politics – Jason W. Triplett

June 25, 2022August 3, 2022

Christians! Beware the Victory Lap

I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is in no way a satisfactory answer to unplanned pregnancy.

Yesterday the US Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in the decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

The decision was met with celebration and alarm as social media, news outlets and live feeds brimmed with responses from single words and sentences to paragraph long rants and sharply constructed memes.

Many Christians decided to create or share posts in “victory” over Roe v. Wade. I saw Christian people declare that we’d won. Some crowed that our opposition (i.e. those who’d support abortion rights, the legislators and governors, our next door neighbors) had fallen and that the cause of Christ had triumphed.

Here’s the problem. Abortion is still legal in the US. Only now, it’s the state legislatures that will determine it’s legality, not the Federal Government. Don’t believe me? Look here.

Today women are still making appointments to have their pregnancies terminated. The question in the US is not if abortion is legal or illegal. The question is “how legal” abortion is.

Living in Illinois, we see the Midwestern capital for abortion. It’s estimated that we will see an increase of 20-30,000 abortions in the next year alone from women in the surrounding states who’ll seek services here. That would take the number of abortions per year in Illinois closer to 100,000. (1)

The Illinois Reproductive Health Act (775 ILCS 55) ensured that even if Roe v. Wade fell, Illinois would be among the US leaders in guaranteed abortion rights (details here). In 2017, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner eliminated the trigger law which would go into effect when Roe v. Wade failed. So when current Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said yesterday that an “extremist court” bent on causing an increase in back alley abortions risked lives due to the Dobbs decision, he’s basically signaling to the rest of the Midwest that Illinois is doubling down and increasing it’s commitment to abortion rights.

So no, abortion has not been made illegal. In the five states that surround Illinois, only two have eliminated abortion for any reason except the life of the mother. And those in Arkansas and Missouri who are seeking an abortion for any other reason will find one not only in Illinois, but in Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky and Iowa. (2)

Christians and pro-life advocates, please abstain from taking a victory lap. The job is not done by a long shot.

We need to shut off the valve in order to stop the flow. Roe v. Wade is done. But the effort must now change into making abortion unthinkable, to eradicate the perceived need in the hearts of men and women for abortion. It’s a reality that many people believe that abortion of a child is the only answer to unplanned pregnancy. We must work to change that perception.

If we are Pro-Life, are we Pro-Foster care? Pro-Fatherhood? Pro-Truth Based Education? Are we willing to offer help to prospective parents with substance abuse problems or financial problems? Are we willing to raise the babies born to people who cannot raise them alone? What are we prepared to do to make abortion an inessential last resort?

The bigger question to the Church is do we believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ? If so, we know that complex issues can neither be abolished nor advanced with the stroke of a judicial pen because human problems are based in sin and not on social or legal dogma. We cannot legislate (or de-legislate) morality.

Instead of declaring victory, let’s continue to declare the same state of emergency that Christ declared until He returns.(3) People are dying each day without knowing the God who made them through faith in Jesus Christ. While the demise of Roe v. Wade is a battle won. It’s only one battle in the much larger war being waged for the souls of each human being, born or unborn.

September 3, 2020September 3, 2020

Genuine Unity and Harmony are Found through Faith

“The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” Psalm 14:2–3 (ESV)

We want safety. We want certainty and guarantees. We want leaders, organizations and institutions to be solid, trustworthy and true. Lately, we seem to be finding none. There isn’t a leader, organization or institution who doesn’t currently suffer under some sort of scrutiny. From police departments to the federal supreme court, from social justice movements to local non-profits; all are being savagely examined. We have this feeling of betrayal as we hold these entities in good faith yet find them lacking.

Don’t think so? I disagree based on what I see. There’s one sure sign that indicates we are in an age where we collectively feel as if none can be trusted. Our uncertainty and upheaval, our penchant for moral dissection, our suspicion of all things is signaled by an ever-increasing division among the public.

Division is the taking of sides. One group stands in opposition to another, believing in their organizations, leaders and information hubs. Each side stands in scrutiny of the other, therefore all are under scrutiny. One of the worst things about COVID-19, our current cultural unrest and an election year is the polarity we are all feeling. Division is caused by disagreement. Disagreement is caused by the clash of ideas. No one’s exactly sure what information is trustworthy, so no ideas can really be trusted. Add in that we seem to have lost the ability to civilly mitigate our disagreements. Viola! A divided, skeptical and cynical public.

