Why Faith Issues are Important

I felt the need to clarify this after I read this & this today and a fine gentleman left a comment on one of my posts. He linked to his own blog so I went and took a look and his most recent dealt with that fairly directly and in the process derided "Right Wing" Christians for standing on some principles over others. Particularly faith based issues including Gay Marriage, Abortion, etc... He wanted to know why things like that are more important than say, Iraq, or World Hunger, or the Environment for example. My hope is to give him and all of you visiting today a good answer to that question. Lets start with abortion and why it is important to stand on the biblical principle that all human life is precious, created and blessed of God. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that this gentleman is a Catholic Seminary Student.

Abortion should be important to true Christians for the very reason that a basic right to live and have life more abundantly is crucial to our faith. Without that right all others are meaningless. But to go a bit farther it should be especially important to Christians to reach those who might be candidates for abortion. Specifically those who believe that indiscriminate sex with whomever, whenever you want is a plausable moral grey area. Even a "life choice", to use the common phrase. To be more direct, abortion is an important issue because of the sin that brings them about. No, not just the physical act of intercourse. Sin is born an idea and this idea begins as a thought.

Let me digress for a moment though and expand this to include Gay Marriage as well as my larger point of importantce and relevance deals with both equally and both are born equally of the same moral breakdown.

Families... as God intended them Genesis 2:22 or 2:24 . It starts with individuals & familes, the enemy's primary target as it relates to you, an individual is to steal, kill and destroy you and thereby destroy your family. Once the family is destroyed, a community suffers, when a community suffers a city may suffer, when a city suffers, a county may suffer, when a county suffers, a state may suffer, when a state suffers, etc... I am sure you get the point. Now while this is a generalization, it is the very reason why these two faith issues are and should be important to Christians. In battle, you protect your fortress, your foundations first, then move out from there.

It is simple really, the basic principles our God laid out for us and His instruction manual are just that. None of us are perfect, but these are meant to be followed and obeyed when at all possible. He gave us everything we need to live, we need only believe Him and laid hold of them.

Here are two posts also that I made earlier that deal with nearly the same things:

Through the negative looking glass

You need proof?
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Update: 06/20/2006

Presbyterian Church opens door to gay clergy: From Reuters

Kim Clayton Richter of the Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, a member of the same group, said it's wrong to interpret the Bible literally on homosexuality.

"You cannot pick out two or three passages to prove your point. You have to look at the whole witness of Jesus Christ. We've changed our mentality on slavery and the role of women. We have to change with reality," Richter said.

Ok, now in unless I am mistaken there are only two or three passages in the bible that even speak to homosexuality and all of them say the same thing...Its not ok with God! As for the witness of Christ in its fullness, Jesus never mentioned homosexuality as he did the other portions of the OT that he meant to improve upon or elaborate on, He left the subject alone entirely. Which if we relate this to other portions of scripture in the NT can only mean he believed it to be a settled matter. See Christ's own words regarding the old laws:
Matthew 5:17-20 says clearly

17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

As for Mr. Richter's comments about slavery and the role of women, changing with reality, etc... Hank Hanegraaff from http://www.equip.org sums it up very clearly,

"there is an obvious difference between enduring moral principles regarding homosexuality and temporary civil and ceremonial laws relegated to a particular historical context."
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I got a comment that I want to address , the gentleman states:

"Life begins at the state of consciousness. Therefore, to take an unborn life requires that the unborn be aware of it's existance. It is not. Why?

The spirit or soul, if you prefer, does not entered into the flesh while the embryo is still in a growing state of being. Conciousness can only occure after the embryo is fully formed and in which the spirit then enters. The process of birth begins.

I hope this helps you to understand that abortion is not and never was a sin. The spirit or soul is never harmed and may wait for another time to be reborn."

First let me say, Reborn? LJ must be a New Ager or something but that is really beside the point. The real misconception is his/her first statement. That Consciousness is the key to when "Life" begins. Or maybe what they were trying to say is, life is not important unless it has a soul attached? Either way that assumption (and that is what it is) makes no sense. "Life" begins at conception or implantation, that is a medical fact. Most Christians believe that a life contains a soul from that point on, or at least has a soul intended for it. Regardless, the point still stands, all Human Life is precious in God's sight and therefor should not be killed off. The idea that when an abortion occurs the soul gets told, "well sorry maybe next time charlie" is ludicrous and a poor justification for taking a human life. Sorry LJ, good answer, but its WRONG!!