You know it must be a momentous occasion when James Dobson and the New York Times agree on anything. On moral and political issues, they disagree almost completely, but on one major point they are united. This is a turning point election in American history. In its
endorsement of Barack Obama, the New York Times says that “this year the nation’s future truly hangs in the balance.” And James Dobson,
writing in favor of John McCain (pdf), says that this election is about “the future of the nation."
I agree 100%.
All week long I’ve been thinking about what I should say. I thought about giving a long statement about various issues, but somehow that didn’t seem like the right thing to do. Late this afternoon I remembered that in November 2000, just before the national elections that year, I wrote a sermon addressing what seemed to me to be the greatest issue of all. After going back and looking at it, I slightly edited it and added a few new links. Other than that, it is the same sermon I gave eight years ago. I decided to post it with a 2008 date because I still believe today what I wrote back then.
The sermon is called
Choose Life!I can’t tell you how to vote, but I do want to set forth what is for me the central issue in this election. It’s not the economy and it’s not national security, important as those two issues are.
Dante said, “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”
You’ll have to make up your mind how to vote next Tuesday. I’m writing this so you’ll know where I stand.
You also condemn McCain as “pro-war” but then justify continued fighting in Afghanistan simply because Obama (supposedly) has a “clear mission.” So, I guess not all war is bad after all, right? Or is it that Afghanis can resist fundamentalists but Americans cannot?
Finally, it is farcical to compare as equal both abortion and the killing done in war. Such a claim of moral equivalence is shameful and ignorant. Abortion is the murder of defenseless and innocent human beings. Acts of self-defense, like America’s, are born from the protection of the innocent. No killing in this regard has ever been defined as "murder." Hard not to know the difference.