Is the Clinton choice the Christian choice?
Graphic by Alex Miller
Staff Writer, Alex Miller
This past Sunday, Hillary Clinton announced her 2016 Presidential campaign. As we approach the big vote, it’s important as Christians to examine these candidates for their stance on important Christian beliefs.
Christians remain strong in their stance on issues like abortion, gay marriage, immigration and welfare; things that Scripture is fairly clear on.
Hillary Clinton has been a strong advocate for women’s rights, so naturally she is a strong supporter of a woman’s right to choose. In 2008, she said, “I think abortion should remain legal, but it needs to be safe and rare.”
As Christians we must ask ourselves: does this belief line up with Scripture?
Psalm 139:13-16 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
The Bible clearly views life as something of great worth. With this fact in mind we can deduce that even “safe and rare” abortions go against the sanctity of life outlined in Scripture.
Not only does Scripture stand for sanctity of life, but also sanctity of marriage. In Romans 1:25-27 it says, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
According to Scripture, homosexuality is considered unnatural and dishonorable; homosexuality is regarded as an act of sin.
On Hillary Clinton’s website, under her bio, it says, “She is a forceful champion for LGBT people.”
She hasn’t always been this way, though. In 2000, she said, “Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.”
Like many politicians, though, Clinton’s views have evolved with societal trends and her stance on biblical marriage has deteriorated into nothing. As she enters her campaign for the 2016 presidency, she stands in support for gay marriage, hoping to see the Supreme Court overturn state laws defining marriage between one man and one woman.
On the subject of immigration, Clinton supports rights for illegals, recently stating that she believes undocumented illegals should be granted driver’s licenses.
She believes deporting all illegals is impractical and said in her previous presidential campaign, “What we’ve got to do is to say, ‘Come out of the shadows, we will register everyone, we will check, because if you have committed a crime in this country or the country you came from then you will not be able to stay. You will have to be deported.”
She continued by saying, “But the vast majority of the people who are here, we will give you a path to legalization if you meet the following conditions: pay a fine because you entered illegally, be willing to pay back taxes over time, try to learn English – and we have to help you do that because we’ve cut back on so many of our services – and then you wait in line.”
As for welfare, she is a huge advocate for poor families in need of assistance and believes the government is the most efficient tool for reaching out to these low income or unemployed families. She thinks community help is only a temporary fix and cannot solve the greater issue at hand.
Often, she appeals to faith when speaking on these topics, at one point referring to the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. She related Jesus’ command to the disciples to pass out the food as God’s command for us to freely give of our resources to those who are in need, which twists the intended meaning of the story.
However, when examining Scripture in its proper context, while we are commanded to care for the poor, the Bible says nothing about enabling the lazy.
Unfortunately, Clinton seems to draw no distinction between needy and lazy. She believes in allowing illegal immigrants to cross American borders and expects them to simply follow the rules. When they don’t, she still offers them free range to make a life and when they refuse to work and instead live off those who do, she offers objection but no action to change.
When placing Hillary Clinton next to the Bible, the distinction is crystal clear. Make no mistake, though, the decision is freely yours.
As Believers and citizens, we have a responsibility to be involved in the important process of picking our nation’s leaders. Research, listen to others’ opinions and pray about who would be the best choice to take on the weighty authority of Commander in Chief.
The views and opinions expressed in this editorial are solely those of the original author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Vision website or North Greenville University.
