Abortion and the GOP
Let’s get right to the heart of what I feel is wrong with my Republican Party. The over-simplification of the problem is the Radical Religious Right. They have hi-jacked the party, and the party assumes that their voice is the voice of us all. (I say it is an over-simplification because there are so many other factors that play into it, but for simplicity’s sake and this blog post, I’ll just state that those other factors use the RRR as an unknowing tool.)
Ever since Roe vs Wade I’ve based my vote, from the local level to presidential, on one thing, and one thing only. Abortion. As I am very strongly pro-life, if a candidate stated he or she was pro-life, they got my vote. Period. I am a strong Christian, and believe that life begins at conception. I also believe that abortion is a sin and morally wrong. That is a tenant of my faith, and one I absolutely believe in.
A couple of years ago, I realized that Roe vs Wade is the law of the land, and will not be reversed. We had seven conservative appointed Supreme Court Justices sitting, and nothing changed at all. As I realized and came to accept this, my criteria changed. I began to look at the whole candidate before casting my vote. I am no longer a one issue voter. The GOP continued to use the promise of “conservative, pro-life judges” to buy our vote, but that promise would be forgotten until the next election cycle.
After this, I began to really think it through to a logical conclusion and had what was, for me, an astounding revelation. Using the office of President as an example, the POTUS is president of Americans of all faiths, and those of no faith at all. No religion should determine government policy and law. Our forefathers were very wise in seeing this, knowing the dangers it could portend. Being a nation of diverse faiths, if we didn’t have this separation, who would decide which religion should determine law? Being a majority Christian nation, some may say that the Christian faith, as the majority, should hold that power. But which Christian faith? Or what if another religion should become the majority, should their religion rule? This sounds a lot like many Islamic countries to me, where politics and power are determined by which segment of the religion can gain power.
So, as a pro-life Christian, I no longer believe that any religious views should determine government rulings and law, not even mine. Let the decision and judgment be between a woman and her God, where it belongs. As my daddy used to say, “You can’t legislate morality”. The RRR wants the tenents of the Christian faith to be law. They make a lot of noise and get a huge amount of press. The Republican Party needs to realize that not all Republicans, and not all Christians, think this is a good way to run a nation.
It amazes me that as much as they take the First Amendment protection of free expression of religion for granted, that so many Christians don’t realize why it also forbids the government from giving Christianity special privileges. I’ve heard Christians express gratitude that they’re free to practice their beliefs, but where’s the gratitude that the Constitution also protects them from tyranny by one “standard” of Christian doctrine?
Although I’m big on this First Amendment protection, I must say that I don’t see the point of nuking any hint of religion from all things that government touches. I can’t really put together a good argument for that position, except that it’ll just harden both sides of that issue against one another. In particular, it sets up a “slippery slope” in the minds of many right-leaning Christians, that “first it’s prayer in schools, next they’ll come after the churches”.
I think that the divorcing of religious traditionalism and political chess games will go a long way towards closing this rift, but it will probably be generations before atheists/agnostics and Christians as political groups cease this cold war.
I agree with you totally, magus. A good argument for that position is “common sense”.
George Washington himself addressed this to an extent in his Farewell Address. One of the things he said is:
Oops…I didn’t add my quote from G Washington…
“Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness”
I would agree that no one should be a one issue voter and I would agree that the Republicans have taken advantage of the pro life vote over the years by using them to win elections and then not really helping advance their cause once in office.
I disagree with the idea that Roe V Wade is settled and could not be reversed. This was perhaps the main reason why I could not support Obama for president. We have every reason to believe his picks for the judiciary will be extremely pro abortion. McCain made a campaign promise to only pick pro life justices and I took him at his word. Two or maybe even one more pro life Supreme Court justice and Roe V Wade would be history.
Obama promised to sign FOCA on his first day in office. I know that FOCA has no chance of ever reaching the President’s desk and most people even in the pro life movement know this but they still used it as a bogeyman against Obama and that was probably wrong.
However, Obama said he would sign it and I couldn’t in good conscious vote for anyone who would even give lip service to such a horrible bill as FOCA.
I’m not saying I could never support a pro choice candidate. The idea that abortion should be legal in the first trimester is logical although I disagree with it. Someone who supported that position but who I agreed with on most other issues, I would have no trouble voting for.
