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Obama and Infanticide: it doesn’t matter

Chicago, IL

By A.B. Dada

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A close Christian family friend emailed me a link just before the weekend.  The basis for the article is yet one more Christoconservative reason not to vote for Barack Obama: his possible support against the so-called “Born Alive” bills.

The idea behind the “Born Alive” bill is that babies that are alive after a late-term abortion should be considered alive and (in the words of the pro-abortion supporters) not allowed to expire.  The bills that Obama supposedly was against would give government mandate to keeping a child alive if it an attempted abortion leaves the baby alive after removal from the mother.

While I have no particular opinion on Obama’s position, and whether or not he supports Born Alive legislation or not, I do not see a single Christian reason to use his (or anyone else’s) position on abortion to decide who to vote for.

Abortion, to me, is not a moral act, but it is something that also is not a forced act.  No one is going to a mother, and against her will telling her to terminate her pregnancy.  It is a decision made by the mother, and its direct effect is on both the mother and the fetus, and no one else.  That’s an important consideration for Christians to make.

Even the Bible offers an interesting rebuke of the anti-abortion wing of Christiandom, in Exodus 21:22:

22 “Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process they accidentally strike a pregnant woman so she has a miscarriage.  If no further injury results, the man who struck the woman must pay the amount of compensation the woman’s husband demands and the judges approve.

In this situation, we see that a man forcing a woman to miscarry (”abort”) is charged with a civil penalty, not a criminal one.  The Book of Exodus is the only place that is clear regarding the “murder” of a fetus: it is not a criminal penalty as one would have with murder, but a civil one.  Of course most Christians understand that the Book of Exodus was based on the Old Covenant with the Jews, and may not matter much today, but the fact that we have no real New Testament support or detraction from God’s old policy leads me to believe that the matter is fairly clear: the killing of a fetus is a civil issue, not a criminal one.  This does not mean that I support abortion, it just means that I disagree vehemently with the vast majority of Christians who use it as a political process rather than a personal-moral issue.

If a woman makes a decision that harms another person, that decision is solely her burden to deal with.  Christians, as a whole, would be much less abrasive if they advocated adoption of unwanted children rather than aggressing against abortion without knowing the specifics of the reason why a mother has decided to terminate a pregnancy.  It isn’t my place to judge a mother’s decision, and that is a Biblical position regardless of doctrine.

But let’s work beyond Barack Obama’s possible failure to support a bill that “guarantees” the life of an attempted aborted fetus/child.  In that case, Christians want government to go out and force a moral decision on another person.  That, to me, is reprehensible, but not as reprehensible as what my Christian friends would rather support: John McCain.

McCain is an enemy of Christianity, as much or maybe even more so than George W. Bush was.  Unlike the abortion issue, where we have no further clarification by God through the New Testament books, we DO have something that guarantees judgment of an evil, criminal, anti-God act that McCain and Bush and the rest of the majority of the conservatives support: murder of others.

Christian Conservatives have a great error in judgment to apologize for: to the world, to non-conservatives, and to paleoconservatives.  Their support of a dictator and murderer is the only thing I will generally speak to my conservative friends about.  I no longer want to hear about who to vote for, what policies are good or bad, or what they’re doing for Labor Day.  It’s not important.  The support of murder, criminal and ungodly, is a primary concern for modern day conservatives.  And we have Jesus’ own words against this support, in Matthew 5:9:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God”

It’s quite simple.  The sons of God are the peacemakers.  There’s no denying Christ said this, and meant it, and we are to stick with it if we want to be the sons of God.  This very line is why I tell my Christian friends in the military to desert their post and run for Canada.  This very line is why I tell my Christian friends that I will never be a part of the mainstream Christian movement, which is enamored with mass murder of both foreigners and citizens.  This is why I can not understand why a Christian would say no to Obama but yes to McCain: one seemingly supports the immoral (in my mind) decision of a person to murder their child versus the other person who wishes to command individuals to murder other individuals.

Let’s recap:

Obama: Might possibly support not criminalizing one person (a mother) from taking the possible life of another (fetus/child), but is not forcing anyone to do it.

McCain: Definitely supports forcing one person (a soldier) to take the life of others, possibly and quite often an innocent, regardless of the act that the other person may have done.  That, my friends, is murder.  That is why I would never in my life consider voting YES for McCain or anyone who supports military intervention anywhere in the world.  They are supporters of the act of murder, and I will not tie my name to that act.

I also won’t vote for Obama.  Obama, no matter what Democrat supporters say, is just as big of a warmonger as McCain is.  They both will escalate the use of U.S. troops to other countries in the world.  They both will push for larger “defense” budgets, and both will be doing so by destroying your savings and your income.  Neither of them are peacemakers, they both are warmongers and supporters of the act of murder and the atrocities of war.

I will have nothing to do with either.  Yet I also will not castigate Obama for refusing to add yet another crime to the lawbooks.  We have enough laws that do nothing, protect no one, and only restrict the freedoms of peaceful, moral individuals.  That’s the reality.  In fact, I would probably support Obama’s decision not to vote for yet another useless law, only because it prevented more laws from being added to the overwhelming record of laws that no one can follow or understand.  But my support for the man ends there.  The primary reason I can’t support either candidate is their warmongering, support for murder of innocents, and desire to control the world through the means of force instead of the means of love, as Jesus proclaimed was the number one goal for all Christians.

So rebuke McCain, Christians.  Rebuke yourselves if you voted for Bush.  Rebuke your friends and family in the military and tell them to go AWOL tomorrow.  After you’ve done that, I will happily listen to your reasons why I shouldn’t support either candidate.  I’m sure there are many, and I’ve made it easier for you: I’m voting for neither.