Christian & Pro-Choice

Christian & Pro-Choice

Strayer University

















Research Paper

May 22, 2011



      Throughout the most recent elections in this country we have seen a number of news stories regarding the candidates take on “moral issues”.   Political parties have chosen candidates based on the candidates’ stands on these topics.   Voters have cast their ballots according to which candidate they believe has views similar to their own.   One of the most hotly debated topics in the moral arena is the issue of abortion rights.   Conservative Evangelical Christian leaders, labeling themselves and their organizations the “Christian Right”, have sought to portray pro-choice supporters as murderers and enemies of “traditional” family values.   It is my belief that the pro-life Christian right is more of a political organization than one reflecting the teaching of Jesus Christ and that, as a Christian, the pro-choice movement falls directly in line with the responsibility of free will given to mankind.   The first amendment of the Constitution delineates separation between church and government; therefore, being Christian and pro-choice should not be viewed as contradictory.
The “Christian Right” and Politics
During the 1970s, a group of evangelical ministers, lead by Jerry Falwell, formed an elite Christian Right organization named the Moral Majority (Dowland, 2009, p. 26).   The Moral Majority sought to define the “traditional” family – one with two heterosexual parents – and framed opposition to the Roe vs. Wade ruling as “defense of the family”.   The Christian Right succeeded, to a great degree, in presenting their views as the conservative Christian norm.   Falwell’s decision to become involved in political activism following the Roe vs. Wade ruling actually stood in direct contradiction to the stand he and other Christians took against political lobbying during the Civil Rights Movement (Dowland, 2009, p. 4).   Because abortion was viewed as...