“Pro-Life” Evangelicals for Biden Aren’t Pro-Life, Even in the Ways They Think They Are

Pro-life advocates should stop buying the premise that because we oppose the intentional killing of innocent human beings, we must take on other tragic societal ills under the banner of being “pro-life.” The criticisms are not only unfair; they are narrowly targeted. Is the American Cancer Society neglectful because it fights one type of disease rather than many?…[Of course,] to be Christian is to care for the poor. As the apostle James makes clear, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). Christians are supposed to reach out their hands to those in need. But that is distinct from making the argument, as some do, that if you aren’t taking on other issues [in addition to fighting for life for the preborn], you aren’t truly pro-life.
—pro-life activist Scott Klusendorf—

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Key points: It has become fashionable today to accuse pro-life advocates of caring only about birth and not about quality of life issues. This is manipulative and unfair, since, for one thing, quality of life cannot even be an issue without life itself. It’s also dishonest. Many of the people trying to redefine the term pro-life know their pro-abortion, pro-death message won’t advance their political goals. Therefore, they’re trying to use well-meaning, pro-life people, including Christian leaders, to further their nefarious, socialist, Marxist political agenda. Ironically, the heavy-handed government policies that align with this agenda will devastate quality of life for all and put lives at risk. This is what the history of socialist, Marxist, and communist regimes tell us in no uncertain terms.

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Last time we discussed the egregious actions of a couple of Christian leaders based on their apparent eagerness to misrepresent the truth about Donald Trump and his perspective on racism and white supremacy. Even if J. D. Greear, Ed Stetzer, and other evangelical leaders take issue with President Trump on any number of issues, they have an obligation before God not to lie about him — but that is exactly what they have been doing.

Temptation’s Enticement

Even Christians and Christian leaders are not immune to being enticed by the insidious question Satan has asked in tempting people since the dawn of time. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'” the serpent asked Eve in Genesis 3:1 (emphasis added). Eve was very much taken in. Eventually, after a few more moments of talking with the serpent and hearing that “God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v. 5), the first woman “saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (v. 6).

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Has God indeed said?
—Satan to Eve, in tempting her to rebel against God—

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Orchestrating the Fall, Satan not only enticed Eve with good-looking fruit and with lies that confused her about God’s intentions for her and for Adam; he also enticed her with the temptation to play god! This temptation appeals to pride as does nothing else! Note also the connections between pride, playing God, and relativism. Essentially Satan said, “Eve, you can make up your own reality! You can make up your own truth! You can become like God!” Again, no one is immune from this temptation. The late Dr. Mark Corts, longtime pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, observed, “The essence of sin is always trying to be like God without God.”

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The essence of sin is always trying to be like God without God.
—Dr. Mark Corts—

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Supporting Candidates Who Support Abortion Snubs God’s Command to not Murder

Even though they know of Satan’s tactics as demonstrated clearly in Genesis 3, Christian leaders also can and apparently have been tempted essentially to ignore God’s commands and make up their own truth — to play God! They not only have been enticed to ignore the Ninth Commandment and to lie (as we have seen with Greear and Stetzer), but also to turn a blind eye to another direct command of God — the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not murder.” While Greear and Stetzer have not been named specifically in connection with the organization I’m about to describe, both leaders have sent signals that tilt strongly in the direction of the movement (go here and here). Other SBC leaders and Baptist Press have sent similar signals as well. How are certain so-called evangelical leaders ignoring the command not to murder, and why are they doing it?

Let’s answer the question why? first. This is a day when pro-life Christians are being accused of really being pro-birth, not pro-life. If you’re really pro-life, we are told, you’ll focus just as much on poverty and other quality of life issues as you do abortion. Even Dr. Tony Evans has given us reason to believe he’s on board with this notion.

Such leaders are effectively redefining the term pro-life. It’s apparent that many of them (if not most or all) want to follow an increasingly popular narrative that assumes an individual can’t really be pro-life if he or she doesn’t support governmental policies to

• • • alleviate poverty through redistribution of wealth,
    • provide government-run healthcare for all,
    • crack down on systemic racism,
    • crack down on smoking, and
    • address climate change with clean-energy alternatives to fossil fuels.

If you doubt me on this, read these statements from the home page of a website belonging to a group that calls itself “Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden.”

