La Shawn Barber addresses an issue that raised its ugly head in my life this weekend. During a political discussion, a friend of mine expressed some doubt about how involved a Christian’s values ought to be in their public service, considering the secular nature of our government and society. Until I did some thinking about this issue, I too felt that if Christians went into public service, they should have to leave their religious beliefs at the door. No more, though.

Specifically, the discussion topic was a letter by Alaska’s senator, Lisa Murkowski, the Republican incumbent (who was appointed by her father, the governor, when he vacated that senate seat) and her weak (spineless) stance on abortion.

In a July 29, 2004 letter to her constituency, Lisa wrote:

On the issue of life I am personally opposed to the practice of abortion…as a personal matter, I believe that all life is sacred. The truth is, however, that as a public official in a secular society, I have sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the laws of both this nation and the State of Alaska. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the U. S. Constitution recognizes abortion, and the Alaska Constitution provides the same. Neither Congress nor any Senate candidate can change this, regardless of what they tell you. This decision lies solely with the U. S. Supreme Court.

(emphasis mine)

My response to my friend was a firm “Huh? Whoa, wait up!” I offered up the fact that the Supreme Court once ruled slavery to be legal, but today no one in their right mind would buy an argument like that about slavery. What’s wrong is wrong and the Supreme Court cannot change that. When the Supreme Court ruled that slavery was constitutional, they were wrong. When they ruled that butchering a child in her mother’s womb was constitutional, they were wrong. “Because the Supreme Court said so,” is not a valid argument for abandoning your supposed morals and ethics.

As Christians we must defend those who cannot defend themselves. If we don’t shine the light of Christ into this dark world, including into our government though legislation, the darkness will overcome.

At one point I heard and believed the argument that we can’t legislate morality. Yes we can. We legislate it all the time. It’s just when we try to preserve society by keeping people from indulging in their own selfish ambitions in our “me first,” secular humanist society that we hear protests. Stealing is illegal. That’s a moral issue. Murder (outside the womb) is illegal. Another moral issue. Lying is illegal. There we go again! Child abuse is illegal. It goes on and on. Why is banning abortion suddenly forcing my morality on someone else? Because somewhere along the line God’s word lost its authority in our society, children lost their personhood and women began to see killing their children as a right.

We cringe at the idea of child sacrifice, but at least ancient cultures sacrificed children to a god they feared. We sacrifice them on the alter of convenience and selfishness.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 1st, 2004 at 9:13 am and is filed under Life, Politics, Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.