Is God's Truth 'Being Reframed' By Democrats For Political Gain?

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) concluded last week, but there's still much to break down. On Friday's episode of "Washington Watch," Director of Family Research Council's Center for Biblical Worldview David Closson and Senior Fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement Joseph Backholm did just that. From a biblical worldview, the two experts tackled some of the themes from this year's DNC, including the promotion of abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and the party's definition of freedom and personal choice.

With a truck offering free abortions and vasectomies outside the DNC, Oprah Winfrey connecting abortion to the American dream, and the overall portrayal of evil cloaked as good, Backholm posed the questions: "How should we navigate the facts and the spin and the narratives?" And "how should we think Christianly about all of" this?

"There was ... a lot that was presented over four nights," Closson stated. "And I'm still kind of confused on what the main policy positions that the Harris-Walz ticket is articulating." However, he added, "just to compare this convention with last convention ... in 2020," Closson noted that when "Joe Biden gave his acceptance speech as the nominee four years ago, he never used the word 'abortion.'" The same was true of vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

As Closson explained, they "never actually used the word abortion," just "one of the euphemisms to refer to it." But in a short number of years, and "in a post-Roe ... world that we live in," it's amazing "to see how the sacrament of abortion has really become the main issue that seems to define the modern Democratic Party."

The two noted that abortion was one of the only issues made clear at the convention. As Backholm put it, there was a "lack of substance" in the policies that were brought up, and they seemed to be centered on "emotional" and "personal" arguments rather than objective truths. This is why, Closson urged, "Christian voters, people who care about the truth, people who care about policies," are going to need "to do a little bit more digging." 

The Harris-Walz campaign has been so vague in what their policies are, "It's going to require us to kind of sift through the issues, and then to hold those issues up to God's word to see ... where there's alignment and where there's not."

He continued, "Over the next couple of months, it's going to require Christians to be extra thoughtful ... as we look specifically at the issues, the party platforms, and then obviously the personalities" of who's running for office. 

Backholm added that it's also "important for us as Christians to be able to ... understand the underlying truth claims" in what's being said by these candidates. For instance, he re-emphasized how Oprah Winfrey had connected abortion to the American dream, saying that if people "don't have autonomy over" their own bodies, "then there is no American dream."

According to Closson, "The underlying worldview" behind such a statement "is an inherently very individualistic, non-Christian worldview." Ultimately. Oprah's opinion "isn't surprising," he stated, but it also "isn't first and foremost a political issue." Really, "It's a theological and biblical issue."

For Christians analyzing a speech like Oprah's, it's crucial to consider "texts like Psalm 139 and Luke 1 that give us God's position" and "perspective" on a topic like abortion. "We don't have to guess what it is," Closson contended. "And so again, it's a shame the party that used to say abortion should be safe, legal, and rare is now giving out free abortions and putting floats of IUDs out in front of their convention. ... This is something ... we should first and foremost be lamenting, because it is a tragic turn that our culture has taken."

Another theme from the DNC included the promotion of the idea of personal choice and freedom. As Backholm recalled, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, "the vice-presidential nominee, he made a point of saying that their respect for personal choices is kind of what sets them apart." As Walz stated at the DNC, "While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours. We also protected reproductive freedom, because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make."

"Of course," Backholm said, "this is again a reference to abortion" and LGBT ideology, but it's framed "under personal choice with the premise that ... personal choices are good." It stands to reason that there are many personal choices not supported by both parties, "because no one respects the personal choice of anybody to do anything that they want." Backholm insisted, "We recognize there are some things we should not have a choice to do." And so, he asked, "If personal choice shouldn't be our North Star ... what should we be guided by?"

As Closson put it, looking at Scripture is helpful when discussing matters of personal choice -- "especially when we talk about issues related to sexuality." He added, "It seems that personal choice expression and identity has become the most important, the most defining thing about someone" in modern culture. But "I'm thinking of Romans 13," where it "gives us the guidelines for ... why God instituted something like government." Ultimately, he explained, "It's to promote the good and to restrain evil." And this only further demonstrates how "there really are some things that are good, and there really are some things that are evil."

When it comes to what we should be guided by, Closson said we should ask ourselves: "who determines" what is good or evil? "Is it me, myself, and I that gets to make that decision?" Or is it a Supreme Being? "As a Christian," he asserted, we understand it's "God's word that ultimately reveals to us that there is a moral order that the Creator has designed. And God's moral order ... His divine law ... is reflected in the natural law that theologians talk about."

"And so," he continued, "fundamentally, if you're building a worldview," a key factor has to do with whether you believe in "an absolute, moral truth. That there are some things that are true for all people at all times, regardless of the circumstances." It's this understanding that "speaks to the fact that we do need to recognize ... there is such a thing as moral, right and wrong" -- a truth that often "conflicts with the narrative that many people, many of our friends and neighbors, kind of orient their lives around today."

Backholm added, "And I think it's also true that if we go back to our founding, when we recognize that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that starting assumption of where rights come from has a lot to do with what we think rights are," we can see how we are given "personal freedoms the Founders delineated with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." However, God "never said we have the right to take someone else's life if they interfere with our happiness." And yet, this is something "that's being reframed by people like Tim Walz as ... personal choice."

Biblically speaking, Backholm continued, "The proper role of government is to encourage what is good and to discourage what is evil." But if we allow ourselves and others to "lose the shared understanding that God is ultimately the one who determines what is right and wrong, then it becomes chaotic." The reality, he argued, is "that's kind of where we're at right now as we've culturally ... segregated into those who believe that truth exists and those who do not."

In light of the upcoming election, Closson stated, "I want to be clear. Unless Jesus himself is on the ballot, there is no perfect candidate." Especially as Christians, we're ultimately choosing between two people who both happen to be "fallen, imperfect" sinners. And if we want to know how to analyze our worldviews better, Backholm noted it has a lot to do with what we're most passionate about. "If we are outraged by the things God is outraged by, then we have a Christian conscience. If we are outraged by the things the culture is outraged by, we have a cultural conscience."

"We have a lot of people who call themselves Christians, but really, their hearts and their passions are much more in line with the culture than it is with the Bible," he concluded. So, Backholm emphasized, to analyze what fires us up the most may perhaps be "a good test of whether our worldview has been formed by the Bible or the world."

Originally published at The Washington Stand