Many things that good political decisions could change destroy persons created in the image of God and violate the sanctity of human life. Poverty kills millions every year. So does lack of healthcare and smoking. Racism kills. Unless we quickly make major changes, devastating climate change will kill tens of millions. Poverty, lack of accessible health care services, smoking, racism and climate change are all pro-life issues. As the National Association of Evangelicals’ official public policy document (FOR THE HEALTH OF THE NATION) insists, “Faithful evangelical civic engagement and witness must champion a biblically balanced agenda.”  Therefore we oppose “one issue” political thinking because it lacks biblical balance.

Responding forcefully to these claims, Christian talk show host and author Dr. Michael Brown writes [hyperlinks have been added],

And this is the justification for voting for a pro-abortion candidate? A candidate who wants to be sure that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land? A candidate who, during the campaign, reversed his longstanding support of the Hyde Amendment?

I agree that poverty kills, but Trump’s economic policies have helped alleviate poverty, not accelerate poverty.

As for lack of healthcare, both parties want good healthcare for all Americans but simply differ on the best way to achieve that.

As for smoking — yes, smoking — what on earth does that have to do with a vote for Biden? Does Trump, himself a non-smoker, encourage Americans to smoke? Would a vote for Biden be a vote against smoking?

As for racism killing people, perhaps what kills people is the stoking of racism, especially by the left? As for Americans literally killed because of racism every year, as tragic as even one such death would be, that number pails in comparison to the 700,000 (!) babies killed in their mother’s wombs every year. (In years past, that number has been twice as high.)

As for climate change and what should be done about that, there is intense scientific debate about the subject.

Yet, for these very reasons, we are being told not to vote for the strongest pro-life president we have ever had and rather to vote for the most radical, pro-abortion ticket in our nation’s history.

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We are being told [by so-called evangelicals] not to vote for the strongest pro-life president we have ever had and rather to vote for the most radical, pro-abortion ticket in our nation’s history.
—Dr. Michael Brown—

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Dr. Brown is spot-on. He blows apart any idea that voting for Joe Biden can be pro-life. People of faith are foolish, not only to ignore the disparaging remarks that Biden and Kamala Harris have made about Christians, but also to fail to understand that the policies the Democrats plan to implement to “help the poor” would destroy the economy and bring poverty down on everyone. As we said in a post earlier this year,

If we don’t draw a line in the sand now, our rights will continue to erode — and as a nation, we will arrive at a very ugly place. Drawing that line includes voting to keep tyrants out of office. While no political candidate is perfect, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, along with all or nearly all of the candidates running on the Democrat ticket in general, pose ominous threats to liberty in America.

• • • • • In 2018, “Former Vice President Joe Biden bashed Christians opposing the homosexual agenda as ‘forces of intolerance’ and ‘virulent dregs of society’ at a recent LGBT event.”
        • Also in 2018, Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to have total clarity about what we do when it comes to everything—a woman’s right to choose, gay marriage.…And if there’s some collateral damage for some others who do not share our view, well, so be it.”
        • More recently, Biden, now the presidential nominee of the Democrat party, has said that “transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.”
        • Biden also declared, “It’s a simple proposition, health care is a right not dependent on race, gender, income, or zip code. As president I’m going to do everything in my power to expand access to quality affordable health care for women.” Translation: I will promote unlimited access to abortion, and even infanticide, just as the members of my party have done. (Go here and here.)
        • The Democrat nominee also said this: “I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving, until we control the virus,” There’s nothing like killing the country’s economy (and who knows how many people in the process) in order to make sure we save people from the coronavirus, is there? Moreover, scientists disagree about what steps should be taken. When he was “[a]sked specifically whether he’d push to shutter economic activity if scientists said it was necessary, Biden replied: ‘I would shut it down.'”
        • Further, Biden has promised to work to establish “free ‘universal preschool’ for three-year old children.” Does “free” really mean free? Of course not. It can’t. Still, the larger, more important issue is indoctrination of our children. If you don’t believe that, you haven’t been paying attention to what has been taking place in our public schools, both now and even before the pandemic hit or widespread violence occurred after George Floyd’s death. Parents in particular need to watch and share this important video.
        • Biden wants to “abolish America’s suburban communities” (also go here).

In the end, the state’s gaining and maintaining control in these and other areas means the curtailment of liberty. It means government’s not allowing anyone to think for himself or herself, but getting everyone to hold the politically correct perspective of the state.

There’s more. In May of 2019, I released an article that highlighted the following.

