Republican voters in 2020 are likely to admit they disagree with how the president behaves, yet they have still determined to vote for him because everything comes down to one issue: abortion.
Seventy-eight percent of white evangelical protestants are leaning towards voting for incumbent President Donald Trump, according to a recent Pew Research survey. When it comes to the latest statistics, abortion has surprisingly fallen to the bottom of the list of most important issues in the 2020 election. The economy, healthcare, Supreme Court appointments and the COVID-19 outbreak — among other issues — show a higher percentage rate of voters who think the issues are ‘very important’ according to Pew Research study.
However, this issue still seems to hold a certain power among Christian pro-lifers that has created a strict loyalty to the Republican party, regardless of the kind of candidate. According to a 2020 Gallup poll, 77 percent of conservatives identified as “pro-life.”
It is fitting for Christians to be pro-life because of the Biblical message of love, compassion, and in particular the scriptures that speak about the significance of life, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,’” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV), and “all things God works for the good of those who love him,” Romans 8:28 (NIV). Even for non-believers, many people tend to at least believe that everything happens for a reason.
Yet, the Bible does not speak about life, love, compassion, and God’s plans for only one political issue, but instead to be applied to everything. Foreign policy, poverty, taxes, race relations — you name it, Jesus talked about it. Jesus talked about these issues knowing we would still be dealing with them today so that we could look to his words as an example for the Church to follow and model for the world.
In John 4:9, Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink at a well, where she replied to him, “You are a jew and I am a Samaritan woman,” because Jews did not associate with Samaritans. If Jesus cared about a woman who was outside of his social class and ethnic group enough to go against the culture of his time by reaching out to her, wouldn’t that mean he cares about black lives, immigrant lives, LGBTQ lives, too?
Another issue the Bible speaks clearly about is how to treat those who are foreign to your country. Donald Trump has said, “Why are we having all these people from [s***hole] countries come here?” and called Mexican immigrants criminals and “rapists,” whereas the Bible says, “And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt,” Deuteronomy 10:19 (NIV). Weren’t we all foreigners once? The only ones who can say they are truly from this land are Native Americans because they were here first.
Many things can be gathered from these scriptures, but when it is applied to the issues Americans face today, it is evident that Jesus is concerned about lives outside of the womb just as much as inside.
Photo by Emma Crouch
