Daily Verse | Obadiah 15
“The day of the Lord is near
for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.”
Wednesday’s Reading: Jonah 1-4
Well, it’s Wednesday and hump day. Hang in there if it’s a tough week—Friday’s coming.
It continues to surprise me how often national political leaders employ scripture in support of their agenda. On the one hand, I believe scripture ought to factor into policy decisions that affect the welfare of our citizens. On the other hand, scripture in the hands of the Left seems to be pressed into service for unholy purposes.
Newsom Quotes Jesus to Advertise Abortion in Pro-Life States
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday cited the words of Jesus from Mark 12:31 in support of abortion, “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.” The billboard campaign advertises California abortion in seven pro-life states — Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas.
The advertisements are paid for by Newsom’s reelection campaign, and Newsom tweeted the ads at the respective governors of those states from his personal account, presumably because he understands that the campaign is nothing but a political gimmick unworthy to be funded by California’s overburdened taxpayers.
If Newsom was aiming to cause a reaction, he succeeded. While the billboard campaign itself is unremarkable political grandstanding, invoking the words of Jesus to defend abortion provokes a refutation. Newsom understands that most of abortion’s fiercest critics are Christians. So he chooses to promote abortion in the words of the very same Son of God who “Morning Joe” Scarborough insisted on September 9 “never once mentioned” abortion.
My reaction to the Joe Scarborough misuse of scripture is here. In that commentary, I lay out the value that the Bible—and Jesus himself—place on children.
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth.
— Psalm 127:3-4
As the author of the linked article says, Newsom’s use of scripture isn’t any better than Scarborough’s. He’s taking Jesus’ words to mean that giving a pregnant woman an abortion is “loving your neighbor.”
But is it?
It all hinges on whether the life in the womb is a child or not. Women’s rights advocates, Planned Parenthood administrators, abortion doctors and progressive Democrats will swear it isn’t a child. It is a “mass” or a “clump of cells” or, maybe, among the most extreme of those who support abortion, they will admit it’s a baby but insist the mother has the right to terminate its life.
On the other hand, pro-life advocates will insist that the life growing in the mother’s womb is, indeed, a human being. From a Christian’s point of view, there’s no question that the fetus is a person from the point of conception, made in the image of God and worthy of protection. Even an obscure verse from the book of Job (3:3) confirms it:
“May the day of my birth perish,
and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’”
If the fetus is a human being, then it is absolutely wrong to kill it. The sixth of ten commandments says, “Thou shalt not commit murder,” which is the intentional taking of an innocent life.
You can’t get more innocent than a baby in utero.
Circling back to the use of Mark 12:31, then, Newsom is infusing the verse with an incorrect application. Yes, we are to love our neighbor, but not while violating another commandment.
What his use of the scripture amounts to is a cynical swipe at Christians, twisting one scripture verse taken out of context to mock their concerns for the unborn.
Without being alarmist, Newsom might want to reconsider how he’s using the Bible. Elsewhere it says,
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
— Isaiah 5:20