An Election Perspective

Kudos to Julie Unplugged for this article (of which I excerpted the following):

Why I'm Pro-life and Pro-Obama
by Frank Schaeffer

On Republicans and Evangelical Leaders:
In 2000, we elected a president who claimed he believed God created the earth and who, as president, put car manufacturers and oil company's interests ahead of caring for that creation. We elected a pro-life Republican Congress that did nothing to actually care for pregnant women and babies. And they took their sincere evangelical followers for granted, and played them for suckers.

The so-called evangelical leadership -- Dobson, Robertson et al. also played the pro-life community for suckers. While thousands of men and women in the crisis pregnancy movement gave of themselves to help women and babies, their evangelical "leaders" did little more than cash in on fundraising opportunities and represent themselves as power-brokers to the craven politicians willing to kowtow to them
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On the Clintons:
Obama's rivals for the nomination -- the Clintons -- do not inspire. When the Clintons were in the White House they talked about humane values while Bill Clinton betrayed every single person who voted for him by carrying on an unseemly sexual dalliance in the Oval Office with a young woman barely out of her teens. Since that time the Clintons have enriched themselves through their connections to a point where they're able to make a $5 million personal loan to their campaign.

For someone who says she has spent "the last 35 years of my life as an advocate for children" and/or "fighting for healthcare" that's a lot of money to have collected through doing good works. Presidential Mother Teresa wannabes shouldn't be doing deals with uranium mining outfits in Kazakhstan while schmoozing with the likes of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and wealthy mining magnates -- not if they want the moral authority to lead.
On Obama:
Today when I listen to Obama speak (and to his remarkable wife, Michelle) what I hear is a world view that actually nurtures life. Obama is trying to lead this country to a place where the intrinsic worth of each individual is celebrated. A leader who believes in hope, the future, trying to save our planet and providing a just and good life for everyone is someone who is actually pro-life.

The society that Obama is calling us to sacrifice for is a place wherein life would be valued not just talked about. As he said in his speech delivered on February 6 in New Orleans, "Too often, we lose our sense of common destiny; that understanding that we are all tied together; that when a woman has less than nothing in this country, that makes us all poorer." Obama was talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but his words also apply to our overall view of ourselves.
The real solution to abortion is to change the heart of America, not the law. We need to stop seeing ourselves as consumers. We need to stop seeing ourselves as me and begin to think of we. Our country needs someone to show us a better way, a president who is what he seems, someone with actual moral authority that our diverse population can believe in who has the qualities that make us want to follow him. Obama is that person.

I encourage you to read Frank's whole article here.

4 comments:

  1. Excellent article! Thanks for sharing. I have felt much the same way as he describes. Adding to the 'pro-life' question in Iraq - when you don't just consider American lives, but also Iraqi (and/or Iranian in the future), then a culture of death seems to pervade the politics of the right (and the politics of Ms. Clinton - she's always been a democratic hawk and has always supported the decision to go to war in Iraq). And don't get me started on consumerism!!! I read some great Christian posts today on that topic:
    http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/realeasing/
    http://nathangann.com/?p=126

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  2. Totally agree about Iraqi lives, Sarah. I can't stand it when Americans treat them like they are collateral damage.

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  3. This is precisely why I choose to caucus for Obama yesterday. We have to change the hearts of America, not the abortion law. (No matter who is in the White House, I just don't see that law changing.) In reading one of his books, listening to his speeches, watching him in the debates, I can proudly say that I am a Christ-follower, and a supporter of his. It took me a while to get there, but it was worth all the time it took to get to know the candidates to discover which one seems to really have American's best interests at heart.

    Thanks for sharing the article.

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  4. Obama voted against parental notification laws. You can't give your daughter her asthma medication to carry in class, but she can abort her child with the help of her school counselor without your knowledge or consent. Also, and most chillingly, he voted against the "infant born alive protection act."

    Where the rubber meets the road, he voted for direct death and a lessening of the family's role in a child's life.

    Please 'plain to me, Ricky, how his charism, intelligence and pleasant personality will make it safer for these children?

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