Should Pastors Talk About Abortion?

Josh Harris posts a very helpful interchange with some folks from his church concerning abortion and voting. They took issue with a sermon at his church that supported the idea that abortion should be seen as a uniquely important topic in this year's election.

Here was the bulk of their objection:

We were really interested to listen to the “vote” sermon as it was introduced as one that would challenge us to consider what it means to think responsibly and biblically about our citizenship. Instead, the bulk of the content centered around the very strong suggestion that we ought to consider abortion the most important issue facing us today. Indeed, the intense discussion on abortion made up the vast majority of the sermon’s second point entitled, “what to do,” seemingly implying that the correct thing to do once making our list of important issues is to realize that voting for candidates who oppose abortion is “what we should do.” The emphasis on abortion, especially to the exclusion of other topics that many Christians believe God speaks clearly on as well (caring for His earth, aiding the disadvantaged of our society, supporting humble rather than ethnocentric leadership, etc.) led us as listeners to either feel that we must vote based on abortion alone or feel incredibly guilty before the Lord if we don’t. The world is so complicated, and it is not easy to understand how the Lord would have us “vote,” but we feel that it is a great travesty that in the Christian community we are wrestling with this less and less and, instead, making it seem like a simple answer by equating a Christian vote with the pro-life candidate.

We profoundly appreciate the importance of teaching the community of believers to be thoughtfully, prayerfully, and humbly involved in our country’s political process so that our privilege to vote, and to reflect the character of the Lord in that act, is not “wasted.” However, although the sermon started in this manner, the entire second half was almost exclusively focused on the sin of abortion. While we do view abortion as an egregious sin, our experience is that such imbalanced focus on abortion as a single hot button issue, especially within the church, not only does harm to our political process, but weakens the capacity of congregants to think for themselves about how to reflect the character and heart of God in the midst of a world that has far more going on than just abortion. The pastor who preached this sermon began by encouraging people to become aware and involved in the political process, but we fear that for many, this sermon basically ended up providing a simple answer about how to vote. The surprising and exclusive emphasis on abortion as the issue that everyone should consider as most important, or at least most black and white from the Bible, is practically equivalent to holding up a sign that says “Vote Republican” or “Vote John McCain”.

His response is very wise and pastoral. I would encourage you to read it before casting your ballot.