Defend the cause of the voiceless…

 Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the following day will be an historic inuaguration, the inauguration of President-Elect Barrack Obama.  As many political commentators have already pointed out, the symbolism of the event will be striking.  Just a day after honoring MLK, we will be welcoming as our commander-in-chief the first African-American president whose political hero and role model has been Abraham Lincoln, the great liberator of the slaves.  It will no doubt be a sight to see.  

One of the major reasons cited for Obama’s victory in 2008 was his stated concern for changing injustices here in the United States and around the world.  We’ll see how he and his administration seek to do this, but what is incredibly striking to me is the absolute lack of talk of fixing the injustice of the widespread murder of (unborn) children here in the United States.  In fact, even as he talks about working against injustice around the world, he seems to be working for this particular injustice through his positions on abortion.  (See Obama on Abortion.)

What is more striking and alarming to me is that many Christians seem to have abandoned fighting for the unborn in order to carry the torch for the global poor and other injustices.  On the one hand, I give thanks that these global issues are becoming increasingly important for the Christian church; however, on the other hand, many are blatantly seeking to remove the speck out of the nations’ eyes while we in the United States continue to stumble about with the plank of abortion in our own eye.  

There are numerous Bible passages that call us to care for the weak – whether they be poor, widowed, fatherless, or voiceless.  A nation and a church is marked by how well it cares for its weakest members.  This was the sin of church in the 18th and 19th centuries in helping defend the enslaving of thousands of black people; this was the sin of the 20th century church in helping perpetuate systems that intentionally kept African-Americans down in society; the sin of the 21st century church will be to not care for the weakest, most vulnerable members of our society – the unborn children!  My pastor recently quoted Jim Wallis, from Sojourners, stating that we ought to care for the “poor not because they are more honorable, but because they are more vulnerable.”  I think the logic then ought to go to defend the MOST vulnerable – the unborn children.

Michael Gerson, a wise political commentator at the Washington Post, wrote a very nice piece showing the apparent incompatibility of the Democrat’s s0-called concern for the weakest members of our society and their their strident support of pro-choice polices.  Let me quote an excerpt:

“Abortion is an unavoidable moral issue. It also has broader political significance. Democrats of a past generation — the generation of Hubert Humphrey and Martin Luther King Jr. – spoke about building a beloved community that cared especially for the elderly, the weak, the disadvantaged and the young.

The advance of pro-choice policies imported a different ideology into the Democratic Party — the absolute triumph of individualism. The rights and choices of adults have become paramount, even at the expense of other, voiceless members of the community.”

Obama ran on the strong promise:  ”Change we can believe in.”  I say let’s see the change.  Let it be that the Democratic Party no longer defends the status quo of Roe v. Wade and the flippant culture of abortion that it promotes.  Let it be that a Democratic president with an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress truly does seek to change.  Let it be that we CHANGE our nation’s position on abortion.  

That’s “change I can believe in!”

Culture-creators

Tucked away and often skipped are a few verses from the opening chapters of Genesis that give an early indication of how the cultural mandate (Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…) was being fulfilled.  Notice all the italicized sections (emphasis added):

Gen. 4:17-22 (ESV) Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.  To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech.  And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.  Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.  His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.  Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.

Already, only a few chapters into Genesis and we see the birth of culture (albeit from a murdering brother).  Cain the city-builder, Jabal the farmer, Jubal the musician, and Tubal-cain the metal-worker.

Liberalism: Defending the status quo?

Last week American Christianity lost a great leader, thinker, writer, and activist in Richard John Neuhaus.  (See Michael Gerson’s “Apostle of Life” for a summary of his life and work.)  After reading Gerson’s reflections on Neuhaus’s life, I was drawn to First Things - an online journal on religion, culture, and public life – where I read one of Neuhaus’s articles (published just this month). 

In his article, “The Pro-Life Movement at the Politics of the 1960s“, Neuhaus describes how ironic it is that the Left has abandoned their aims and objectives that they once held so dear during the 1960s.  Instead, Neuhaus points out, the Left has become a “conservative” movement defending the status quo of pro-abortion.  It is the Pro-Life movement that is the progressive movement chalenging the system and the established media in order to protect the rights of the society’s weakest members – the unborn.

It’s a fascinating read that highlights the intellectual sinking sand that pro-abortion folks seek to build their arguments.  The “intellectuals” who argue in favor of abortion admit that there is NO logical way to define when a “fetus” decidedly becomes a person.  (Some pro-abortion “intellectuals” are even as honest to say that their logic DOES lead to the conclusion that it would be okay to kill a newborn “fetus” !?!)

As we approach yet another anniversary of Roe v. Wade it is high time that our talk of social justice includes defending the cause of the helpless of the helpless – the unborn!

“reality is iconoclastic”

I recently showed Shadowlands (the true story of C.S. Lewis and his wife Joy – a MUST watch) to my students which caused me to read Lewis’s A Grief Observed – his reflections on pain and suffering.  Within the context of mourning the loss of a loved one, Lewis discusses our view of God.  He says that just as our “image” or perception of someone is always changing, so our image of God is always changing.  Let me quote at length:

Images, I must suppose, have their use or they would not have been so popular. (It makes little difference whether they are pictures and statues outside the mind or imaginative constructions within it.) To me, however, their danger is more obvious.  Images of the Holy easily become holy images – sacrosanct.  My idea of God is not a divine idea.  It has to be shattered time after time.  He shatters it Himself.  He is the great iconoclast.  Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence?  The Incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins.  And most are ‘offended’ by the iconoclasm; and blessed are those who are not.  But the same thing happens in our private prayers.

All reality is iconoclastic.  (Lewis, A Grief Observed, page 52)

“Reality is iconoclastic.”  Reality tears down our constructed images (icons) and ideas about God.  Just when we think we have God nailed down He acts, He surprises, He is.  The danger is that we begin to worship our idea of God rather than the Living God Himself; we exalt our theology (words about God) over the Theo Logos (God-Word, John 1).

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…” (Exodus 20:4,5).  God forbids our bowing down to our own theologies and ideas of God; he requires that we worship Him – the true Living God, the great I AM.