The 2012 Election - Albert Mohler

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

September 6, 2012



 *The Great American Worldview Test - The 2012 Election*


 *Thursday, September 6, 2012*


 *In his latest blog article, “The Great American Worldview Test - The 1012
Election,” R. Albert Mohler Jr. writes about the radical difference between
the worldviews represented by the Democratic and Republican platforms,
respectively. Mohler suggests that the moral implication of these distinct
platforms could not be more serious. He writes:*


 “*We are not looking at minor matters of political difference. We are
staring into the abyss of comprehensive moral conflict. Christian voters
can escape neither the consequences of their vote, nor the fact that our
most basic convictions will be revealed in the voting booth come November.”*


 *Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., serves as president of the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, the flagship school of the Southern Baptist
Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world.*



 *American presidential elections are the world’s most public display of
the democratic process. The global media follow the American elections with
a fervor that is easily understood - what happens in an American
presidential election matters all over the world. Our presidential
campaigns are political pageants and electoral dynamos. But, as any honest
thoughtful observer will understand, our elections are also great worldview
exercises. We reveal our worldview by our vote.*


 *This is particularly true of the 2012 election. The presidential nominees
of the two major parties represent two very different worldviews and
visions. President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney have adopted
policy positions that placed them in direct conflict, and the platforms of
their respective parties reveal to radically different rendering of reality.
*


 *Year ago, Governor George Wallace of Alabama remarked with disdain that
there is not “a dime’s worth of difference” between the Democrats and the
Republicans. In a sense, he was at least partly right. A look back at the
platforms of the two parties in the 1950s and 1960s reveals little division
over many of the issues that now frame our national debate. Some of today’s
issues were simply missing, of course, given the fact that they were not
even part of the national conversation. But on issues of the economy,
foreign policy, the function of government, and a host of other issues, the
parties held positions that were far closer than is the case today.
Divisive issues such as then was in Vietnam would be addressed with
different policy proposals, but the platforms of the two parties reflected
a shared moral and political framework - a truth that would shock many
Americans today.*


 *All that changed with the social and political divisions that came with
the 1968 and 1972 elections, when the Democratic Party experienced its
great transformation concerning a host of social issues. The 1980 election
saw the Republicans experience their own transformation, with social issues
such as abortion rising to major attention in the party platform.*


 *Fast forward to 2012, and the distance between the two parties is
breathtaking. The nation's political polarization is clearly evident in the
radical distinctions between the Republican and Democratic platforms. But
this polarization is not merely political. It is fundamentally moral and
ideological. These two platforms present two contradictory understandings
of realities as basic as human life, liberty, and the institution of
marriage.*


 *Though the two parties have taken opposing positions on many of these
issues for years, the radical nature of this current polarization is new.*


 *The parties differ about matters such as health care and the environment,
the power of public employee unions, Medicare, and foreign policy. But
those differences, real and consequential, place in contrast with the
positions taken by the parties concerning the issues of abortion and
same-sex marriage.*


 *In 2012, the Democratic Party becomes the first major political party in
the United States to call for the legalization of same-sex marriage. “We
support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal
treatment under the law for same-sex couples,” states the platform. This
follows President Obama’s announcement earlier this year that his
“evolving” position on same-sex marriage now reached the point that he
would openly call for same-sex couples to be given the legal right to marry.
*


 *The velocity of the Democratic Party’s shift concerning same-sex marriage
was on full display on the site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention,
when former President Bill Clinton nominated President Obama for
re-election. In 1996, President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA) into law after a massive bi-partisan majority in Congress approved
the legislation. That act established that the United States government
would recognize only the union of a man and a woman as marriage, and that
no state would be required to recognize a same-sex union performed in any
other state.*


 *Just 16 years later, the Democratic president who signed that act into
law nominated a Democratic president who is working for its repeal.
President Obama has ordered his Attorney General not to defend DOMA in the
Federal courts. He and his party now openly call for what that federal
statute - still bearing the full force of law - prohibits.*


