Can One Still Be a Christian and a Democrat?

With such a provocative title to this post, perhaps I should pour a little water on any incandescent anger, and say I do not presume to have a definitive answer to that question.

Not unlike orthodox Christians who remain in The Episcopal Church, there are committed orthodox Christians who remain in the Democrat Party out of loyalty, out of understandable dislike for the Republican Party, out of a desire to be salt and light where one is planted, because of family associations of long-standing, etc.  I am friends with one or two if you can imagine that.

However, after yesterday’s vote on Planned Parenthood, such Christians would do well to consider whether remaining in the Democrat Party is viable for faithful Christians.  For Senate Democrats, with two commendable exceptions, crossed yet another line of import yesterday.

It is one thing to support or at least tolerate the legalization of abortion for reasons of freedom (although given the literal life and death stakes, that is a very questionable position for any Christian).  One can even make a case that, once legal, abortion should be made available to the poor through federal funding (although it would be a weak case given that such federal funding forces taxpayers to participate in killing the unborn).

But yesterday’s vote by Senate Democrats to block efforts to defund Planned Parenthood goes beyond that into new and even more morally indefensible territory.  Democrats in effect voted that taxpayers will fund a group that butchers unborn children and sells off the parts as a growing number of undercover videos has exposed.

And yes, Hillary, too, firmly supports federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

We are getting into Nazi-like territory here.  And there were Christians, largely in name only, but also surely sincere Christians in Germany who meant well, who supported the Nazis for any number of reasons – the apparent recovery from the Weimar years, patriotism, anti-Communism, a more orderly society, the Volkswagen, support of governing authorities, etc.  But history rightly condemns any such support, and any such support was a betrayal of Christian principles and witness because of the evil into which the Nazis willfully descended.

And “We didn’t know” has been exposed as a flimsy defense.  And “We didn’t know” today is already exposed as a flimsy defense in light of the Planned Parenthood videos.  Those* who supposedly do not know now are just being willfully ignorant to excuse their own culpability.

Christians who are also Democrats need to stop pretending they are not associated with profound evil; they are.  And they should at the very least revaluate that association.

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So there is no misunderstanding, I am not advocating joining the Republican Party.  As I have already and repeatedly stated, I have serious issues with the GOP also.

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*With exceptions, of course, such as severe illness or lack of internet access.