Why So Many Christians Vote Pro-Life

Here's an article that I submitted to a local Christian Newspaper with slight changes.  It's to address the effort to water down the importance of the pro-life Christian vote.

Years of polling show that Christians are decidedly pro-life and that their pro-life convictions have a powerful impact on elections.

That impact explains the continuing efforts to water down the importance of abortion to make it just one issue among many for Christians. If abortion becomes just one issue among others, it makes it easier to support candidates who are not pro-life but agree with pro-life Christians on other important issues.

There are many pressing issues Christians are concerned about, but it's not hard to understand why abortion is the leading, if not single, issue for so many.

Why are so many Christians pro-life?

1. The Unborn Is Our Neighbor. Ultrasound and intra-uterine photography leave no doubt what the unborn is. The unborn is one of us- a someone, not a something; a unique, complete, tiny human who fully shares our humanity. The unborn's self-evident humanity makes him our neighbor, and Christians are fulfilling the great commandment when they love their unborn neighbors as themselves. When they advocate for their protection, they are fulfilling the Golden Rule.

2. Abortion arguments are offensive because they make the right to life and the value of human beings conditional upon the possession or exercise of certain characteristics. Humans who do not immediately possess these arbitrary criteria are regarded as human non persons and expendable.

But Christians are told that humans have a nature. They are created in God's image. Our status as bearers of God's infinite nature is not conditional; it is not earned, and it is not achieved. It is inherent and belongs to us from the moment of our conception.

Abortion arguments are offensive because the arbitrariness of those arguments undermines universal human rights. Which characteristics determine who has rights and value and who does not? To what degree must we possess these unfair and arbitrary measures? And who gets to decide what these characteristics are and the degree to which we must possess them? God is God, we are not.

Christians are also opposed to the arbitrary abortion arguments because the Bible warns them against partiality and favoritism.

3. Christians have a special love for and obligation to the weak. The Bible is filled with exhortations to help, love and provide protections for the weak.

The unborn is the weakest member of our society. And just as Christians are moved to help the weak, the unborn's exceptional helplessness moves them to protect her with greater urgency. The unborn's weakness doesn't make her expendable. It requires special love and protection. Jesus says that Christians are loving and serving Him when they love and serve the weakest among them. When Christians love and defend the unborn, they believe they are loving and serving Jesus.

4. Christians are moved by the deep wounds and alienation that burden women and men who have participated in abortion. Christians are moved to help women in crisis and see women and men be healed and released from the pains that come from abortion. That's why there are over 3000 Crisis Pregnancy Centers with post abortion ministries run in large part by Christians.

5. Abortion has a wide and destructive impact on America. Christians are keenly aware that when any humans become expendable, the rest of us become negotiable. Abortion has not only taken 50 million innocent lives and wounded millions of women and men, it has led to a coarsening and disregard for human life.

These are just some reasons why many Christians are so pro-life and why abortion is their fundamental political voting issue and not just one issue among many.

Post script. This does not intend or pretend to speak for all Christians, define Christian beliefs on abortion or question the faith of Christians who support abortion or vote for those who do. That's why the words "so many" are used. Nor does it mean that every pro-lifer is or has to be a Christian. Many of these principles are self-evident and being a Christian is not necessary to hold them. The above addresses the attempt to water down the Christian pro-life vote and explains why so many Christians vote pro-life.