• • • • First, the Democrats aren’t concerned about the poor. Nor are they compassionate. They are using the poor to get votes. [If you doubt they would do this, consider a parallel issue — the refusal of every Democrat in the House of Representatives to condemn the violence that has overtaken numerous American cities in recent months. Wouldn’t condemning lethal violence be the pro-life thing to do?]
      • Second, government is not compassionate, nor can it ever be. Government is a bureaucracy. 
      • Third, government’s job is not to meet people’s needs (see items #4 and #5 on this page).
      • Fourth, from a biblical perspective, help for the poor is to come voluntarily from individuals, as well as organizations formed voluntarily by individuals to give them real help (see pages 24-27 of this publication). [Go here to read about the principle of gleaning, which reveals a portion of God’s plan to assist the poor and disadvantaged.]
      • Fifth, people who are concerned about the poor shouldn’t wait for government to take away their wealth and give it to those deemed to be in need. They should roll up their sleeves and become personally involved in helping them! They should give their money to credible organizations that really help those who lack or who otherwise are in need rather than waiting for government to redistribute money coercively. The government cannot give its own money away; instead it must take from those who have wealth and give it to others, even though it isn’t theirs to give. Even so, with this scenario the government is seen as the great benefactor. It becomes god in the eyes of those who receive “help.” Such practices foster an unhealthy and unrealistic dependance on the state.
        

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If you care about the poor, don’t wait for the government to take your money in the name of “helping” them. Instead, give to charitable organizations who exist to help the poor! Roll up your sleeves and become involved in benevolent work. Volunteer!

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• • • • Sixth, understand this reality. Focusing on the needs of the poor and claiming to be pro-life while essentially ignoring the abortion issue makes a mockery of the term pro-life. No one, and I mean NO ONE, can really be pro-life and be pro-abortion, or even indifferent to abortion. Increasingly, Democrats are claiming to be pro-life and, at the same time, advocating full-term abortion, and even infanticide. This is ludicrous!

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Focusing on the needs of the poor and claiming to be pro-life while essentially ignoring the abortion issue makes a mockery of the term pro-life.

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• • • • Seventh, with their redistribution proposals, the Democrats are advocating socialism. Do not be fooled by the emotional rhetoric. Socialism will bring a nation’s citizens—all of them—to poverty. The elite will live in luxury—until the nation dies. Thus, “compassionate” government programs that merely redistribute wealth aren’t pro-life — even in the ways so-called “pro-life” Biden supporters believe. Writing for the Foundation for Economic Education, Daniel J. Mitchell makes the case that “Poverty in the U.S. Was Plummeting—Until Lyndon Johnson Declared War On It.” These videos — here and here — provide some extremely helpful additional information.

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“Compassionate” government programs that merely redistribute wealth aren’t pro-life — even in the ways so-called “pro-life” Biden supporters believe.

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Keep this in mind as well. The more government redistributes wealth to meet people’s needs, the more the nation moves toward socialism. If you want to know what socialism will do to a country, look at Venezuela. This video was released by Prager University on August 28, 2017.

Richard Nixon was absolutely right when he said, “Capitalism works better than it sounds, while socialism sounds better than it works.”

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Capitalism works better than it sounds, while socialism sounds better than it works.
—Richard M. Nixon—

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So, as we have said, if you’re really concerned about the poor,

• • • • get involved in helping them directly. What’s stopping you?

Please, though, don’t just help them with financial resources and by interacting with them and teaching them skills.

• • • • Oppose the Democrats’ push for “compassionate” government programs to alleviate needs, because such programs are counterfeit solutions. They will come back to bite in the end and spread deadly, poisonous venom.

Efforts to participate in direct relief as well as to oppose socialist “solutions” that have no chance of working are both consistent with the pro-life cause, but the foundation of that cause is and must remain opposition to abortion and infanticide.

Without life, all other assistance is meaningless.

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Without life, all other assistance is meaningless.

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Responding to “Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden”

Thankfully, numerous Christians and Christian leaders are pushing back against the notion that being pro-life (something a Christian must be) and voting for Joe Biden are compatible.

In an article titled, “Opinion: Yes, abortion needs to be a deal-breaker for Christians,” Peter Heck of Disrn writes in response to the the idea that if it weren’t for the “but abortion” concern, many people wouldn’t be voting for the Republicans.

One can imagine voices like… [those of] “Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden” in the late 1850s writing angrily that those annoying “but slavery” voices in the Republican Party just couldn’t get past their obsession with human rights.

If Christians stand for God’s truth they stand for life, and on that issue there will be no compromise.

Pastor Ronnie Rogers posted this on Facebook:

I voted for Hitler because I am pro-life. While I am not for eliminating millions of unwanted Jews, the enfeebled, non-productive elderly, and those religious Catholics, I still believe his plan helps people in other pro-life areas more than just fixating on stopping the gassing of people. That’s just pro-nongas, not pro-life.

