An Open Letter to Christians Before the Presidential Election

I was recently listening to Issues, Etc. and learned a new word. I had to look it up to get its spelling – adiaphoria. If you were to define that word in biblical terms, you would discover that adiaphoria means anything that is neither specifically forbidden nor endorsed in The Bible. Adiaphoria.

Issues, Etc.’s host Pastor Todd Wilken gave a very valid aside when discussing this. Just because something is neither commanded nor forbidden doesn’t mean that other scripture cannot lead you to the moral and proper stand on an issue. He stated even more clearly that often there was a definite wrong position. In that vein, I would like to discuss abortion.

On Tuesday, November 4th, we will be asked to do our part in deciding the next President of the United States. As Christians, we are required to vote with prayerful reflection and to choose the candidate who best represents our values. So this morning before church I sat here thinking, "Do they really, really know?" about Senator Barack Obama’s extreme position on abortion. I often suffer from the fallacy of thinking that if I know something surely everyone else knows it equally well – that I have nothing to add to a matter. It’s why I stopped blogging for the most part. But seeing some of the Obama stickers on the vehicles at church, I decided that maybe "they don’t know." Roe vs. Wade is legal and has been so since right around the time many of us were born, and maybe some Christians believe that nothing can be done.

How wrong that stance is. Something CAN be done.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139 v. 13-15. NIV

When is a baby a person? I’m asking you to decide. Because one of these answers is right. As you read these, read after it in your head "…but not until then."

• An egg or sperm is a person.
• An egg + a sperm at the moment of conception is a person.
• A three-month growing fetus is a person.
• A six-month growing fetus is a person.
• A nine-month full-term fetus is a person,
• A baby in the birth canal during labor is a person.
• A newly crying, fully emerged fetus is instantly a person.
• A one-month old baby is a person.
• A three-month old baby is a person.
• A baby is a person when he or she walks.
• A baby is a person when he or she talks.
• Some other time.

I’ll give you an easy one. An egg alone or a sperm alone isn’t a person. Throw out number 1. With The Bible and your Christian background, you can pick out the right answer from the other 11 (mostly obnoxious) choices.

I program software for a living. When good software encounters a situation where it has to make a decision, the programming has accounted for every possible answer. That’s what I have tried to do for you here. That #12 choice of "some other time" is a catch-all. Abortion supporters would have you always pick #12. They claim to be unsure and by being so that it doesn’t truly matter. Their DEFAULT CHOICE IS NOT LIFE. For the Christian, the DEFAULT CHOICE IS LIFE, and The Bible is clear on the importance of each human life.

Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” Job 31:15 NIV.

Senator Barack Obama is the most adamant abortion supporter to run for President.

For example:

• Senator Obama dances around the issue of when life begins, though he professes to be a Christian.
• Senator Obama voted no on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion.
• Senator Obama voted no on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.
• Senator Obama believes we can find "common ground" between those of our who disfavor abortion and those who embrace it.
• Senator Obama in one of his own campaign booklets brags that he consistently earns 100% ratings from "pro-choice" groups.
• Senator Obama believes abortions should be funded with taxpayer money.
• Senator Obama voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in Illinois. It means what you think it does – botched abortion with living baby - that baby dies. We treat our dogs better in Missouri.

A presidential victory for Senator Obama would be a victory for abortion; certain abortion matters that are currently left to the states to decide would be federally mandated and standardized. Senator Obama has stated that the first thing he would do as President of the United States is to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, or FOCA. This would extend the "fundamental right" to abortion throughout all nine months of a pregnancy. In other language, you could go all the way up to #6 in my example as an abortable (rather than adorable) mass of non-human, non-important cells - at least legally.

Senator McCain’s record isn’t great. He supports the destruction of embryos in stem cell research - another life issue - even though great gains have been made with adult stem cells and pluripotent epithelial cells– gains enough, I believe, to suspend government funding on embryonic stem cell research - because that’s what’s really at issue with the word "support" - on embryonic stem cell research. Research using both of these latter types of stem cells does not destroy human life. But overall, when comparing Senator McCain with Senator Obama on this most important issue of life, there is a clear Christian choice to not further extend abortion "rights."

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you – beginning of Jeremiah 1:5 NIV.

So there you have it - thou shalt not murder, the fifth commandment. If you directly tie abortion to murder but still plan to vote for Senator Obama, I suggest you do some prayerful soul searching. If you're a Christian squishy on when life begins, I'd ask that you search the rest of The Bible on what is proclaimed about individual humans before birth. I've provided three examples in this essay. I pray they are enough to convince you not to extend the social and legal acceptance of already commonplace abortion. I therefore urge you to not vote for Senator Obama in this 2008 Presidential election.

Other info:
1) Silent Scream - the film of an abortion of an 11-week-old fetus.
2) Robert George's blog post, Obama's Abortion Extremism
3) On the Issues - Barack Obama.
4) On the Issues - John McCain.
5) The National Right to Life's Response to the Third Debate.
6) Left-of-center Time magazine - How Valid is Palin's Abortion Attack on Obama.
7) Obama and Infanticide