One of the statements that I hear bantered about during this election year is that Christians are “single-issue” voters. The understanding of those who make this charge is that Christians are rather narrow-minded folks who only care about the abortion issue and little else. I’d like to challenge that thinking. Christians are concerned with how candidates stand on a wide variety of issues. They are primarily concerned with the implementation of Biblical values across a broad spectrum of issues including: capital punishment, ERA, euthanasia, homosexuality, pornography, school prayer, religious freedom, secular humanism, parental rights, education, national defense, and a balanced budget to name a few. All of these issues are dealt with in the pages of the Bible and are of great concern to all Christians. Christians want to see Biblical morality and Biblical values woven into the warp and woof of every aspect of our society. That’s hardly “single issue” voting. What about abortion, though? Why does the position of a candidate on abortion seem to be the “litmus test” for support to many Christians?
The reason that abortion is the pivotal issue in this or any election is that if a candidate holds to a thoroughly Biblical view on this issue he has the proper basis upon which to build a Biblical value system in every other area. If he is unbiblical in this foundational issue, the rest of the structure becomes distorted. Abortion is not the only issue in this election, but it is the KEY issue in assessing whether a candidate has a Biblical basis for morality. Why? Abortion attacks the most fundamental of all rights: the right of human beings to have life. All other rights and issues are predicated upon the foundation that humans are alive to enjoy them. School prayer, national defense, balanced budgets, ERA, homosexuality, etc. all pale in insignificance if one is not alive to begin with!
One former agnostic explained to me recently why the abortion issue caused him to be open to becoming a believer in Christ. As a logical person, this man reasoned that it was murder to kill an infant that had just been born. If that was true, then would it not also be murder to terminate the life of that infant one day prior to birth? The answer is that it would be equally murder for the child could have been born one day early. In the same vein, using the logic of regression, would it not also be murder to kill an infant of 8 months? What about 6 months? What about 3 months? What about 3 weeks? What about 3 days? What about 3 minutes? The point of it all is that destruction of a human being at any point beyond conception becomes murder. Arbitrary points along the way simply are men’s attempts to rationalize to themselves murder of the unborn human. Any point arbitrarily drawn along the nine month timeline places the abortionist in the position of being God, determining when life should end (Ecclesiastes 3:2). The rationalizations of abortionist thinking are enormous and totally untenable. If we are willing to permit the termination of life within the womb, why stop there? If that be so what about life outside the womb? Abortion leads logically to euthanasia as a viable option. Aside from all of these human reasonings, the Bible makes it quite clear that believers have no option. Consider the following formidable list of Scripture references on how God views the unborn and little children:
Psalm 139:13-16 Proverbs 6:16-19 Isaiah 59:7 Romans 12:2
Exodus 20:13 Matthew 18:10 Matthew 18:14 Job 31:15
Ecclesiastes 11:5 Matthew 19:14 Psalm 106:38 Isaiah 49:1
Deuteronomy 5:17 Genesis 9:6 Deuteronomy 27:25 Numbers 35:33
Galatians 1:15, 16 Psalm 127:3-5 Isaiah 5:20, 21 Matthew 25:44, 45
Exodus 23:7 Psalm 128:3, 4 Matthew 2:18 Psalm 100:3
Isaiah 44:24 Genesis 1:27 Amos 1:13 Luke 1:41-44
Exodus 21:22, 23 Jeremiah 1:5 Proverbs 24:11, 12 Deuteronomy 30:19
Bible-believing Christians who claim the name of Jesus Christ and the values of the Bible have no choice but to oppose abortion as a viable option for society. It is not and never can be. I know all the “what ifs” and the “suppose this were the cases.” Every human being has the fundamental right to life. To deny that is to play the role of God and to undermine every other value. If a candidate be wrong on this foundational issue every other issue pales in comparison. If his values are not Biblical here, then we dare not trust his values elsewhere. For believers, abortion is the KEY issue and where the line must be drawn. To quote the great reformer, Martin Luther, “Here I stand!” Believer, where do you stand? Show it by your voting!