The presidential election was over pretty early last night (compared to ’00 and ’04), but I stayed up until after 2am anyway to find out the results of Proposition 8 in California. When I finally went to bed, the vote count was too close to call, and it was still too close when I checked the news this morning. The Los Angeles Times and other news outlets are now reporting that Proposition 8 has passed. So the state constitution of California will now include the following sentence: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The amendment passed with a slim majority, but this…
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Post-Election Columns to Read
The opinion writers are out in full force this morning. Some of them have good things to say, and some not so good. Here are a few I would like to highlight. First, don’t miss Michael Gerson’s two columns this morning for the Washington Post: “Hail to the Chief” and “The Decency of George W. Bush.” The first duly notes Obama’s historic achievement and the latter takes on the conventional wisdom about President Bush. Both of these are must-reads. Second, Albert Mohler’s reflections are always worth reading. He has sized-up things very well in his article “America Has Chosen a President.” Here’s an excerpt:
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Post-Election Reflections
I have written a great deal about the presidential campaign over the last year, and I think it’s only appropriate to share some things that I am grateful for now that it’s all over. 1. The Sovereignty of God. I am so grateful to serve a Savior who once looked into the eyes of a calculating Roman politician and said, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” Jesus knew what has been true all along about the kingdoms of men. They rise and fall according to the ordination of a sovereign God. “The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men…
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My Closing Argument for Life on Election Eve
Tomorrow America will go to the polls and elect the next President of the United States. In advance of this vote, I have used my blog space to make the case that the transcendent issue of this election is abortion, and I want to make this case one more time. The current law of our land excludes from the human community a whole class of human beings—the unborn. Right now under the regime of Roe v. Wade, it is legal in our country to kill unborn human beings at any stage of development from 0-9 months gestation. In other words, our nation’s laws do not recognize an intrinsic right to…
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The Coming Election and Abortion Politics
I have heard many so-called “pro-lifers” argue that having a “pro-life” President hasn’t really furthered the cause of life in this country. I don’t think that argument is really very serious at all. President Bush’s two Supreme Court appointments (Roberts and Alito) led the court to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion. Now the court is at a tipping point again, and that is the point made in a USA Today article by Joan Biskupic: “John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s dueling statements on abortion rights have ratcheted up debate over the future of Roe v. Wade at a time when the Supreme Court could be at a crossroads on…
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John Piper on Voting for a Female Vice-President
On Friday, I noted a video in which John Piper makes remarks about Barack Obama. In that same video, he also has some things to say about Sarah Palin’s candidacy: “I personally think that it would have been better for [Sarah Palin] to stay at home with her disabled child–both for the good of the family and as a model for moms. So that’s a factor for me. I don’t think that biblically a woman should be the commander-in-chief of the . . . armed forces. And so that puts her in a very awkward position for me.” I noticed some commenters at Justin Taylor’s website who interpreted Piper to…
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John Piper on Barack Obama
John Piper released a short video today with some wise observations about the presidential election. Among the other things he talked about, his assessment of Barack Obama is particularly helpful. “Abortion is an evil the scope of which and depths of which very few people in our culture feel. The magnitude of it’s just horrific. . . 12 million black babies dead since 1973. I don’t think Barack Obama will touch that with a ten foot pole. And he should. . . He’s the most radical abortion proponent in the United States Congress, and that’s tragic.” You can see the rest of Piper’s remarks in the video above.
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Pro-life and Pro-Obama? Hardly.
Many Catholics and Evangelicals have been making the case of late that supporting Barack Obama for President represents another way of being pro-life. The argument goes something like this. (1) The constitutional battles are over, pro-lifers have lost, and Roe vs. Wade is settled law. (2) There are other evils that Christians are bound to oppose besides abortion that Republicans tend to ignore—like the war in Iraq, torture, etc. (3) Liberalized social-welfare policies will lessen the need for abortions among poor women. Since Obama is a liberal on such matters, the abortion rate will therefore go down under an Obama administration. On this reasoning, Roman Catholics like Doug Kmiec and…
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J. Budziszewski on Prioritizing the Abortion Issue
J. Budziszewski has penned a helpful piece illustrating the transcendent nature of the abortion issue. The short narrative is a fictional conversation between himself and two students asking about abortion. The question is this. Who do you vote for when you think both candidates would enact “evil” policies? How can you vote at all when your only choices are a pro-abortion candidate and a pro-unjust war candidate? He concludes that in the current case, abortion-on-demand in America is a far worse evil than the so-called unjust war in Iraq. “Ballot Box Blues” – by J. Budziszewski (Boundless Webzine)
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Powell’s Endorsement and the Pro-life Cause
This morning on “Meet the Press,” Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States. Many viewers were no doubt surprised by this given that Powell is an old military man and a Republican (like John McCain). Nevertheless, folks have often overlooked some of Powell’s political views that make him less than your run-of-the-mill Republican.
