Things have been going so well lately that I think I’ll stir myself up some trouble.

I recently received the following email from a brother in Christ and church member who I respect and count as a friend:

It is time to take a stand on this issue and speak against abortion from the pulpit. A political platform that approves of abortion cannot be accepted by voting for it, regardless of who are the representatives identifying themselves with such platform. Pro choice is a position of sanctioning murder as acceptable. The blood of the unborn cries out to God. His answer will be most unpleasant for our nation if we do not turn away from this grievous sin against God. These children are formed in the image of God. We are the Watchman on the walls and we dare not remain silent for their blood will be upon us.

Then the quote from Mother Teresa:  “We cannot fight credibly against other social and moral evils, including poverty and violence, while we tolerate mass killings by abortion.”

My rather lengthy response:

I appreciate the quote from Mother Teresa, and I agree with you on abortion.  I also feel like I speak from the pulpit about it plenty, and you can bet that I will continue to do so.

I suspect though, that you may want me to say that no Christian can vote Democrat or vote for a pro-choice candidate.  I can’t do that, and it isn’t because I think that pro-choice is a legitimate position. I don’t.  It’s because politics is such a messy business that if we’re going to take part at all, we’re going to have to make some ugly choices.

Case in point:  The Washington Post ran a story this week about a U.S. led air strike in Afghanistan that apparently killed 90 civilians, perhaps as many as 60 of them children.  Would we tolerate that on our own soil?  Who knows how many civilians have been killed collaterally in our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq?  100,000?  A million? I just can’t fit that into my pro-life views either, and with each passing year I am more and more disappointed in the gentle and genuinely loving Christian brothers and sisters around me who don’t bat an eye about such things, who in fact seem to have an almost sacred belief in our military and its ability to crush evil-doers and spread freedom to the oppressed.  Our President is against abortion, we say, so we can support his war.

Please understand that I’m not finding fault with our young people in uniform.  I think the great majority of them are professional and brave, and they do their jobs to the best of their ability.  Civilian deaths happen accidentally when bombs or ammo go astray, or because terrorists blow up car bombs in their attempt to turn people against us, or from disease that spreads when water lines, sewage treatment plants and other infrastructure are destroyed.  My point is:  Does anyone care?  Is this not a pro-life issue?  What can we find in the words of Jesus to encourage us to look the other way?  Who is holding supposedly pro-life politicians accountable for this?  I daresay that Mother Teresa would have a choice quote or two about it, and we probably wouldn’t like it.

During the interviews at Saddleback Church with Rick Warren, each candidate was asked how we should respond to evil.  McCain’s answer was quite simplistic:  “Defeat it”.  To be fair, Warren made it multiple choice with “defeat it” as the only good answer, and McCain went on to make some good points about the real evil that confronts our nation.  But McCain spoke of evil as something out there that other people do TO us, a black-and-white attitude that has allowed us to wreck many innocent lives as we chase the guilty.  He didn’t mention that maybe America itself might be capable of committing horrendous evil even while trying to do good, or that (as Solzhenitsyn says) the dividing line between good and evil runs right down the middle of every human heart.  Obama’s answer, while far from perfect, was more reflective on these things,  You can see McCain and Obama give their answers on YouTube.

I guess what I’m saying is this:  I hate abortion too.  It’s a failure on every level of society to treasure the sacred gift of human life with which God entrusts us.  It disturbs me to see people brush this aside so easily for political expedience.  You will hear me speak of this from the pulpit as you have before.  But it is far from the ONLY pro-life issue, and right now I think most of us evangelicals have got our blinders on with regard to this war.  So I can look at the candidates and know which ones are pro-choice.  I just can’t find anyone who is truly pro-life.

Maybe James Dobson had it right when he said that if the choice was between McCain and Obama or Clinton, he’d sit this one out.  Barring that, there are some ugly choices to weigh.