Dear Brother or Sister In Christ Who Supports Barack Obama,

I have been a hypocrite. I have wrongfully assumed that because I championed one moral evil I earned the right to forget about many others. I have been myopic choosing to make moral pronouncements while turning my eyes away from the poor and needy in my own community. This has alienated me from you who have rightly acted on your faith and from many in my community who desperately needed to see me acting on mine. I was wrong.

I believe that I am not wrong about my conviction that abortion is murder and should therefore be illegal. I also believe that I am doing the right thing to support any political candidate who clearly demonstrates that he or she shares my views on life issues. When pressed on the abortion issue believers like yourselves rightfully call attention to the social ills that have not been addressed by pro-lifers like me. One of your number is author and Emergent Village Coordinator, Tony Jones. In a recent blog post, entitled Abortion, Tony, stated his reason why Barack Obama is the proper candidate,

“He (Barack Obama) thinks abortions are bad, and he wants to reduce them. He doesn’t think that criminalizing doctors or mothers is the answer. He thinks we need a more fully-orbed response to the problems of promiscuity and poverty that too often lead to abortions.”

I applaud Tony for highlighting Senator Obama’s sentiments but they don’t change the fact that abortion is murder and should therefore be illegal.

The fundamental problem of my past assumptions and Tony Jones and Barack Obama’s present ones is that they are one sided. To confront the blight of abortion requires a two-pronged attack. We as Christians must address the social causes of abortion and actively seek to make it illegal. Unfortunately, Jones has opted to focus on the former and ignore the latter. In doing so, he is just as guilty as I was in doing exactly the opposite. I call on Jones and any of you who share his views to join me at the altar. The lives on untold millions of unborn innocents are worth that much effort.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Mike Hall