Grace Not Culture Wars
We all saw it coming. Trump made no secret of how he was going to nominate people to the Supreme Court as Mitch McConnell prevented President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland from getting a hearing. McConnel then fast tracked the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to make sure Biden didn’t get to make the nomination. All with the intent of overturning Roe vs Wade.
Today is not a surprise, but it saddens me; it distresses me; it infuriates me. I say this not in spite of being a Christian, but rather because I am a Christian. I’d even call myself pro-life and yet I still feel this was a horrible day for America.
The culture wars have been raging in this nation for decades and in the midst of those wars we have forgotten the people who are being hurt. It’s been all win or lose on the issues and if people who bear the image of God have to be sacrificed in the process sobeit. Grace, compassion, love, empathy have all been lost in the rhetoric. As has integrity.
I called out my Christian friends in 2016 as they considered voting for Trump. Many of them persisted because of this one issue. They decided to turn a blind eye to all the sexism, racism, and authoritarian tendencies that were evident to anyone with eyes to see. They voted for him anyway. My non-Christian friends and friends on the fringe of the church looked on in bewilderment as they could not reconcile what they were seeing with what they knew of Jesus and were pushed further away from the church. I love the church, it saddens me.
Genuflecting before the flag, Trump, and McConnell, I watched many step into and openly embrace the idolatry of Christian Nationalism. They turned from the kingdom of God to embrace a power of this world, the government of the United States as the means to impose their morality on all people. They were interested in winning, they said it clearly, “I’m voting for Trump so Roe vs Wade gets overturned.” I call out the idolatry.
Today they won a victory in the culture wars. But at what cost? Certainly faithful witness to the gospel is one of the casualties in the culture wars.
With some thirteen states ready to go with their “trigger laws” abortion will be illegal in those states almost instantaneously. What provisions have they put in place to develop a support network of affordable health care for the additional cost of carrying a pregnancy to full term, the cost of raising a kid, and for those without insurance? What provisions have been put in place to increase foster care and adoption services? What provisions have been put in place for more affordable day care, living wages, and affordable housing? What additional mental health provisions have been built into these laws to help support women? What additional consequences do there need to be for men who don’t want to or won’t stick around to raise their children? Are they willing to raise taxes to make this happen?
You see, if these questions aren’t addressed then don’t pretend to be truly pro-life, because without these issues being adequately addressed we’ll see an increase in maternal mortality, infant mortality, poverty, and probably abuse as well. This infuriates me.
On the increase in poverty, if you’re a Christian, just read what the Scriptures say about how you need to care for the poor. This distresses me.
A number of years ago I was at a conference in Washington DC. Jim Wallis, Richard Rohr, and Anne Lamott were on a panel. An audience member asked Father Rohr he could possibly share a stage with pro-choice Anne Lamott. It was a nasty and pointed question and Anne blew her top, “No one’s going to tell me what to do with my fucking uterus!” Jim Wallis stepped into the middle ground. He talked about all that needed to happen to make abortion unneeded and unnecessary in our culture. Slowly the room calmed down again as everyone found a place of agreement. There was cooperation and collaboration to bring a third way for looking at the question. It’s easy to be defensive, it’s a challenge to try and see if there’s another way to work together.
The lack of grace and “in your face” celebrations by the Christian right is despicable and not the way of Jesus. It is the way of the religious leaders that Jesus was quick to criticize.
It saddens me because our culture made this a win/lose issue. Life is not about winning or losing. It’s about a journey. In the movie Patch Adams, as he stands before the medical panel of doctors who will decide his future he says, “You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you’ll win, no matter what the outcome.”
We aren’t treating people with the dignity they deserve. We aren’t treating people as grace and compassion. This has to change.
In John’s gospel we read of a woman was caught in the sin of adultery Jesus stood beside her. The angry crowd ready to stone her. He kneels down and starts scribbling in the sand. The crowd averts their gaze to the ground, breaking their homogeneity. He stands back up and addresses the crowd, “Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.” He kneels again and waits. The crowd slowly disperses, the older (presumably wiser) folks leave first. Jesus neither condemns nor condones the woman; he simply stands by her and offers her a way to a new life.
As a follower of Jesus I’m happy to draw in the dirt for anyone who needs help to avert the gaze of an angry crowd. It creates space for grace.
