Rant on Respect For Life Issues
I've about had it with "Christians" and their alliances with bi-partisan politics.
Barack Obama is going to speak at Saddleback Church soon. The issue is the AIDS epidemic.
Evangelicals are up in arms because he is a Democract, and they (whether they admit it or not) are joined at the hip with the Republican Party. They claim he is evil because he is on the wrong side of the abortion issue, for example.
If I fault Warren for hosting Obama it is not because the man is on the "correct side" (on issues such as AIDS) or the "wrong side" (on issues such as abortion). If I fault Warren for anything it is for allowing a potential presidential candidate (of any particular political stripe) to use the spotlight of the megachurch since doing so is extremely powerful in this culture.
However, this rant of mine is not really inspired by a desire to criticize Warren. I'm more interested in criticizing gullible Christians (of which I am one, though not as guilable as I once was, and hopefully, more Christian than I once was).
So here goes:
AIDS is soon to be the third largest killer of humans on this planet, taking millions of lives each year. And many (if not most) of those who die from it did not indulge in homosexual actions in order to contract the disease. And even if they did, that doesn't mean we can turn a blind eye because of our supposed "moral superiority."
I've been saying for years that anybody who claims to be pro-life on the abortion issue but could care less about the sick state of our environment is taking an inconsistent position. The two issues are inseparable. If you really are inspired by the Biblical creation account, then you have no choice but to be horrified by abortion AND environmental abuse. They are inseparable pro-life issues. And, I'm beginning to see that the AIDS epidemic, killing millions each year around the world, is the third major "pro-life" issue. If we Christians don't get very involved in dealing with it, then we are at best inconsistent, and at worst hypocritical.
Abortion, the environment, and AIDS are three life issues that are inseparable and very important to us. And if we cannot find a political party that is on the "correct side" on all three issues (and as far as I know, there is none), then we should abandon allegiances with political parties, get enough courage to be ostracized by the culture for not buying into the two-party political system, and join up with the cause of the kingdom of God instead of selling out to the democrats or the republicans.
That's how I feel, sorry if it offends.
(the irony of my opinoin is that it is probably offensive to most people in both worlds in which I am involved: the evangelical church, and the law school community)
2 Comments:
“join up with the cause of the kingdom of God instead of selling out to the democrats or the republicans” - that is it. I see too many Christians following the political emails, leaders and issues path more passionately than our King. I'm not sure he wants us to even be involved in such silly things.
The thing is, evangelicals aren't the only naive people out there. While its easy to bash them, I think the same holds true for everybody else as well. For example, Malaria, a totally preventable disease, kills 1-3 million people each year (last year AIDS killed just over three million according to one estimate). Of course, most of these people are in Sub-Saharan Africa and since they're far away and face a disease that we don't have to worry about contracting (unlike AIDS) it just doesn't seem to bother us that a disease that is killing as many people as AIDS, which is completely preventable, is around. Whence the fanfare for Malaria? When is "World Malaria Day?" I guess if the US and Europe have eradicated a deadly disease from threatening their populations-it really doesn't matter. So, in short, I basically agree with your point that evangelicals who claim to be against abortion b/c they are "pro-life" are hypocritical if they don't support efforts to eradicate AIDS, but I think most of the lefty people who push the importance of "World Aids Day" w/o being bothered by the fact that a preventable disease kills just as many people as AIDS are just as hypocritical as evangelicals.
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