Framing the issues

In our most recent class discussion, we considered that progressive Christians are generally on the defensive when it comes to dealing with issues of the day. Indeed, they are often left reacting to what the religious right has defined as the most important issues, even if those issues seem out of whack for most people. For example, abortion and sexuality concerns are put out in front on most conservative agendas, with these subjects being defined as important issues impacting families.

Because the religious right is choosing the music, so to speak, progressives are trying to dance to tunes that do not sound right to their ears, and the steps they take are often awkward as a result. However, if one begins to pull apart religious right arguments, they begin to fail because they have no internal consistency on either a rational or moral level.

Take abortion, for example. The religious right argues that once the egg is fertilized and cells begin to divide, you have a baby, and anything done to end that process of cellular division becomes murder of a human being. The mother does not have a right to end that pregnancy. However, once the child is born, the concern for the child wanes. Now, the parent(s) has ultimate control and responsibility, and should not expect the government to assist with things like health care coverage, for example. If, as a result of the child being born into poverty and/or immigrant status, conservatives have a problem with being responsible to help that child achieve all that she/he can; it’s not their problem. But if that child later commits a crime, it may well be fine to put that human to death on the basis of the infraction. It may also be the case that this child, because of having grown up in poverty, would choose to go into military service in order to get benefits he/she would be unable to get otherwise. Again, it would be justified to the religious right to place this person into a war where he/she may be killed.

There is no justifiable way to make sense of these disparate ideas. If we value human life, then we should value it at all stages, not just at those stages we deem important – or convenient.

I also had the good fortune to hear Tony Campolo preach this evening, and his sermon will be feeding my blog for much of the next week. I think he has much to offer Christians in thinking about taking the teachings of Jesus to a logical – and radical – level.