Here is the audio version if you’d prefer to listen rather than read:

Hey everyone! I know this topic can get very heated very quickly, so if you do not like what I have to say, I’d be more than willing to talk more with you in a dialogue, but I can’t guarantee we’ll agree on everything. I’ve written a lot this year on the current political arena and how to reimagine our faith within the American political system. So I’ve put together a collection of those thoughts and marked where they’re from.

Is It Possible To Have A Different Perspective On Abortion As A Christian?

We can never convince the world of the good news through politics or legislation. We can only convince the world of the good news through the good news – Jesus the Messiah. Jesus did not become Caesar and use the Roman Government to change the world because no government can truly change the world like the Kingdom can. He didn’t even become the military messiah that Jews were expecting. Jesus didn’t change the world through politics and I don’t see anywhere in His teachings where that is expected of us.

Christians cannot be so naive as to think everyone else should and will act like them because they themselves cannot even hit the enigmatic mark of Christian perfection they claim exists. We will never convince people of the good news by making more laws as if Americans are some iteration of the Israelites living in the Promised Land. No government, including the American government, can ever live up to the standards of the Kingdom of YHWH. We may enjoy or hate living in America, but America is not our “tribe.” Our tribe is the global community of Jesus followers. The United States government is not our friend. The United States government is not our savior. The United States government is not our moral standard. As Christians, Jesus is our moral standard and we cannot expect people who do not follow Jesus to live like they follow Jesus. Furthermore, we cannot be so arrogant as to believe that our way of following Jesus is the only way to follow Jesus. There are many Christians all over the world who believe very differently than you and still have access to the same salvation and Holy Spirit that you do. While I still believe in sound doctrine and theology, it’s also blatantly clear in Acts that even the core Disciples disagreed on how to follow Jesus after He ascended. 

The only “Christian nation” that exists is that of the Kingdom of YHWH and until we love, forgive, bless, show kindness and grace and forbearance to our neighbor in the ways in which God has towards us, we are not fulfilling the commandments of Jesus. The Samaritans were people who worshiped YHWH but were shunned by the religious groups of Jesus’ day for the way they worshiped Him (among other things). Even Jesus’ disciples hated them! But Jesus showed compassion on them (Luke 9:51-56) and then we’re told they were some of the first believers outside of Jerusalem (Acts 8)! Is it possible that our listening ears, abundant compassion, and fruits of the Spirit can speak louder than legislation?

Have We Listened?

Have we listened to the stories of the women who have had abortions? Have we listened to the stories of women who decided against abortion? What about those women who have gone through miscarriages? Have we really listened to their stories? Laws don’t tell stories and that’s why we’re supposed to live by the fruit of the Spirit, not law. It’s why Paul concludes the fruits of the Spirit section in Galatians 5:22-25 with “against such things there is no law.” It’s not that law doesn’t exist, but rather when we operate out of the fruit of the Spirit, we recognize that law doesn’t account for the whole story. Law is black and white. The fruit of the Spirit allows for the gray messiness that is the human story and provides grace, forgiveness, and forbearance where needed.  And if we believe that the child in the womb has a story that matters, we should also believe the mother or father, who may have to make a very difficult decision, has a story that matters. And in that heartache or trauma that can come from abortion, we as Jesus-followers need to be on the other side willing to follow up and support those parents, offering them a place to heal and mourn and grieve (Romans 12:15). Ramming anti-abortion rhetoric down the throats of anyone, especially grieving parents, is not how we share the good news.

Have We Put Our Resources Where Our Mouth Is?

Have we pursued better maternal healthcare and leave for women as much as we have warred against abortion? Have we fought for easier adoption or better fostering care as much as we have paraded against abortion? Lauren and I have both seen the ways in which “pro-life churches” have neglected mothers and fathers in need. And I’m sure I’ve been complicit in that, so I am not innocent here. I’m not going to give you my official stance on abortion here, so if you’d like that you’ll have to message me privately because that is meant for a dialogue. Suffice it to say, however, I think many Jesus-followers need to reimagine their perspective on abortion in a way that advocates for holistic pro-life options for all people. And we need to do it in a way that doesn’t involve using political power to force our beliefs on people who do not believe in the same way as us.

And yet I’ve heard sermons from Pastors who would be considered staunch pro-life advocates and have condoned the killing of Gazan children because “they would probably grow up to be terrorists anyway and God was sparing them from that life.” I can’t make this up. And should I even bother bringing up the number of people who are pro-life and support the death penalty? We must reimagine our whole pro-life stance differently. Whether abortion is legal or not, how will we do a better job of advocating for life outside of the womb? How will we do a better job of ensuring parents have everything they need to provide for their children?

James 2:14-17 says it pretty well, “What use is it if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” What use is it if we have all these policies against abortion, march in all these parades against abortion, tell all these people why it’s wrong, but then we never actually help the mothers and fathers when they’re in need? In other words, are we putting our resources where our mouth is?

