Photo Credit: Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Gage Skidmore
Perhaps Donald Trump made a colossal miscalculation.Before I reply, a little history is in order.
In the mid-19th century, most American abolitionists had found a home in the Whig Party. But in 1852, the Whig leadership included a pro-slavery plank in its platform. The abolitionists bolted, and just four years later, the Whig party exited American history, stage left. It was replaced by a Republican Party dedicated to this fundamental principle: self-evidently, it is wrong, at all times and in every place, for one person to kidnap, sell, and enslave another.
It is just this stubborn adherence to principle that, for the last 50 years, has drawn millions of pro-life Americans into the GOP, which hitherto had held firmly to a similar fundamental principle: self-evidently, it is wrong, at all times and in every place, to murder innocent pre-born babies by abortion.
Imagine, then, our shock and dismay now that President Trump and much of the GOP leadership have rejected the historic GOP position on abortion and the sanctity of human life.
The litany of President Trump’s recent statements is all too familiar. He has told us that the SCOTUS got it right, that abortion law is best left to the states and the (diverse and ever-shifting) will of the voters. Though he personally opposes late-term abortions, he is fine with letting blue states permit them, even up to birth. He thinks current abortion law in Florida, Arizona, and some 14 other states (law that has saved thousands of lives) is too restrictive. He pledges not sign any federal law restricting abortion. He states that his administration will be “great for reproductive rights.” Professing love for wanted babies, he is keen on in vitro fertilization, an enterprise fraught with moral hazard and inevitable manslaughter; unwanted babies are on their own. Perhaps most disturbingly, he and his surrogates surreptitiously marginalized pro-life members of the GOP Platform Committee in order to eviscerate the party’s deeply principled, highly detailed, and longstanding pro-life plank. Alas, all too many Republicans, fearing election loss, have fallen in line.
But might this much-lamented pivot to a pro-choice stance on abortion lead — Whig-like — to the death of the GOP? For the following four reasons, I answer yes.
1. It forfeits the blessing of God and courts his judgment. I was tempted to make this point last, but I feel compelled to make it first, since all else flows from it; let each person receive it as best he can. Christians believe that righteousness exalts a nation but that sin is a shame to any people (Proverbs 14:34). They believe that God will honor those who honor him, especially if they defend the helpless victims of oppression (1 Samuel 2:30, Proverbs 24:11-12). They also believe that abortion is evil; that everyone knows that it is evil; and that when any citizen, candidate, party, court, legislature, or nation suppress that knowledge in unrighteousness, it courts God’s judgment (Romans 1).
One need not be a Christian to see this. Thomas Jefferson, a deist, earnestly warned the new nation that God is just and that his justice will not sleep forever. Surely events have proven him right. Observe the (post-Roe) decay of our national character, unity, institutions, public policy, economy, military readiness, and standing in the world. Is this not the hand of Almighty God, withdrawing his favor? But in view of the 60 million killed by abortion, one is compelled to ask: what has kept his hand from destroying us altogether? Might it be, in good part, a pro-life movement and a pro-life GOP that stood strong? If so, what might happen if they cave?
2. It betrays long-standing principles articulated in the Declaration, the Constitution, and the 2020 GOP platform. The last states:
The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.
A party should be defined by its principles, and above all else, its platform should declare and preserve those principles. Policies may change, but principles, being anchored in God, must not, for they cannot.
Since the 1980s millions of Americans have joined the GOP because of the pro-life principles contained in its platform. Now President Trump has abandoned them, and a majority in the GOP seems content to follow his lead. Naturally enough, pro-lifers feel betrayed. What will they do? Where will they go?
3. It creates a dangerous leadership vacuum in the American public square. Great principles generate great goals, great leaders, and great movements. The modern civil rights movement had all three and triumphed. The pro-life movement is a great movement with a great goal. But now it has no leader. President Trump and the GOP leadership have vacated the public square and surrendered the field of battle to the Democrat death cult. Unless God grants us a new leader and a renewed GOP, their hordes will swiftly overspread the land.
4. It creates a crisis of conscience in pro-lifers, forcing many not to vote at all, or to vote for a more principled candidate, or to find or start a more principled party. Some conservative pundits bemoan such single-issue absolutism. We wish they understood. Just as you cannot suffer a little slavery, so you cannot suffer a little abortion. Unavoidably, abortion is an act of murder entailing infant suffering and death, irreparable harm to women, the debasement of the culture, and God’s judgment upon the land. The party that shares and accommodates such conviction will receive the votes and enjoy the zealous participation of millions of pro-lifers. The party that doesn’t won’t. Indeed, it and may be committing political suicide.
How then shall we prevent the suicide of the GOP?
My reply is simple. We must pray for President Trump and the GOP leadership. We must love them enough to challenge them, with gentleness, respect, and hope. We must urge them to repent of this deadly dalliance with institutionalized murder, seek God’s forgiveness, re-embrace his will, and re-enjoy his favor.
Concretely, this means that we must stay true to the fundamental principles of the American Experiment. We must constantly proclaim the sanctity of human life and its corollaries in ethics and law. We must urge the SCOTUS to apply the 14th Amendment and defend the right to life of all pre-born Americans. Failing that, we must advocate for a Personhood or Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, thereby compelling the SCOTUS to do its duty.
Along the way, we must work to restrict abortion as much as possible at the federal, state, and local levels. And much is possible. Currently, 7 in 10 Americans favor laws that proscribe abortion after the baby is able to feel pain (8–12 weeks after conception). Out of 50 nations in Europe, 47 have enacted just such laws. With tears, we can and should do the same, all the while keeping our supreme goal before our eyes and before the people: a legally guaranteed right to life for all Americans, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.f
Permit me to close with an illustration based my Christian faith. Most people would agree that Jesus Christ is the single most influential leader the world has ever known, and his party — though not without grievous blemishes — the largest and most enduring in history. Observe from the New Testament how this man encountered fierce opposition and suffered widespread rejection, even to the loss of his life. But he never compromised. He always stood firm, speaking God’s words, doing God’s will, and letting the chips fall where they may. And so, on Resurrection Sunday, his heavenly Father honored and vindicated him once and for all, setting him on a course to eternal victory.
Beloved fellow Republicans, should we not do the same?
Dean Davis is a retired pastor, a pro-life activist, and the director of Come Let Us Reason, a Bible teaching ministry specializing in apologetics and worldview studies. www.clr4u.org
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Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
