EDITORS NOTE: This post is from my personal Facebook feed and was written in response to some criticism I received for sharing the following two articles:

• Donald Trump’s Bible or George Floyd’s? That’s the choice facing America’s Christians
• White Christians and Racial Justice: Prioritizing Christian Ethics Over Political and Media Alliances

I understand it appears somewhat off-topic for this blog (although it really isn’t), but I was asked to make it sharable on Facebook which is why I have posted it here.

Thank you for indulging me. —Steve

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I never wanted to be the guy who keeps stirring the pot, but I feel convicted that some things must be said in light of recent conversations. If this offends any of you, please ask yourself why and do some honest soul searching before simply posting about how bad the other side is.

Also, please note that I have never once voted Democrat in my life, so I am not an outsider here. I am a white Christian male who leans slightly right of center. But I also feel strongly that we must be willing to look at ourselves and seek to be the best examples of Christ to the world that we can.

Oh boy. Here we go.

If there’s one thing that keeps coming up as the conversation ending bomb in these discourses I’ve been trying to have here about race, politics, and Christianity, it’s the abortion comment.

Never mind I never once mentioned abortion. I’ve simply been trying to encourage my Christian brothers and sisters to recognize:

1. Systemic racism does exist and as a church it should matter to us, and
2. There is a lot of damage that has been done to the church and our witness by aligning 100% with a certain party rather than prayerfully questioning that party’s actions on a case-by-case basis and publicly speaking out when those actions are decidedly non-Christian instead of justifying them.

None-the-less, nothing shuts down the conversation faster than pointing out how “the other side kills babies.” Once that is said, the discussion ends because “who in their right mind could do such a thing?” It’s a great way to avoid ever having to shine a light back on ourselves (which is all I’ve ever asked anyone to consider doing).

Yes, abortion is bad. There is simply no way to deny that if you’re looking at it from a Biblical perspective. That is why I am pro-life. (Those of you made accusations or assumptions that I consider “baby killing” less grievous than a few “personality flaws” of our current president are probably surprised to hear that.)

Again, don’t miss this: I am very much pro-life. However, let’s unpack what it means to be truly pro-life in a Biblical sense.

Pro-life means you hold EVERY life as sacred, and you recognize that EVERY life is made in the image of God.

Which absolutely means unborn babies.

But it also means: Black lives, refugee lives, poor lives, female lives, LGBT+ lives, Christian lives, Muslim lives, felon lives, homeless lives, addict lives, republican lives, democrat lives, libertarian lives, Trump lives, Biden lives, and let’s not forget: the lives of parents who have chosen or are considering abortion.

It even means the lives of folks who are pro-choice.

And yes, white lives are not excluded here either.

To be biblically pro-life means to recognize that God loves and values EVERYONE, and we need to do the same.

And in a lot of ways, as Conservative Evangelicals in America, we have not.

• Separating children from their families at the border is NOT pro-life… and it grieves Jesus.
• Systemic racism, rampant killing of unarmed black men and women, and white supremacy is NOT pro-life… and it grieves Jesus.
• Our prison and justice system that focuses on separation and isolation rather than restoration is NOT pro-life… and it grieves Jesus.
• Shaming mothers for choosing to have an abortion is NOT pro-life… and it grieves Jesus.
• Sexually assaulting and abusing women is NOT pro-life… and it grieves Jesus.

Based on that definition and these examples, labeling one party as pro-life and the other as not suddenly gets a lot muddier.

So back to ending abortion…

Actually, let me first tell you a story about my personal history with drug addiction.

For years I was told “Don’t do drugs.” Did that work? No.

Drugs were made illegal. Did that stop me from doing them? No.

I tried to pull myself up by my bootstraps and overcome my addiction through self-effort. Did that work? No.

Heck, I even tried to “pray it away.” Did that work? No.

So what did work?

Support. Community. Love. Respect. Empathy.

When I finally found a community that didn’t shame me or condemn me for my addiction but loved me in spite of it, offered me the support and resources to find a way out, and made sure I wasn’t abandoned in the process no matter how difficult I was being – that’s how I found freedom.

And that’s all called Grace. It’s what God gives to us, and we are called to give to others. It’s the tangible part of Christianity that actually leads to changed lives. It’s the tangible part of Christianity that enables us to love others in a way that draws them to Jesus rather than pushing them away from Him.

And it’s the only approach that can actually put a lasting end to abortion.

To simply make abortion illegal but offer no support or resources for those who would now be having babies they feel incapable of raising is not going to solve the issue. It will only create a different set of issues that will not lead to the flourishing of life, but to the opposite.

If we want to stop abortions from happening, then we must support ALL lives – especially the lives of those who are statistically most likely to have the abortions.

• We must create a society where the factors that lead to the majority of abortions are eliminated.
• We must support impoverished mothers who fear they can’t take care of a baby.
• We must find ways to empower adoption services so it isn’t cost prohibitive for people to provide homes for these babies.
• We must pour money into drug treatment programs rather than throwing parents into prisons and creating more single-parent families.
• We must let expecting mothers know that the church is a welcome refuge full of support, community, and love for both her and her baby, and that she isn’t alone.

Support. Community. Love. Respect. Empathy.

Again, the party lines here are no longer so clear. Both sides are doing good work, and both sides have work to do.

You want to truly end abortion? It’s going to take a lot more than just making it illegal.

It’s going to take us as a country loving and supporting ALL lives so well that abortion is no longer necessary.

Only then will we succeed at reducing, and hopefully ending, abortion.

This is why I don’t believe you can say the only option for a Christian is to vote as a “single-issue voter,” or that one party is for Christian values and the other is against it.

It’s just not that simple.

It rarely is.