Trust Christ. Not The State.

The question is often asked: "Should Christians support a constitutional amendment that bans abortion?" I am not against the banning of abortion, but I am against giving the Federal Government the power to decide matters of life and death.

As a Christian, I am adamantly opposed to abortion. I believe that abortion should be called what it is - it is murder. Calling it something else does not change this reality. Life begins at conception. Once the new human life attaches to the uterus, in about a week after conception, its physical form begins to develop. But even before this physical development begins, from the moment fertilization takes place, the child’s genetic makeup - gender, eye and skin color, etc. - is already complete. To read the statements of scientists and physicians that testified to a US Senate committee that human life begins at conception, go here.

The states already have a law against abortion which makes it illegal. It is the prohibition of murder. We Christians should have nothing to do with supporting any law that gives the slightest impression that these are two separate issues instead of one. Not that I am holding the individual states up as beacons of morality. I am leery of even state governments when it comes to criminal law. There are people that are incarcerated that should not be, and people that should be dealt with more severely that receive lenient treatment from the State. Just because something is a sin does not mean it should be criminalized, unless it is unjust violence against someone's person or property (destruction of life in the womb falls into this category). If all people that have made sinful choices were incarcerated, everyone would be in prison. The public school system, for example, brings the youth of America together and creates the atmosphere and culture that leads them to commit all kinds of sins, and we wonder why they make some of the choices they do. Of course, murder, rape, and robbery should be punished because they are violent and unjust uses of force against a human being, but the state governments go way beyond these, plus they are inconsistent in their laws, the enforcement of those laws, and the punishment for those laws. The vileness that occurs in public schools, prisons, streets, and the military is largely the result of bad government.

To treat abortion as anything other than murder is in and of itself immoral, and those who support a constitutional amendment to aid in this mischaracterization may mean well, but they are misguided. Why? The State, in this example the Federal Government, should not get to define for us what life is, what marriage is, or what anything else is in the realm of morality, because it is not concerned with morality to begin with. What good would a constitutional amendment do when it comes to abortion anyway? The federal government prohibits drugs. What good has that done? All that would be accomplished is a devaluing of human life, through a redefinition of what constitutes human life, since it would be creating a separate law from the one we already have about the unjust killing of another human being.

When the State begins to tell us what constitutes marriage, what constitutes life, and what constitutes crime (beyond the unjust use of force against a person or his property), they are gaining more and more control over people's lives. What will persuade someone not to kill her unborn child? A law that makes it about a personal choice rather than the murder of a human being? Or calling it what it is and seeking to persuade her to "choose life" because we are all accountable to the Lord of life? As I said in another post, when you feed the wolves and they get fat on the blood of others, do not be surprised when they turn on you next. The people who are the arms and legs of the State do not seem to be able to stop themselves from taking more control of our lives and thinking they know what is best for all of us. Today, you may support a constitutional amendment that bans actions you consider to be a sin, but you may be inadvertently becoming part of the problem as you are supporting the notion that abortion is something to be considered separately from murder. You are helping to redefine the issue. Also, you may support a constitutional amendment that bans behavior you do not agree with, but remember, tomorrow the tables may turn on you. Actions you consider to be righteous may be criminalized, and the leviathan that you helped to create may devour you next.

Christians should be preaching the holiness and mercy of Christ instead of supporting more government coercion and manipulation. Government is not the friend of Christians. Trust Christ. Not the state.