 *The Republican platform stated: “We affirm our support for a
Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one
woman.” Thus, the Republican platform calls for nothing less that a
Constitutional amendment to prevent what the Democratic platform demands
the law to affirm. That Constitutional amendment, Republicans argue, is
made necessary by the very fact that the Democratic President will not
defend DOMA.*


 *On the issue of abortion,the Republican platform states, “we assert the
sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental
individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” The Democratic
platform states: “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports
Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy,
including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We
oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”*


 *The worldview clash could hardly be more dramatic. The Republicans frame
the issue in terms of the unborn child’s “fundamental individual right to
life.” The Democrats frame the issue as “a woman’s right to make decisions”
- including the explicit right to decide to kill the baby in her womb.
These are two contradictory moral claims.*


 *One party claims that no abortions should be legal and the other claims
that all abortions should be legal. Each party is driven by their own moral
logic. The Republicans are driven by the belief that, at every point of
development, every individual human being is sacred and has a fundamental
right to life. The Democrats are driven by the belief that the woman’s
unfettered right to choose an abortion is paramount, and that a woman can
demand an abortion at any time for any reason - or for no reason. As their
language states, “We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that
right.” The most revealing words there are “any” and “all.”*


 *Both parties hold these positions because they are, in truth, the
inevitable consequences of basic worldview assumptions. These assumptions
include belief that marriage is essential to human flourishing and cannot
be redefined without bringing on human disaster, contrasted with the belief
that the liberation of humanity from oppression and prejudice requires the
redefinition of marriage. In the background are contradictory assumptions
about human sexuality, sexual morality, moral authority, individual
autonomy, and the ends to which human beings are to aim their lives.*


 *The assumptions framing the abortion positions of the two parties include
the belief that every human life is sacred and to be protected at every
point of development contrasted with the belief that a human life takes on
greater worth and right to live as the development continues, but is
tentative at least unto the moment of live birth. The belief that the baby
is itself the most urgent moral unit is contrasted with the belief that the
woman and her right to control her own reproductive destiny is paramount.
Behind these beliefs stand convictions and assumptions about human dignity,
the worth of human life, the responsibility of the society to every human
life, the purpose and end of human reproduction, and nothing less than the
meaning of both life and death.*


 *We are not looking at minor matters of political difference. We are
staring into the abyss of comprehensive moral conflict. Christian voters
can escape neither the consequences of their vote, nor the fact that our
most basic convictions will be revealed in the voting booth come November.
Christians cannot face these questions without the knowledge that God is
the Giver of life, who made every human life in his image. We cannot
consider this election without the knowledge that our Creator has given us
the covenant of marriage as the union of one man and one woman as the
demonstration of his glory and the promise of human flourishing.*


 *Americans will elect a president in November, but our vote will reveal
far more than our political preference. The 2012 election is a worldview
exercise of unprecedented contrasts - an unavoidable test of our most basic
convictions. The electoral map will reveal more than an election winner. It
will reveal who Americans really are and what we believe.*


 *NOTE**: *My wife Marie and I are 89; so in a sense the upcoming election
won’t have that much of an impact on us. But - we are parents of 3;
grandparents of 7; great-grandparents of 2. For *them* - our vote is *most
important*!


 After reading the above article by Albert Mohler, Marie wrote: “This is
the *most powerful* I’ve ever read concerning voting - answering to God,
especially on moral concepts - and on our Contrasting Parties.


 I personally came across Dr. Albert Mohler a few months ago by chance
while surfing the Net to find confirmation on a “Pornographic” article. I
was impressed with his clear understanding and analysis of the problem.


 I served as Assistant Pastor in Chicago in 1949 under Dr. D.A. (Scotchie)
McCall, Senior Pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church. He was uncle to Dr.
Duke McCall - then President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.


 Both Marie and I felt this is an article that will help both Christians
and thoughtful citizens in their voting obligations this November - Jim &
Marie Watt



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