I didn’t vote for Donald Trump. We live in a “red” state where the Republican candidate could’ve spared 650,000 third-party votes without affecting the outcome. We could’ve helped loosen the media’s stranglehold on the two-party system. And we could’ve helped to field more promising candidates in 2020. In reality, a vote for Trump in Tennessee was 2/3 wasted instead of 100% useful for electing a good president. But, that’s not my point.
Whatever becomes of a Trump administration we can be confident of one thing. More babies will be saved than would have been under a Clinton administration. Arguably, no one’s position was clearer on any issue than than Hillary Clinton’s on abortion and “reproductive rights.” If anything, we will at least stem the tide for another generation.
Trump is neither the first nor the last womanizing blowhard to occupy the Oval Office. But perhaps that’s a small price to pay to have more exponentially more grandchildren, It’s neither the first nor the last time God uses lesser men for eternal purposes.
Most pro-life evangelicals got their man (at least on paper). But that was the easy part. Now more than ever we need Christians involved in foster care and adoption. Presumably, there will be at least as many, if not more, children available in the next thirty years.
Electing pro-life candidates is not the sum and substance of our duty. If we want politicians to protect children then we had better put our money where his mouth is. We are not pro-birth but pro-life.
Pro-life legislation is hard. While legislatures jockey over legal minutia and use babies to get governmental contracts for their district, children’s lives hang in the balance. There’s no time to wait for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. It likely never will be. There’s no time to waste waiting on politicians to do the Church’s job. We can foster and adopt thousands of children before any given bill gets passed.
Being pro-life demands we go beyond platitudes and protests to the proactive long-term care for the children we strive to save at birth. We just don’t want children to be born, but to thrive and grow in the knowledge of the Life-giving God. What’s the point of saving their life if we’re not committed to helping them live? If we want the world to take life seriously then who but the Church is a better champion?
Start the process and trust God to work out the math. Invest in a church’s adoption fund or start one at yours. Go through foster care training. Get involved at your local pregnancy center. Disciple the single mom whose baby you’ve convinced her to keep.
You’ve elected Trump. Don’t waste your vote.
Electing Trump was not the end of your pro-life efforts. It was but a small beginning. Bigly.