Division in times like these is a symptom and escalator of our problems and not any kind of solution. It makes no sense to oppose racial tension and division by using opposition and division. You can’t fight a virus if we can’t collectively decide what it is and how best to stop it based on solid information. The divisions increase and the situation becomes worse. Then our perspectives lead us to unfairly judge and separate from one another even in our small rural corner of Illinois.

I think the problem is the premise. It’s in the first line of this post. We all want safety, certainty and guarantees when nothing is really safe, nothing is certain and there are no guarantees. Yet, we demand these things from our societal leaders and entities.

No one can withstand the absolute demands of a fearful public. No organization or person can withstand absolute scrutiny. If we look closely enough we will see that all are fractured and corrupt. All have flaws. Broken leadership, institutions and organizations are the rule, not the exception as they are comprised of broken human members.

Maybe we should stop looking to leaders, institutions and organizations for certainty. Maybe we should accept that the world has never been a safe place. Life is worth all the uncertainty associated with it, but do you need guarantees to walk out of your front door? Most do not. I don’t. Maybe we should engage the adventure and risk. Safety, certainty and guarantees are only found by faith. In what should we put our faith when all other things are shaken?

We might not agree on these things. Through faith in Christ I (and many others) have decided to no longer stand on the guarantees, certainty or safety this world offers. Staking my claim on anything else tends to separate me from you. At this time I’m sensing that it’s supremely important that we work, in good faith, to close any division that might be between us.

August 5, 2020

Ideas Born in the Echo Chamber

I spoke about this in a message in Church a few weeks ago and wanted to elaborate on it.

echo chamber: an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered. (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/echo-chamber)

2 Timothy 4:3–4 (ESV) “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

In the scripture above, the Apostle Paul warns of a time when people will only listen to sources of information they agree with over those who convey the truth. These “seekers of information” will want to learn, but then rebel once reasonable teaching is given. They will construct for themselves realities of their own choosing. They will seek and accept only those voices around them which echo the affirmation of their opinion back to them.

Imagine a world where ideas are only accepted by people if they are already believed by people. It’d be a world where intellectual growth is stunted, mental heath is compromised and cultural (or personal) healing is impossible. The result would be chaos and insanity.

This is the reason God destined His Church to struggle in this world. By opposition, our faith is purified. (1 Peter 1:7) By suffering, we are awakened to God, challenged to keep the faith and be healed of our wounds by Christ. But in the echo chamber, there is no growth, healing or sanity. There is absolutely no space for faith because there is no challenge to ideas. The internet and social media are the prime sources of echo chambers in society.

We are seeing the dividends of this now. We find ourselves culturally in the place where entire ideas have been born in the echo chamber. Here’s how we can determine if the ideas presented to us have been born apart from good healthy scrutiny.

The ideas aren’t allowed to be challenged by opponents. If they are challenged, the reaction by those who support the idea can be visceral or even violent. (Ex: marginalization, internet tirades, blacklisting, mobs and rioting, etc.)
These ideas will spiral with increasing distance away from the truth or reality. (Ex: people are self-identifying as animals, different ages, genders, races, ethnicities. etc.)
Ideas born in the echo chamber will grow feet into movements of people which divide instead of unify, damage versus heal and deceive in place of living in outright transparency. (Ex: Basically anything political right now.)

This happens on the left and right, in red and blue states with democrats and republicans. This problem cannot be located to any one race, gender, ethnicity, nationality or, worst of all, religion. Bottom line folks, it’s dangerous to develop, propagate or follow ideas that avoid scrutiny. Without scrutiny, how would you know if you’re wrong?

This warning that Paul gives to his protege Timothy is to encourage the young pastor to continue steadfastly in his ministry of preaching the Gospel and teaching the truth. When we identify ideas born in the echo chamber our reaction should be the same. Speak the truth of Jesus with love. Don’t be afraid to have your faith challenged or be “outed” as a Christian. Through challenges to our faith we come to know it as the reality. We come to learn God is real and worthy of our entire devotion when we live outside the echo chamber.