I don’t think that being “pro-life” is necessarily a Christian only position, I think that one can be against abortion, against the destruction of children in the womb, without necessarily being religious.
And I must disagree very strongly with your daddy if he says that “you can’t legislate morality”. Almost all legislation is based in morality, from worker protections to minimum wage laws to homicide and manslaughter and liability laws.
Just because the morality doesn’t come directly from the Bible or the Torah or the Koran doesn’t make it any less moral.
That being said, I don’t think that I’ve ever been a single issue voter. However, given two candidates who are the same in almost every other measure, I would almost certainly vote for the pro-life candidate.
I guess one thing that I want to add is this: Roe vs. Wade may be the “law of the land”, but that doesn’t mean that we should stop trying to overturn this poorly-reasoned decision.
However, it’s not the only thing, and I agree with you on that. There are many other important considerations to make when choosing a candidate.
Tin, I agree with you totally that morality isn’t the exclusive property of religion, and that most laws are based on a moral code. I guess that was a big part of my point. The far religious right has claimed to be the final and only voice of morality, and it’s just not true. My daddy’s point about legislating morality was in the context of religion injecting itself into government. It’s always a slippery slope.
So I think we are really on the same page here. Although I would like to see abortion become illegal, I don’t think that will happen until, or if, science can ever determine when life begins. For me, it begins at conception..but I cannot prove that any more than others can disprove it.
Heh — that phrase always bugged me. Maybe they should say “you can’t legislate religion.”
But that’s pretty obvious on the face of it given the First Amendment, right? Or one would think anyway.
Our party has no interest in ending abortion any more than the Democrats do. They are just honest about it. The Republicans use it to hold the far Right hostage and to demonize the left.
I’m 100% pro life, but I want abortion to end because people come to a personal spiritual understanding that it is the taking of human life not because their government forbids it.
From a political viewpoint, Roe V Wade is wrong because it takes away a matter that should be up to the individual states per the 10th Amendment.
As Republicans we should be in favor of a traditional and literal interpretation of the Constitution
IM A DEM - and i cant type. READ ANYway-
The BIBLICAL WRITINGS talk about the hall of souls where they wait. to be given at the moment of birth. SCIENCE SAYS LIFE IS VIABLE BEFORE THEN.
(See how reality differs from what the power brokers say yet again?)
ABORTION IS a next to the last option. IGNORANCE should be the last. The far right is teaching ignorance is bliss. the first option how well do youhtinkthats going to work out/ ( See the Palin’s.)
Teach your children about birth control and family values. Lets deal with Reality . In biblical times women were married at their first sign of bleeding. if you couldn’t hold out against sex that long ,well…
All things need updating to deal in reality. Not fantasy of the past. we dont live it and the rules dont apply.
ABORTION IS A BAD LAST OPTION
WAR IS A BAD LAST OPTION
HOWEVER both are sometimes, rarely necessary options to take to maintain the delicate balance of good and harm.
MAYBE WAHT WE NEED IS SOME SANE PEOPLE TO PUBLICLY DEBATE THESE ISSUES and how to best resolve?
(FAR RIGHT AND FAR LEFT NOT WELCOME)
I find it hard to see abortion as a biblical issue since it was never discussed at all in either the new testament or the old testament. Abortion was invented 300 years before Jesus was born and was a common practice during his time. The law under Ceasar was similar to what it is now, it was illegal to get a late-term abortion, they only used different methods to determine where a woman was at in her pregnancy. For something that has become such a hot button issue, why was it never discussed in the bible? Why didn’t Jesus weigh in on abortion as it was happening all around him, if he would have been so deathly against it?
So what about other forms of murder, then? Should these be left to a person and their God as well? Killing an unborn child is murder, in the same way that killing any other person is murder. Is there a religion on earth that disputes that murder is wrong?
I, too consider myself a Christian, but you will never hear from my lips that “Roe V Wade is the law of the land” because it is not a law at all. It is an opinion. It summarily states that murder of children not born cannot be regulated because of issues of privacy. This does not mean that abortion is legal, only that justice for this kind of murder will need to be carried out by a Higher authority.