Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Liberal evangelicals, abortion and the Democrat Party -- naivete and poor judgment

There's been talk about liberal evangelicals and their effort to steer evangelicals away from giving priority to the marriage and abortion issues. This includes folks like Jim Wallis, Joel Hunter and Tony Campolo. Apparently, they've been seeking to moderate the Democrat Platform on the issue of abortion. Gary Bauer reported on Tuesday that
Yesterday, CBN’s David Brody reported that members of the Democrat Platform Committee have sought input from evangelical leaders to moderate their party platform on abortion with the intent of making the Democrat Party more attractive to people of faith. According to Brody, Pastors Joel Hunter, Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo were involved in the effort.

So, what did they come up with? Here’s the proposed new language:
“The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right. The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to affordable family planning services and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions. The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre and post natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.”
I can't see where they've had much impact. The proposed language is as radically pro-abortion as it gets. Abortion on demand, taxpayer funding of abortion, and pro-abortion education in the schools. On top of it, Obama and other party leaders want to appoint judges who will continue to impose an abortion on demand regime on the rest of the nation.

Among liberal evangelicals like Campolo and Wallis, abortion and marriage don't appear to be the paramount social issues of our day. They seem to give them lip service at best. They constantly mention caring for the poor and needy. I don't doubt their sincerity but question their judgment and wisdom. Regarding the care of the poor and needy, the traditional liberal response of more government programs and more money has been a failure. Such an approach is really not in the best interests of the poor and needy because one, it focuses on government, secular strategies rather than private initiatives and two, the result is increased dependency on government which isn't what the poor needs. They need personal compassion which involves personal involvement and moral challenge. An impersonal government program simply can not provide that.

1 comment:

Troy said...

I propose that we pray for RAIN on the democratic platform committee. heavy, heavy rain, aka Focus on the Family style.