"Vote the Bible"

I saw this sign last week and it really irked me, because I think it's exactly the kind of pat phrase that is used to herd sheeple and discourage any sort of independent thinking. But being the independent kind of thinker I am, I'm going to break it down as succinctly as possible (for me).

If "vote the Bible" to you means "vote pro-life, and therefore Religious Right" let me assure you that a candidate's stand on abortion rights is actually a non-issue. What?? I know, it's shocking that I just said that. But consider this. From 1995 until 2007, Republicans had a majority in every Congress except for a Democratic majority of the Senate from June 2001 until January 2003. During that same time, the Supreme Court had a majority of nominees from anti-Roe administrations (Ford, Reagan, GHW Bush, and GW Bush) - 8 justices - compared to those nominated by the pro-choice Clinton administration. Also, the executive branch has been considered pro-life for all years since 1973 save again for the pro-choice Clinton administration.

My point in all of this is, if the GOP were actually interested in outlawing abortion and saving unborn babies, they'd be passing legislation to make those things happen rather than using them as hot-button issues to bring voters to the polls but never taking any real action on their pro-life position.

If you are hung up on a particular candidate based on their pro-life or pro-choice position ("I'd like to vote for Candidate A but I don't want to vote for the pro-choice guy so I'll just go with Candidate B"), just ask yourself -- honestly -- will electing the pro-life candidate actually bring about changes in abortion legislation? Or is this just a talking point that brings people to the polls? And if you're going with that pro-life candidate, what are you willing to do in the future to hold them accountable to their promises? And what are you willing to do or ask them to do that can help reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies? And what are you willing to do or ask them to do to support the women who choose not to terminate their pregnancies? I'm putting a call to Christians in particular to examine the entirety of the abortion issue much more closely, and to start a dialogue about what we can do to effect real change in our country today, and thus to truly "vote the Bible".