For me, this is the nonsense of the argument that Christians should vote for the Democratic candidate when they refer to voting Republican as just being pro-birth. Do not forget that the diligent protection of and perpetuating killing babies in the womb is written in the Democratic platform.

They not only believe in it, but they also glory in being the great defenders of killing babies. If the Democratic party would turn against killing babies prenatally, we could end the killing of babies tomorrow. Just like the Third Reich could have stopped the mass extermination of Jews, the enfeebled, non-productive elderly, and Catholics.

There is no pro-life issue greater than defending innocent babies in the womb from their brutal elimination by pro-abortionists. To claim to be ok with abortion and pro-life is the quintessence of barbaric euphemistic double-talk.

Later, Pastor Rogers said this in another post: “Do not be confused by the ploy to make a distinction between pro-birth and pro-life, so some evangelicals can promote voting for the only party in America that is the Defender of the most grotesque barbarism of executing innocent babies in the womb; supporting abortion is evil!”

Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon, a Professor of Theology at Houston Baptist University, posted a thorough reaction on his Facebook page. In part, he said this:

The logic of their position would imply that a Communist regime that severely abridged free exercise of religion, promoted abortion, and eliminated private property would be a better moral alternative because it would provide a greater welfare safety net.…

[Supporters of this movement] have no sense of the difference of degree between sea-change issues and modest changes in non-sea-change issues. The Trump administration has not promoted a single racist policy. In fact, it has pursued policies that are beneficial to African Americans, such as reducing the sentencing of drug laws that disproportionately affect African Americans and providing permanent aid to historically Black colleges. Nor has the Trump administration dismantled or even significantly reduced the social welfare state. Yet Biden-Harris are supporting policies that will threaten Christians and cherished freedom for decades, in addition to removing any restrictions to the barbaric practice of abortion. The only great difference that a Biden-Harris administration will make is for the negative.

Jonathan Van Maren is an activist for the pro-life cause and a speaker and writer. In an article he wrote about Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden, he stated,

It is…extremely revealing that the signatories of this statement actually posit a moral equivalence between abortion and smoking or climate change. This is just transparent nonsense, and shows a genuine lack of understanding about what abortion really is. I would encourage those claiming this moral equivalence to go online and watch a video of an abortion procedure. It will disabuse you of such notions very quickly. It should also banish the idea that we can vote for someone who believes it is a social good that older human beings have the right to kill younger human beings in a grotesque and barbaric fashion because that person has a few other policies that we like.

Father Frank Pavone, leader of the pro-life Catholic group Priests for Life, strongly criticized the launch of another group of so-called “pro-life” Biden supporters, Catholics for Biden. Pavone stated,

I would much rather have a Presbyterian like Donald Trump, who’s going to allow me to live out my Catholic faith, without government imposition of mandates that violate my conscience, rather than Joe Biden, who claims to be a Catholic but has already promised to reinstitute precisely those kinds of mandates.

Father Pavone understands a reality that we have highlighted here before, “If the Democrats Win, Say Goodbye to Faith-Based Hospitals.”

Recall that the leaders of Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden say in their statement, “[W]e oppose ‘one issue’ political thinking because it lacks biblical balance.” Against this backdrop, Dr. Michael Brown concluded his article by refuting the thinking of these “evangelicals” by saying, “Any mention of ‘biblical balance’ that doesn’t start with concern for the shedding of innocent blood is so far out of balance it is no longer biblical.”

If You’re Really a Christian, You Love God’s Law

This brings us back to the apparent willingness of certain Christians and Christian leaders — men and women who call themselves “evangelicals” — to turn aside and look the other way rather than uphold God’s law, whether it is His law to tell the truth, to preserve innocent life, to honor marriage, or to worship God alone.

This is one of the things that is so heartbreaking about Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden and about the social justice movement that has infiltrated the church. We who love God must uphold His standards, and today in this relativistic world, that especially means upholding His standards as expressed in the Ten Commandments.

As believers, we should be horrified at the thought of doing otherwise. Evangelical leaders, pay close attention! We are not saved by keeping the law; we cannot be. Yet, as followers of Christ, we understand that God’s law reflects His character, and, loving Him, we also love His law. We consider it an honor to obey it and uphold it —

regardless of what the culture around us says.

 

For further reading: “Two Things Presidential Voting Is Not,” an article by Brandon Clay on the Answers in Genesis website

 

Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.

top image credit: Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.