Is The Bible Clear On Abortion?

The issue of abortion and what the Bible says is not a black and white issue that many want you to believe. The Bible is not crystal clear about it (c.f. Exodus 21:22-25; Numbers 5:11-29). And while Psalm 139:13-15 is beautiful, it is not establishing any sort of scientific or spiritual truth or law to support whether abortion should be considered murder or not for the American people or any particular government. Psalms is a collection of poetry not a book of laws. Yes, some truths do still exist within the Psalms, however, most of them are not meant to establish any modern or moral laws. 

Unfortunately, the biblical authors actually say God condones the killing of children and babies in the womb. Technically, Numbers 31:17, Deuteronomy 2:34, 28:53; 1 Samuel 15:3; Isaiah 13:16,18; Ezekiel 9:6; and Hosea 9:14,13:16 suggest that God or the Israelites are to condemn children and/or children in the womb to death. If Christians believe that the entire Bible is inerrant (another topic I’m almost done writing about) and if they want to believe in biblical ethics from Genesis to Revelation, then technically God condones the killing of babies. Make no mistake, they are tough verses to swallow.

“Who Is My Neighbor?”

Here’s my final take before I share some previous content. Remember how the Samaritans were hated? We should take note that Luke 10:27 gives us the summation of how to live from Deuteronomy 6, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Immediately following this summation is the story of the Good Samaritan – those people all the religious hated. And Jesus tells us that the Good Samaritan is who we should be like. Our job as Jesus-followers is not to make governments more Christian or legislate morality. We are to live holy, set apart from the rest of the world. But the rest of the world does not have that obligation. And so our job is to showcase the love, forgiveness, forbearance, and kindness that YHWH has shown us through Jesus. I don’t know that forcing people to do what we expect of them is the best way to accomplish that. We need to stop slapping the Bible onto every political issue we want to pursue as if everyone in America is supposed to adhere to whatever biblical principles we follow.

One day your “neighbor” will account for their actions before God just like you. And on that day of account, you will have had no obligation to them except this: did you love them as Jesus loved you? As Jesus-followers, we will never change the world through the government or legislation. Jesus was truly the only one worthy to do that, and he refused. We will only be able to change the world through the good news of Jesus: “to proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61, Quoted from Jesus in Luke 4:18-19).

From May 4, 2022: “The American political system has done a great job of dividing our country and polarizing us. Even though there are more than 2 parties, you’d never know it during elections. And here we are, in an electoral year, being tossed and turned by yet again another political manipulation to cause people to join one side or the other, as if something as major as abortion is black and white. The rhetoric is “You either agree with my side or you’re the enemy” without really taking into consideration the major implications that such a law would allow or disallow. For decades abortion has given politicians media attention and the ability to stir up people in their camp to loyally rally behind them. But very seldom has it caused the people to engage in educated, complex, and difficult conversations around terminating a life. Because the goal of the rhetoric is not examining the harsh realities of abortion, but rather a battle cry to gain your vote and support. We need to be careful on both sides in utilizing pithy quotes and images promoted by our favorite political champions that try to simplify a complex issue such as abortion into a simple phrase. There are real people reading your posts. There is real trauma and heartache and pain that people have experienced and they are reading your content. It’s up to us to be FOR the people. We’re not always going to agree or like what the other has to say. But we should have a common goal of wanting each other to thrive, to be supported, and enjoy what little time we have on this earth. This cannot be achieved if demonization of those who disagree with us is our goal. WE the people must be better than the politicians and people in power who are only using us to get what they want – more power.”

Snippet from my article on deconstructing my political identity (January 31, 2022): “There is not one nation that is truly a Christian nation. No nation is truly a theocracy. Neither America nor Israel are theocracies today. Both are secular states run by people who have no obligation to seek the counsel of YHWH in making their decisions. There will always be corruption. There will always be greed. There will always be people who abuse their power to oppress others and gain riches for themselves. And this is where my deconstruction journey led when it came to political issues. I had to divorce myself from the American Agenda so that I could be on the Kingdom’s Agenda. I realized that every nation, yes, even the ancient nation of Israel, became corrupt. So much of what we read in the Hebrew Bible, especially the prophets, are polemical warnings to turn back to YHWH because the people abused their political power. My loyalty to YHWH must be at the center of how I live and behave, and out of that love and obedience to YHWH my responsibility to my neighbors and country flows. 

As Jesus-followers and citizens of the Kingdom, it is our collective responsibility to care for our neighbors. To care for the needy, the orphans, the widows, the grieving, the hurting. Whether we are elected officials or not, we have a responsibility to our country, not to legislate what we believe is the hottest moral cause of the year, but to do our best to ensure that the people who have the least and are hurting the most have people in their lives who use the name of Jesus to love their neighbors as themselves.”

 Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions, I would absolutely love to keep the conversation going. You can message me on social media or send me an email [email protected]

מרנאתא/Maranatha

-Justin

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