan era in an incredibly conservative church structure. Laugh if you want, but Ronald Reagan was always, and still is, a hero of mine. I have had right-wing leanings all of my life and have never been afraid to share, sometimes possibly obnoxiously so, my political beliefs with anyone who cared to listen. Currently, I attend a non-denominational church which I would also consider to be conservative as well. I have always been conservative to the core. In fact, I sometimes wondered why the Republican platform was so liberal at times. I have for my entire life, considered myself to be an Evangelical Christian and if I did not vote that way it was only because I was too young to do so. Conservative, right-wing values have always been a mainstay of who I was, not only politically but socially as well.
Call it what ever you will – maturation, mid-life crisis, or early on-set of Alzheimer’s – I have undergone a fairly dramatic change of heart. Not so much so that I have gone from being a right-wing nut job to now being a bleeding-heart liberal, but more like I now see the complete and utter futility and downright folly in that way of thinking, be it right-wing or left-wing.
Since I am meddling, let me explain my change of heart by taking a look at the most hot-button issue of the conservative right-wing and of Evangelicals in particular – abortion. Do not misunderstand me – I believe abortion is the most insidious practice since slavery. I believe that life begins at conception and I believe that even before that moment, God has a plan for that little zygote. I also believe that cases of rape or incest should not be considered differently when it comes to abortion (oops – there goes my conservative side showing through!). The only possible way that I can see that an abortion may be remotely acceptable is in cases where the mother’s life is at extreme danger and the baby will not live anyway.
Change of heart? Sounds like I am towing the party line, right? Well, maybe not. My change of heart relates more to execution of strategy rather than the fundamentals of my belief system. I think I just heard a collective “What?!”. Bear with me and please read on.
How have the opponents of abortion tried to win their cause? By overturning Roe v. Wade either through the courts or through legislation. Millions of dollars and hours have been spent in a tremendous effort on their part to right the great wrong of abortion. I am quite sure that I do not even know half of all the different efforts that have been expended to outlaw abortion. I do know that they range from lobbying members of Congress as well as the White House to picketing abortion clinics and staff. Organizations have been established with the sole and intent purpose to make sure that abortion is outlawed. Channels have been created to make sure donated money gets to the places where it is needed the most in order to fight the cause. However, to date it has all been for naught. Abortion is just as legal and available today as it was when Roe v. Wade itself was born.
I wonder what Jesus would think of all this effort if he were to walk among us in flesh today. Would he applaud the effort to reform laws that are obviously so contrary to the nature of his Father? Would he speak at a Right to Life rally in support of overturning a law that sheds the only blood that comes as close as possible to being as innocent as his was? Would he donate money to lobbying efforts in Congress or individual states? Would he make a personal appeal to the President and Congress to stop this heinous act? Or would he forcibly enact the terrible judgment of God upon those who commit these acts?
The only way to answer these questions is to see what he did when he was walking among us in flesh. In the gospel accounts of his life we see that yes, he was a revolutionary. And yes, he did enact change everywhere he went. He overthrew the ruling religious establishment of the time and brought about the Father’s plan of salvation.
Strange though – don’t you think – how every one of his actions was geared towards people rather than governments. Not once did he overtly or covertly make any comment or take any action to overthrow Rome’s ruling authority. Yes, many looked for the Messiah to do just that and many of his disciples no doubt expected and longed for the same. But what did Jesus teach about the kingdom that he was bringing? His kingdom was not about governments or nations – it was something much more grand. It was the kingdom of heaven – his Father’s kingdom. In fact, didn’t he say give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and give to God that which is God’s? He really didn’t care what Caesar did. His kingdom was far above all of that. The time he spent on earth was used to minister to those who needed his help the most.
Sure, if he wanted to, he could have forced Caesar from power. Look at Jesus’ arrest in the garden when Peter, in a sincere but misguided attempt to defend Jesus, cut off the ear of one of the guards who had come to take him into custody. What did Jesus do? He healed the guard’s ear and rebuked Peter saying “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”. If Jesus had wanted to use all of those legions of angels to take political power, Caesar would not have stood a chance. The bottom line is that Jesus did not waste his time with Caesar’s kingdom. The more important picture was the heavenly kingdom.
And how did Jesus bring about the heavenly kingdom? Not by force. Not by the sword. The kingdom was brought about by his agape love. It was his love for us that compelled him to come to earth, to minister to all of those who were in need around him, and then to die for all of us. It was through this love that he commanded us all to live. When asked which commandment was greatest, his response in Matthew 22:37-39 was to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself.
