Abortion and all that

Every summer I go to Pro-Life Music Festival in Warsaw to listen to amazing bands for free.

I didn’t realize until last year that this whole festival was to endorse Pro-Life legislation (well, duh).

The festival is very political. Very. I mean not only do you have abort73 (or whatever they’re called) come and hand out flyers about killing babies, but you get speakers stating that it’s “our job” to vote pro-life and I think Mitch Daniels came once. I think.

And yes, there are heathen-bashers (the ultra-conservatives that even moderates hate) and kiosks with Jesus junk. All the stuff that I cringe at.

Trust me, if Future of Forestry (eek! I got their autograph!!) and Flatfoot 56 didn’t come last year I probably would have rethought attending. Maybe (it’s a lot of fun if you ignore the politicking).

Wow I’m reallly wishy-washy.

Anyway, I was thinking about the concert today because, well, I wanted to know who’s coming. [I bet The Classic Crime will come. Or Needtobreathe. Or The Glorious Unseen. One of the three (or all of them!)] And I thought that maybe there wouldn’t be speakers about Pro-lifeism because the election had already passed.

Except that it won’t. [June is before November, Sherlock] We will be in the midst of the last few months of the candidates’ campaign. I bet this year will be the most political concert yet.

Hypothetically: Say it’s Obama and McCain running against each other. Since McCain is pro-life, I just know the whole festival will be a McCain-endorsing fiesta. (If that’s the case I plan on wearing a Barak Obama ’08 shirt.)

I wish I was exaggerating, that I don’t think this will happen. But I can guarentee it will. I’m worried that people will be naive enough to go to that concert and use it to decide on who to vote for. It shouldn’t be like that.

I am going to vote for Obama in the primaries, not because I think he’s rad or I just don’t want Hillary to be president, it’s because I’ve researched the candidate enough to know he’s eligible to receive my vote. I want everyone to do that (and more so).

And when it comes to the pro-life issue, I believe Obama himself said it best:

“I don’t know anybody who is pro-abortion. I think it’s very important to start with that premise. I think people recognize what a wrenching, difficult issue it is. I do think that those who diminish the moral elements of the decision aren’t expressing the full reality of it. But what I believe is that women do not make these decisions casually, and that they struggle with it fervently with their pastors, with their spouses, with their doctors.

Our goal should be to make abortion less common, that we should be discouraging unwanted pregnancies, that we should encourage adoption wherever possible. There is a range of ways that we can educate our young people about the sacredness of sex and we should not be promoting the sort of casual activities that end up resulting in so many unwanted pregnancies.” [Christianity Today, Jan. 2008]

Yes, this is a very big issue (abortion). But I think that evangelicals aren’t thinking. There’s a deeper issue at large here: can the government make decisions for the people like this? Will it even stop abortion? (has it in the 25 years since Roe vs. Wade?)

Abortion is bad, so don’t have one. Abortion is bad, so warn people– don’t make it solely political. When social justice becomes just a political issue rather than a personal conviction, it loses its heart and we become hateful Christians who stand outside abortion clinics and harass women instead of loving them.

Listening to Mitch Daniels or a dozen pro-life organizations is not going to help me change the lives of women who believe they need an abortion. God calls us to take care of the refuse of the world, just keeping a failing law in place will not be enough.

February 12, 2008

Posted in Nonfiction and tagged culture, music, politics.