Newsom makes a similarly flimsy theological argument with his suggestion that the duty to love our neighbor obligates us to facilitate their abortions. The #LoveIsLove crowd would have you believe that loving someone means doing what they want you to do, but God has a different definition of love. Love does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth (1 Cor. 13:6). That means that love does not require or even allow us to facilitate someone’s sin.
A strange development is taking place in the American political landscape. At precisely the moment the Left is sounding the alarm about the growing threat of “Christian nationalism” (see here, here, here, and here), they are increasingly employing religious arguments in support of their policy preferences.
Perhaps the most glaring example is California Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) decision to quote Jesus in a series of billboards he placed in seven states to advertise the state’s new abortion tourism laws. Recently, California decided they will not only pay for the abortions of people who live in other states, they’ll cover travel expenses as well. They won’t pay for cancer treatments, chiropractor appointments, chronic dental problems, mammograms, adoption expenses, or the expenses associated with raising a child. Just your abortions.
The billboard quotes Jesus’s words from the gospel of Mark, “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.” Apparently, Gavin Newsom believes that if you love people, you will help them get abortions.
Democrat Raphael Warnock, a United States Senator from Georgia who is a self-described “pro-choice pastor,” is in a close re-election campaign with former football player Herschel Walker. Like Governor Newsom, he recently invoked God in his support for abortion. “I trust women in their wisdom and their ability to sit with their own God, and if they choose, choose to sit with their pastor, to pray about that, and let their own conscience guide them,” Warnock said. “Even God gave us a choice.”
Does the fact that God gave us the ability to choose mean that he is indifferent to the choices we make? Of course not. The entire Christian gospel is built on the premise that it is necessary for all people to “repent and believe” (Mark 1:14-15). Repentance is necessary because of sin, and sin is what God calls it when we make the wrong choice. Contrary to Warnock’s suggestion, God is not pleased simply because we made a choice. God wants us to make the right choice — and there are deadly consequences if we don’t.
Newsom makes a similarly flimsy theological argument with his suggestion that the duty to love our neighbor obligates us to facilitate their abortions.
