Berea Reformed Evangelical Church

Time for some grump.

It’s odd that I have to say this, becuase I don’t want to give the impression that I can’t be pleased. Normally I’m all for politicians admitting openly that various sticky issues are “beyond their paygrade.” How many disasters have been inflicted on societies by governments that thought they were a-helpin’ when they were actually a-makin’ things worse? If only some of the leaders of those debacles had just plead ignorance like Barack Obama did a couple of weeks ago at Rick Warren’s church.

But, that said, I’m afraid that Obama has shown himself to be a moral moron, which is a shame for a man who is building his political career on a prophetic image. Why do I judge Obama so harshly for claiming that a topic is too cunning for his wiles, when that would usually be music to my ears? Because the particular topic Obama was addressing when he made that comment was abortion.

Folks, Douglas Wilson is right:  abortion is the big line on the moral eye chart. If you cannot read which direction the huge E’s are facing, then you lose all standing to lecture anyone about the fine prose you think you see in the lines further down the chart. If you can’t do 2+2, then you don’t get to teach the rest of us calculus.

Claiming to be the one to lead us into a new era of political discourse and governing philosophy, while always a pretentiously gitty thing to say, is even less palatable when you claim to be unable to discern whether it is okay to kill helpless human beings for the sake of convenience. Ah, sure, tough issue, that one. This sort of buck-passing (i.e., not in my job description) in the face of such deliberate wickedness does not make for kind comparisons.

To be fair, Obama didn’t actually say it was “beyond his paygrade” whether it is okay to kill innocent human beings, but rather that he cannot discern whether the fetus is, in fact, a human being.  This is the question that he simply will not be paid enough to know how to answer if he is president. This doesn’t really make it any better for him, though. In non-academic discussions of the abortion issue, pro-choice politicians and average joes seem to be hung up on this way of framing the debate:  who knows when life begins/when the fetus becomes a living human being? Such convenient skepticism is absurd. The jury is not out on this issue. Follow me here, or ask your parents to explain it to you if you’re having trouble:  when two humans have sexual intercourse, the natural result is (often) a new human. It’s not a baboon, or a post-it note for your fridge with an appointment date with the stork on it. Now, if only we knew when exactly this new human individual comes into existence? When do we go from two humans and their various parts (egg cells, sperm cells, fingers, toes, etc.) to three humans? Again, the jury is not out on this, either. It starts with a “c” and rhymes with “perception.”

Hmm...I'm not sure if the earth is round, how many days are in a year, or whether the product of human reproduction is itself human. But I do know how to fix the economy..

Okay, grumping over. For now.