The United States of Abortion

I thought long and hard about writing this post. Why? Simply because I rarely write about the issue of abortion per se, and have preferred to keep my conversations around the topic to euphemisms about “human flourishing” and “anthropological ethics”.

But, in light of my observation that the Democrats convention was almost gleeful about abortion, and the pushback I received from Christians who, while never permit a Republican voter one inch when explaining how they can put a firewall between their view of Trump’s character and their intention to still vote for him, I feel I must write about it.

And to such types who excoriate the “Never never-Trumpers” as lacking in moral fibre, I say “Right back at ya!”

Simply put, it seems that those who dismiss as unethical, those Republicans who, despite their disdain for Trump will tick that particular box, are much more relaxed about themselves voting for the Democrats despite their personal disdain of abortion.

At least I hope that it’s the case. I hope that it’s the case that well-thought out Christians who lean towards the Democrats are doing so in spite of their horror at the glee at which Kamala and Tim (it sounds so cuddly and vibey, doesn’t it?) seem to promote abortion. I hope they realise how hypocritical they are in refusing the hall-pass to Trumpists, yet storing one for themselves in their back pocket to be pulled out on election day.

Because, if that’s not the case, if that self-awareness is not there, then  the alternative is much more troubling than that. The alternative is that many now consider that abortion to be of little consequence.

Yet consider this: Today’s abortion conversation is not the same one we had back in the day. Back in the day of the “It’s just a clump of cells” explanation in 1970s primary school sex-ed classes. We’ve moved a long way since then baby. (Too soon?)

How much have things changed?  Tim Walz – in his role as Minnesota Governor – actively opposed (successfully as it happens) any legislation that would grant human rights to late-term aborted babies who somehow managed to survive the procedure.

Yet even to publicly mention that the Democrats seem to be gleeful about abortion, produces a string of “Is that all you’ve got?” comments from erstwhile earnest and self-aware Christians on my Facebook feed. That, and the usual, “Trump’s worse” comments. And perhaps he is.

I kinda want to hear “Yes it’s terrible, but I’m gonna hold my nose and vote for them anyways.” comments. But I don’t.

Perhaps that simply because to say that would expose the hypocrisy I mentioned above – the hypocrisy  of those who want that hall-pass for themselves, but never for the other side, when it comes to the ethics of a candidate.

Yet, troublingly, I’m not hearing this level of internal conflict. I’m not hearing Christians say it’s terrible, it riles me up, but I’m gonna vote Democrat anyway for the sake of the bigger picture. And of course, I do believe there is more to the issue than abortion.

But at least don’t spirit it away as a non-issue! Vote for the Harris/Walz and lament it, just as many Republicans will vote Trump/Vance and lament it.

Yet I’m hearing too many people being blasé about abortion in this campaign, as if it is not a monstrous evil. Which makes it much, much worse.

I want to hear the conflict in Democrat-leaning Christians on this issue because some issues are bigger than the politics and worth being conflicted about in the world of real politics. But such tension doesn’t seem to be there. Perhaps they’ve all just rolled over and decided that it is no biggie after all.

I hope that this is not the case, but from the flippancy of some of the comments, it appears that the secular Kool Aid is on tap in some areas of Western Christianity when it comes to this issue.

So ‘what-aboutery” abounds. So I get this for example when I mention it:

“What a daft and desperate post. American christians talk a lot about abortion.”

Er, a couple of things. First, that might be because it’s a serious issue! That might be because we recognise that it is the tip of an ethical iceberg, or – to use another fluvial metaphor – the watershed of our moral vision.

Your perspective on abortion – ranging from outrage to glee -, will inevitably means that you end up somewhere very far away from each other eventually on a whole range of other issues. To simply respond with scorn belittles this deeply ethical and divisive matter that has long moral fingers.

And second, it’s not simply that Christians are talking about it, everyone is. I mean Christians didn’t bring it up at the Democrats’ convention. They did!  There’s pretty much a Planned Parenthood caravan out there next to the Pizza and Burgers van. Line up, take a ticket.

In 2024 Democrat-land, abortion has become something not simply to permit, but to celebrate.  And somehow too many Christians are stuck in the 1990s timewarp of “necessary evil” language. Once again proving that when it comes to the cultural agenda, Christians are always a day late and a dollar short.

And speaking of “necessary evil”, the Clintons who once talked about “safe, legal and rare” put in a showing at this festival, having  proved one again that even if they are now safe and legal, they are rarely rare these days

Yet what’s going on with the Democrats today is a far cry from twenty five years ago when Clinton made that famous statement.

Have we been so inured over the past decades as to how the abortion industry and its almost lust-for-death approach to those created in the image of God, has sneaked further and further into the trimesters?  Until post-trimester becomes a thing to not only countenance but, as in Tim’s case, protect?

Carl Trueman picks up this Democrat glee in an excellent article here at First Things about the loss of enchantment in our secular age.  And he says this:

The glee with which abortion is advocated and the anger that any restrictions upon it provoke indicate that we need a different category to capture our current cultural ethos. In a disenchanted world, one could imagine abortion being seen as a necessary evil. The demands of the workplace, the economy, and society at large might make it so. In a world where rape and incest exist, sometimes the options for addressing such evil might themselves involve a degree of evil. I disagree with that logic, but it seems consistent with the regretful moral resignation that disenchantment might involve.

