a thoroughgoing comparison/contrast might be helpful for the modern Christian to understand his or her first and transcendent responsibility.

A couple things to keep in mind. Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis were dubbed evangelical leaders of the left and basically went on the campaign trail for Howard Dean and the DNC for nearly 2 years. The excuses that they made on the abortion issue were absolutely inexcusable. I witnessed Tony Campolo transition from being a person who was largely non-partisan at one point in his career, to becoming heavily invested both emotionally and professionally, for the sole purpose of getting Democrats elected. So let’s be careful to acknowledge that Christians of all political persuasions can get off track.

Secondarily, I agree with you that Christians should be careful to avoid issue oriented politics. Personally, I think we’ve made a big mistake by not helping younger Christians develop a comprehensive Biblical world view, in large part because we focus almost exclusively on the abortion issue. I can actually understand why many younger Christians in particular start to roll their eyes when the topic comes up, even though I agree it is the most critical “issue” of our age.

Thirdly, I agree that Bush and the GOP deserves much criticism. Actually, I think you’ll find that some of the people you probably dislike the most, like Dobson, have also been very critical of Bush at times.

Lastly, I do not think that your view on the war in Iraq is very nuanced. Surely you can recognize the difference between a war of aggression and the situation we had there, where Saddam Hussein had thrown weapons inspectors out of the country and had deliberately and in a very hostile fashion, violated 17 UN resolutions. And that is just the beginning of Hussein’s despotism. It is certainly fair to say that you think Bush shouldn’t have gone to Iraq, but I don’t think it is fair for you to dismiss the reality that far more people were being tortured by his special police, in ways that America has NEVER done, or that innocent people weren’t at risk or that Bush had no valid reason to do what he did. The healthcare issue is also far more complicated than you make it out to be. I could point to the government run healthcare systems of Europe and Canada and observe that these have tragic consequences for an entire nation and result in chronic shortages in healthcare for everyone. Meanwhile, uninsured people in our nation receive billions of dollars in health care every single day. Point is, you make these issues out to be some kind of morally bankrupt positions (on the part of conservatives/Bush) and simply because you disagree with them, I do not think this is fair or objective at all – especially not when you consider those issues in comparison to abortion, which is far more black and white, at least from a Christian perspective.

When the phrase is used and described, as Derek has done, it is much more useful and beneficial as opposed to just crying that you have the “biblical worldview” and Obama doesn’t.

Thanks for sharing…

Great point.

Thanks for your post. You make an excellent point. I am generally leery of ‘Christian World View’ arguments because they are so often more a defense of Modern Christianity rather than a more transcendent, historical view. This is why endeavors like “The Truth Project” are so frustrating to me. There is much good there, but is completely overshadowed with the taint of modern bias, horrendous proof-texting, and a grand missing of the point.

But, of course, a pure concept of Christian world view is not only legit, but vital. Along those lines, I think you are right about Obama.

Darius (#7)… I completely agree.

– He believes that Jesus Christ is one of many valid means of salvation (by the way, the same is true of George W. Bush and I have pointed this out on numerous occasions as well)

– His policies with regard to gay marriage will have a profound impact on the next generation. Tolerance of homosexuality will transition into celebration under Obama’s administration, if he keeps his word.

– I have paid particular interest in the types of judges Obama will nominate because I am convinced that Obama (a constitutional lawyer himself) sees the judiciary as the primary agent of cultural change. In short, the types of judges he will nominate believe in the restriction of religious liberties and are largely aligned with the ACLU.

– Watch for religious organizations, especially Christian ones, to become subject to lawsuits and government sanctions under the pretext that they are “hateful and bigoted” agents. This will occur because a good number of the organizations and individuals who worked so hard for Obama’s nomination, even over other like minded but less committed liberals, desperately want this, so deep is their antagonism towards Biblically centered Christianity.

– The recent repeal of the so called Mexico City policy demonstrates that he is in alignment with those who believe that global population has to be curbed (largely because they view over-population and not original sin as the cause of poverty and pollution) and they will use any means necessary to curb it. By the way, this idea has roots in the eugenics movement and in the racially motivated agenda of Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger.

– In regards to abortion, Obama is not necessarily enthused about abortion itself (I assume), but rather about “reproductive freedom”. Again, abortion is just the fruit on the tree, not the root cause.

Worldview matters a great deal. If we have a fundamental disagreement about how and why the world is suffering and in various states of chaos, the political solutions will follow accordingly. Obama believes that abortion is a moral necessity, because he misunderstands the problem (he thinks that the problem is largely outward, rather than mankind’s inherent sin nature). This leads him to humananistic, secular and utopian-style solutions and to a notion that mankind must solve man’s problems.

I understand why we must pay special attention to the abortion issue, but we must not forget that people believe abortion is a moral good and/or necessity mostly because of their underlying core belief system.