This election cycle has arguably been the strangest in history. In one corner, we have a career politician whose legacy is riddled with scandals and lies. In the other, a hot-headed businessman with no filter or ethics to speak of, business or otherwise.
And while I could, like the rest of the country, wonder how we got here; how our choices have devolved to such a degree, there is another question that has been a pebble in my shoe: Why have many Christians stood by Donald Trump as their standard bearer?
So rather than trying to figure it out behind the scenes, I decided to ask that question early and often. A great many of my friends are conservative, and Christian, and a part of the Evangelical or Charismatic traditions. The result of my poll was consistent; the answers have all maintained a common rationale: Trump is the Republican candidate, and as such is "Pro-life", and will appoint several Supreme Court Justices over the next 4 years who will oppose abortion. All of Trump's other indescretions, both past and present, are justified, rationalized, minimalized or completely ignored for this fact.
I have my doubts about the legitimacy of Trump's "pro-life" stance, but that's beside the point. What has me perplexed is this one question: is abortion the only thing Christians care about? And is the Church by and large actually just anti-abortion, rather than pro-life? While that last statement may seem like a comparison of synonyms, it is anything but. Simply put, which lives are conservatives "Pro", I mean, beside unborn children?
The homeless?
Children born into poverty?
Single parents taking care of those children?
Female victims of sexual assault?
Orphans?
Refugees?
Which lives matter to conservatives? All of the above? Any of the above? Is the liberal accusation true, that conservatives only care about life prior to birth?
So to answer this question, I did what I always do. I did research. Here is what I discovered:
615 thousand - The number of US abortions in 2015
12% - the percentage which abortions in America have declined during the Obama administration.
1982 - the year when the abortion rate peaked post-Roe v Wade
5,647 - The number of US adoptions in 2015
12 million - the number of single parents in America
9.6 million - the number of single mothers in America
13.1 million - the number of malnourished children in America
564,708 - the number of homeless in America
15,000 - the number of women and children being sold into sexual slavery and exploitation in the US
4.5 million - the number of women and children being sold into sexual slavery globally, annually
85 thousand - The number of refugees settled in the United States in 2015
3 million - The number of refugees settled in the United States since 1975
1 million - Number of new immigrants in 2014
81 million - Number of immigrants and immigrants' children living in the United States
And my favorite take-away: If all of the aborted babies from 2015 were born to families that could not support them or did not want them, it would take 109 years to adopt them all.
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Now you may be asking to yourself, "What do those numbers have to do with abortion?". I'll answer, but first, a resolute statement: I am opposed to abortion. I believe what was intended during Roe v Wade to be a last-resort action to protect victims of rape, incest, and life-threatening conditions has become a procedure often used for convenience. I believe abortions are a heartbreaking loss of life, and look forward to the day when they are no longer necessary.
Now back to the question: Why do the above numbers matter? Because they all represent American lives, but these groups seem to get a great deal less press from the conservative right than abortion. Case in Point: Donald Trump.
Here we have a man who is on his third marriage, representing the party of traditional family values. We have someone who has bragged about his own sexual assaults representing the party of propriety and discretion in the bedroom. We have a man who has, as a businessman, has used bankruptcy and loopholes to avoid paying debts ant taxes representing the party of fiscal responsibility. We have someone who is comfortable insulting POWs and Gold Star families representing the party who claims to stand for the military and their families.
And yet, with all of his ineptitude, Christians still support him because he said he is pro-life.
But let's forget about Trump, if only temporarily, to ask the real question which MUST be addressed by the American Church if they have any hope of keeping a voice in our culture: Are you pro-life, or merely anti-abortion? I ask, because it seems clear enough that if you hate and are afraid of refugees, you aren't pro-life. If you believe that adoption is someone else's responsibility, you aren't pro-life. If you believe that single parents and the homeless just need to stop being lazy, you aren't pro-life. If you support the death sentence, you aren't pro-life. If you tithe to a church without any concern about how much of their budget goes to helping widows, orphans, and the hungry, you aren't pro-life. If you don't concern yourself with the sex trade that is driven by our favorite pastimes, you aren't pro-life. And above all these other things, if you don't take time to consider what will happen to all these other groups when 600 thousand new lives are added to our population annually, you aren't pro-life. You may be anti-abortion, but that simply isn't enough anymore. The unborn are not the only ones in our society that are voiceless. It's time to advocate for more than the unborn.
We need to be the voting bloc that stands for all life, unborn included. We need to love more. We need to do more. And we need to insist that those who would desire to lead us be committed to the same. Think about it. Pray about it. Then vote for the candidate whose policies and past track record advocate for the lives of every American, and beyond that, every human soul. Given his words, deeds and reputation, though, I can assure you ... It isn't Donald Trump.
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