Given that abortion is a make-it-or-break-it issue for you politically, what will you do when both candidates are pro-choice?
I remember being at the Washington, DC rally for pro-life fifteen years ago maybe. James Dobson was one of the main speakers, and he said very forcefully—and the crowd exploded with applause—"I will never cast a vote for a pro-choice candidate!" And everything in me said, "Right!" I mean, a person like our present president who finds it within him not to even put the least restrictions legally on late-term, even partial-birth, brain-sucking-out killing of viable babies is morally bankrupt! It's really bad. So now he runs against somebody who believes the same thing, next election maybe. What should I do?
Say, "I don't vote! I don't vote in this country anymore! It can go to hell in a handbasket as far as I'm concerned. I'm out of here. I'm not participating in the system"? I can understand that option. But I don't feel as strongly that way as I did fifteen years ago. We live in a crazy world where wickedness abounds. I don't expect this world to be revived through politics. I don't expect the awakening that we so desperately need to make America even viable to come through politics. I expect it to come through the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel running through revived churches.
My part in how the government works is relatively minor, small. It's not of the essence to my life. And so I could imagine looking at the constellation of things that a person stands for and what they might do as that level, and voting for the lesser of two pro-choice evils.
So that would be my answer, I think. Though I would respect very much somebody who is saying that to vote for either would be to compromise.
By John Piper. © 2009 Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