But as he goes on to say, that category of “necessary evil” is so far from the minds of those at the convention. In fact, so far is it removed from evil it’s become a necessary virtue! No point showing up to the Democrats party these days if you don’t celebrate and cheer abortion.

It’s a sure sign that while we are post-Christian in our thinking, we are pre-Christian in our actions. The Roman world was brutal and indifferent to unwanted children, exposing many newly born babies with little regard for their innate human dignity, primarily because the Romans didn’t believe they had innate human dignity! That was a Christian thing, as Tom Holland so clearly points out.

Today of course, because of the Christian air we have breathed for centuries, we have to parse what we all believe is true – innate human dignity – to only include those we wish it to include. We need to do linguistic and mental gymnastics when it comes to ethical matters.

We can’t go back to pagan Rome in our intuitions, but we are in our institutions. Hence why we now pharisaically put a fence around the law of love in order to avoid it altogether.

So back to Trump and Tim.  Just to, you know, proved my credentials. I think Trump is a man of bad character, egotistical, committed to telling lies and half-truths if they suit his agenda, and unable to handle the heat of the public square kitchen in a graceful way. And his performance since getting shot has simply proved that. He lacks a moral centre.  I wouldn’t want him at the family-do.

But neither would I want nice Uncle Tim, who everyone is doting on, at my family-do either. He is a man of ungodly character.

I mean sure, he does promote late term abortion and refuse care for postpartum failed abortions, but hey, did you hear those stories of what a great high school geography teacher he was? And how he cared for his son who was neurodiverse?

But evil doesn’t alway come to us in evil packages. The evils we fall for, or are lured into, are always surrounded with visions of the good. This is good for you. This is good for us. We wouldn’t fall for evil if it were dressed in red spandex, with a pitchfork and smelt of sulphur. Though, case in point, The Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

So Tim is a nice man in many ways. Fine. All well and good. So vote for Kamala and ensure Tim gets the Veep role.  But there’s a gaping big hole in the centre of his character when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable of humans under state care.

I can’t firewall that off from his character, as I can’t firewall that off from the Democrat convention glee around the issue. And I don’t think you should either.  And I clearly don’t think that God thinks you should either.

I no more think that his view of abortion remains bounded from the rest of his character than I would think a well-respected member of the community with a secret chamber full of Nazi memorabilia could seal off that little secret from how he views the rest of the world.

Tim – and Kamala – are ungodly at a critical point  about what it means to be human and which humans we should protect, and – as with Trump – that ungodliness will bleed into who they are in other areas of life.

In other words, if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the self-identified gander.

Carl Trueman goes on to say this:

Ours is an age when so much of our culture encourages us to treat others made in God’s image as less than human. This is true, from the comparatively trivial trashing of others that is the favored idiom of those who seem to live online, to those at the DNC in Chicago this week, exulting in the slaughter of innocents. Our problem is thus much deeper than disenchantment. It is desecration. We need not re-enchantment so much as repentance. But that requires grown-ups.

Carl is not excusing one group (Reps) and blaming another (Dems). He’s incredibly even handed in his critique of US politics, as the recent interview we conducted with him on Dual Citizens demonstrates.

But, of course, this is less about the USA for me. After all I’m not – and many of my readers aren’t – going to be lining up to vote there.

Fact is, we’re citizens of another country. But if we’re Christians, we are also citizens of “another country” whether we are US citizens or Australian citizens.

And the real tell in this high-stake poker game that too many Christians are inured about this issue is that this very week in Australia we had a situation in which harrowing tales of postpartum aborted babies who survived, being left to die, discarded in boxes and buckets, moving and whimpering. 800 documented case, with likely many more undocumented.

There before a Trump-free zone of politicians, in a country in which the radical Republicans will never gain power, a distraught nurse sat and spoke to a parliamentary hearing in Queensland of how she comforted these little ones as they died. She wept as she spoke. And yet our politicians still voted against a bill designed to protect such lives.  And nary a Donald in sight to spook them!

And a perfect opportunity for Christians in Australia to at least unite around that and grieve it. Yet no. The great and the good of our public square Christian groups, who get to publish on ethics in our national broadcaster and broadsheets don’t seem concerned about this. At least not in a public square way.

Why the reluctance? Trying to gain an audience? Afraid of losing one? There are only so many times you can waggle on the tee before you’ve got to hit the thing or at least make way for the group behind you.

And so the manner in which many people who have interacted with me about this matter online in the past day, makes me wonder which “country” matters most to them. And which citizens matter the most. It’s been an easy charge to make against some Trump delusionists. But as I said above, “right back at ya!”

I’m enchanted enough to believe that in the new creation there will be young children, who postpartum were left to die – indeed instructed by the state to be left to die -, who will together for all eternity, in equal possession of glorified humanity alongside me – praise their Creator.

Might I add that as the church we don’t simply offer condemnation as one political convention may have done nor do we offer celebration as the other certainly has done.  No, we are the church of God.  And the church of God offers forgiveness and grace for sin. It offers liberty and a different vision of human flourishing that does not celebrate unrepentant sin or condemn the repentant sinner. The politics of Jesus’ kingdom is a different category altogether.

So enough of the glee, and get with the groaning. Lose your pride and admit that if it’s okay for your side to hold its nose and vote for candidates who are less than ideal in their ethical practices, it’s okay for the other side too.

Assuming, of course, that you believe that what the Democrats espouse and celebrate is unethical. I sure hope that is the case. Because if not, then the post-Christian West may indeed look more and more pre-Christian over the coming decades.