And it is here that we find Jesus’ secret to changing the world – accept the agape love of the Father and share it with all of those we come into contact with. If this is true, then why is it that every election cycle we who consider ourselves to be Evangelical Christians look to a politician to bring about moral change? George Bush was re-elected through a push by the religious right in the hopes of finally overturning Roe v. Wade. Did it happen? No. If it didn’t happen under George Bush, arguably the most conservative president this nation has known, please tell me when it would happen. How much time, effort, money, prayers, fasting, and who knows what other labors were expended in order to re-elect Bush? And for what?-not much in the end.
Now, tell me this – what would have happened had all of that effort been successful? What if Roe v. Wade had been overturned? True change – right? No more abortions! The nation would be that much closer to God! The USA would have begun to turn from its wicked ways! We would be on the path to true Godliness!! I hate to burst anyone’s bubble who really does believe all that – but there isn’t a chance that any of it is true. How can I be so sure? All you have to do is pick any of the laws on the books today, and I’ll bet my last paycheck that I can find you someone sitting in prison today because they broke that law. You see, getting a law passed is no guarantee of adherence to that law. Aren’t illicit drugs illegal? Yet there is still a drug problem. Didn’t a previous generation try to outlaw alcohol? Yet prohibition proved too difficult to enforce and was repealed. Why have those efforts failed? Simple – morality can not be legislated. If someone does right, it’s because they chose to do so – not because of a law written on the books somewhere. If it were that easy, the Law of Moses would have worked just fine and Jesus would have never had to come to earth to die for us. Even if we had won the battle for Roe v. Wade, we would have certainly still lost the war for the very ones we were trying to reach. Would winning Roe v. Wade rally be showing God’s agape love or would it be using a morality hammer to force people into making one choice by taking away the other? Looking at it from that perspective makes it easy to see how we have lost our focus on what Jesus thought was important and how to bring real change to the world.
So obviously, moral change through the political system is a fallacy at best and always futile. So what now? Let me propose a different scenario. What if we, and I am speaking of all Christians, follow the examples that Jesus set for us? After all, that is what the term “Christian” means, isn’t it? To be Christ-like? What if we live the life he meant for us to live anyway? What if we take all of the time, effort, money, prayers, fasting, and other labors that we have been expending futilely since Roe v. Wade and pour it all into following the two greatest commandments?
I wonder what the outcome would have been today if instead of trying to force a moral choice on an entire nation we had tried to show God’s agape love to those who needed it most? What if we had answered our Lord’s call to ministry rather than our own political call to action? What if we had simply offered God’s agape to those young women who had a difficult choice to make – provided for their needs and helped them in whatever manner we could? There are many good organizations that provide alternatives to abortion. What would have happened if we had given them priority for our resources over the Washington lobbying groups? I’ll bet we could have helped many of these young mothers to make the right choice and I’ll bet the abortion rate would be much lower than it is today. Many abortion clinics may have even closed by now due to a lack of business rather than due to protests and picket lines. The best thing about God’s agape love is that it is never too late to embrace it or to share it. We can still accomplish all that we wanted to and more (because God has bigger ambitions than just Roe v. Wade) if only we follow Jesus’ teachings and his example.
So am I saying to no longer exercise your American right to vote or to take an interest in your government? No, of course not. We have a precious gift in being able to vote and to make our voice heard throughout all levels of government. We should jealously guard it as such. What I am saying is to put it in its proper perspective and don’t waste your time and effort in trying to get laws passed that are designed to make America more “Godly” – it never works. Rather, focus your efforts where they can produce real change – just as Jesus’ example and teachings show us.
The bottom line for me is this – Do I trust God to be in control even when the political party of my choice is not? To that end, I am with tongue-in-cheek joining “Politics Anonymous”. My indoctrination statement goes like this:
Yes, I am a political junkie and I recognize my need to look to God for control of this country – not a right-wing conservative politician who knows how to speak the language of Christian values. I promise to put my faith in God, not in man. I pledge to no longer try to take the easy way out by looking to the government to bring about the change that is my responsibility as a Christian to produce. I vow to understand that the way to bring about change is to win hearts and minds, not elections.
How about you? Do you need to join “Politics Anonymous”?
© Gregory M. Watson, 2008 (see Copyright Page for details)
