Since when did abortion become the calling card for Christians? It seems to me if you are a Christian, you are automatically pro-life. If you are not pro-life, your status as a Christian becomes questionable. Abortion seems to be an extremely volatile subject for Christians. This election year it seems a number of Christians are voting solely on abortion, ignoring or at least relegating all other issues.

When did abortion become the Christian hot potato, to the exclusion of other seemingly Christian issues like racism, caring for the poor, loving the outcast, and salvation? Don’t get me wrong, these issues are important to Christians, but none of them stir up response like abortion. If you even remotely come across as anything but pro-life, Christians take notice and question your logic, your beliefs, your salvation. But if you hate white trash (one example of a modern day Samaritan?), no one thinks anything of it. Is either virtue “more” Christian? I remember Jesus eating lunch with the outcasts, but I don’t remember Jesus lecturing the Romans for infanticide. Not that I’m trying to claim Jesus wasn’t pro-life, but it seems like he was more concerned with other issues. Why aren’t we as concerned with the same issues?

And if abortion is such a hot Christian topic, what are we doing about it? This question really bothers me because I can’t come up with a suitable answer. If Christians want to be ecstatically pro-life, that’s great. But they better be doing something about it, not just slapping bumper stickers on their Buicks and voting for Republicans. If abortion is such a big deal, do we act like it? I honestly don’t think we do. For all the people who have told me how pro-life they are, I don’t know one of them who has talked to a teenage single mother and helped her through such a life changing event. I don’t know a single pro-lifer who has loved a woman seeking an abortion and spent the time necessary to show that woman Christ–whether the friendship resulted in abortion or a baby. Loving regardless of the results is what Christ would have us do. Yet are we doing that? If it’s happening, I don’t see it. Instead I see t-shirts, web sites, bumper stickers, books, magazine articles, pamphlets, graphic stories, and protest signs. Not a one shows the love of Christ; a love so world stopping he stood at the drinking fountain and talked with a woman who has had six abortions; a love so amazing he ate dinner with an abortion doctor; a love so dumbfounding that he cried precious tears for an aborted life, then took the would-have-been mother in his arms and died on the cross for her.

People don’t listen. When it comes to politics very few people have an open mind. I wrote an article for my school paper, basically making the point that Christians should move beyond strictly voting Republican, and examine all the issues–especially moving past polarizing issues like abortion. My assumption was that abortion is no more important than education or taxes or social justice or the death penalty. So why vote strictly on abortion and pay so little attention to the other issues? Apparently some people didn’t get that from my article.

I find it very frustrating. I wish I could sit down with each person and hear their reasoning. They obviously missed my point and I’d love to be able to explain it again. I’d love to hear their reaction and figure out why they think the way they do.

Christians confuse me. Many Christians respond in anger and outrage to abortion, they start quoting scripture, and tell graphic stories of what actually happens during an abortion. Now I’m not in favor of abortion. Make sure you hear this, I do not condone abortion. I do not accept the practice. I do not like abortion. But I find it very perplexing that so many Christians take such a vehement stand on abortion, yet seem unmoved on other issues. The Bible is full of examples of God favoring the poor over the rich, yet few Christians vote this way. The death penalty is another troubling issue. Texas has put to death more inmates than any other state, and George W. Bush fully supports this practice. Yet pro-life Christians don’t seem to mind.

And we get so bent out of shape over abortion, as if it were a new social evil. Abortion has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. At some times abortion was considered completely acceptable by Christians. The church understood life to begin at “quickening,” which was when the mother could feel the baby moving. Therefore if the abortion was terminated before like began, it was perfectly acceptable. Hence a woman four months pregnant could have an abortion without the church calling hellfire down upon her. Yet now we seem to know when life begins. Christians declare abortion the ultimate evil. Then comes the abortion pill, recently legalized by the Food and Drug Administration. The abortion occurs even earlier in the pregnancy, yet we still consider it abortion. Now here’s where it gets fun, turn to methods of contraception that unnaturally mess with a woman’s hormones and make it nearly impossible for her to become pregnant, and Christians seem to fully support them. Some Christians seem to have a drawn a fine line between where life starts and where it doesn’t.

I find it troubling that Christians can so vehemently reject abortion and so nonchalantly accept contraceptives.

Why am I always worried about what I get out of worship? The point of worship is to glorify God. He is the primary audience member. Yet I’m worried about myself. Is the room hot or cold, do I have to sit or stand, are the songs slow or fast, familiar or new, hymns or praise choruses? For some reason all of this matters to me and I get all bent out of shape if a worship service doesn’t fit my expectations. If the drummer plays a style I don’t care for or if the worship leader gestures like a preschool teacher I get annoyed.

But since when was the worship service centered around me? Worship is for God. I don’t matter. The value of worship is not judged on the spiritual high I walk away with. Worship is judged on whether or not God is pleased.

And yet I still strive for what I want. I shop for the church that suites my needs, I look for the upbeat worship service that I like. Yet that’s not really what’s important. Don’t people make the church? So why do I base my church selection on programs, pastors, and the style of the service? Do I even know what priorities are?