In January, 2023, I analyzed a common criticism raised against conservative evangelicals: that we are “single-issue” voters on the subject of the sanctity of human life. I evaluated the charge that in our voting we are reductionistic since there are other issues that Christians ought to be concerned about, not merely the life issue. For example, those who level this charge contend that to be pro-life also means that we must stand for racial justice, the protection of the environment, and various tax laws and economic policies that will protect the poor and the disadvantaged, etc. Since these other pressing issues are “Christian” too, it’s possible to vote for political candidates who aren’t pro-life but correct on these other matters—or so the argument goes.
My response to this common criticism often raised against us “single-issue” voters has not changed, although our present political situation is much more complicated, a point I will return to momentarily. I still contend that voting on the basis of whether a political candidate or party is “pro-life” is not reductionistic, but the crucial standard Christians must employ in their decision regarding who to vote for. I continue to argue that the pro-life issue isn’t comparable to other political issues because it’s foundational to all other issues. This is a point we must never compromise on. Our ethics must never be determined by our culture or the whims of a political party. The life issue is not a mere political disagreement over best policies. As foundational, the life issue is what determines how all these other policies and decisions are to be made.
As I noted, a political candidate may be rightly concerned about racial justice. Yet, such a concern hangs in mid-air if it is not grounded in a specific view of humans, and especially the truth that we are created in God’s image and that every human, regardless of ethnicity, has inherent dignity and value. In fact, how does one even argue for racial justice without first grounding it in human dignity? What does “justice” even mean if one views humans from an evolutionary view that reduces us to impersonal causes and robs us of any inherent dignity in relation to each other? Or, what determines the “goodness” of various economic policies, environmental causes, etc., apart from a specific view of humans and their created value and worth? All of our rights to free speech, worship, and so on, are all dependent on our view of God and his creation of humans in his image. This is why the life issue cannot be reduced to one issue on par with other issues; it’s foundational to them all. Unless we get this right, the other issues are without moral grounding and warrant.
Everything Flows Downstream from the Headwaters
Indeed, as Francis Schaeffer taught us well: “ideas have consequences.” If we embrace false ideas about the nature of humans, sadly and inevitably, specific consequences will follow. Not surprisingly, the chaos around us is due to the outworking of wrong ideas about humans, and the truth is this: if one denies the Christian view of the sanctity of human life, this denial will affect every moral and political issue. This is why voting for political candidates and parties that stand for life and oppose abortion is still where Christians must take their stand. What is most basic to any political system, government, and nation is its view of humans and whether all human life must be valued and protected from the womb to the tomb. As Scripture reminds us and history has taught us, if we deny that God is the Creator of human life and that each life is to be valued and protected—regardless of being in the womb or not, or regardless of one’s ethnicity, sex, age, and abilities— then inevitably what will follow is the devaluation of human life, along with an idolization of the State as the one who determines who lives and does not.
But we now face a dilemma in this year’s election. The GOP, which at least gave lip service to being pro-life, has now revised their thinking on the issue. Instead of affirming from their previous platform “the sanctity of human life” and that “the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed,” and their support of “a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth,” this has now changed. In its place, the GOP now say they “stand for families and life,” and given the Dobbs decision which returned the abortion decision back to the States, they now “oppose late term abortion.” But there is no longer a specific defense of human life from the womb to the tomb.
The Way Forward
What are Christians now to do in light of this? Our view of human life cannot change, and our need to vote for this “single” issue remains, but how do we now vote when there is no political party that is explicitly defending the sanctity of human life? I offer the following four thoughts.
First, Christians must not change their view of life.
Our view is grounded in the truth of who we are as God’s image. Our pro-life position has not changed, and the church must continue to stand for what is right and good. We love, obey, and fear God first; we never go with the ebb and flow of fallen human thought which stands in opposition to the truth of God’s Word and which in the end, is utterly self-destructive. Christians are to be salt and light in the culture, which means that we must continue to stand for life, both in word and deed.
Second, we must vote for what is best.
As we have always had to do, we must vote for candidates and a political party that best reflects God’s moral norms and law applied to society. The state is not the church, yet political leaders are to uphold what is good, punish evil, and do what is right (Rom. 13:1-5). What is truly “good” is not in the eye of the beholder but it is according to God’s moral/natural norms. He has established these norms all the way back in creation, and they continue in every era of redemptive history for all people. The sanctity of life, the protection of heterosexual marriage and the family, the valuing of the permanency and distinctiveness of male and female, plus the protection of private property—all of these are minimally the moral standards that we must hold our elected officials to. As Christians vote, we must vote for candidates and parties who uphold these moral norms, and if they do not, we must vote for candidates and parties who potentially may be persuaded to do so.
Third, we need to weigh the options.
In our two-party political system, we now need to ask: which candidates and party are even close to doing what is just and right? Given that none of our present political parties value all that they ought and (more significantly) don’t value what God demands that they do, we now have to vote for the party that is closer to what they ought to do, and which Christians still can influence. In our present election there is only one political party that is even close to this criterion. Sadly, the Democrat party has made it very clear that their entire agenda is to stand against what God values. They are on record wanting abortions until birth, the destruction of marriage and the family, the distortion of male and female, the loss of our ability to uphold biblical morality on these issues, and the theft of private property by government policies, taxation, and so on. There is nothing remotely close in the Democrat party that desires to uphold what is good, as defined by Scripture.
But what about the Republican party? Although, the GOP have now caved on the life issue, there is still a commitment to restrict abortion, to allow for freedom of speech and discussion on these issues so that Christians can still have a voice at the table, and so on. For Christians who want to obey God, to uphold the teaching of Scripture on the sanctity of human life, and to cast a vote to put in power individuals who are at least sympathetic with what is just, then there is only one option between the two parties for evangelicals in this election.
Fourth, we need to make a wise choice.
Someone may object and say that these are not the only options. A Christian could still decide to sit the election out and not vote at all. Although, this is certainly an option, I do not think it wise, and I would strongly encourage against it. Our country is greatly divided and every vote counts. Christians have an opportunity and responsibility to vote and to help slow the moral chaos that is evident around us. Also, even though our choice of candidates and a political party may not be ideal, the GOP is still lightyears better, morally speaking, on the life issue than the Democrats. Further, they are not opposed to the influence of Christians in their party on this issue. Thus, the choice to not vote and thereby allow the Democrats to win will guarantee more destruction of human life, marriage, and families. It will only continue the unraveling of the good, true, and beautiful. For myself, although the GOP is not what it should be, the choice is clear. We need to continue to vote pro-life to at least stem the flow of immorality and destruction that the Democrat party will certainly bring. The GOP is far from ideal, but at least they will not enact policies from the outset that are determined to destroy life. But this doesn’t mean that if the GOP wins, Christians can remain silent. Instead, we must make our voices know by getting involved in the political process and hopefully influencing future policies within the GOP, praying that at least by God’s common grace, he will restore a bit of sanity to this nation.
Conclusion
Apart from an outpouring of God’s grace, our nation is on the path of its own self-destruction, and as Christians we have a responsibility to exercise our right as citizens to vote against this path. If we truly love God and our neighbors, we must vote as Christians thinking about the daunting reality of the present situation we face—and to do so entrusting ourselves to our sovereign triune God who rules over all.
