Crosswalk - BreakPoint: What Matters Most, October 25, 2004

Crosswalk Wed, 27 Oct 2004 06:56:44 -0700

Breakpoint Monday, October 25, 2004

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What Matters Most - Sorting Things Out

BreakPoint with Charles Colson

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.

Believe it or not, a week before the election, millions of Americans, including some "BreakPoint" readers, are still undecided. Neither Chuck nor I would presume to tell you for whom you should vote. However, we would like to suggest what issues should guide your decision-making and which of these issues are most important.

One of the issues that should play a major role in every American voter�s decision is the war on terrorism.

We also believe that improving education for all children is a vital concern. Indeed, our concern for the vulnerable extends beyond children to all those who are marginalized. For Christians, caring for the poor and for prisoners isn�t an option: It�s a commandment. That�s why promoting faith-based solutions is so important.

And anyone who has listened to or read "BreakPoint" knows about our concern for the effects of mass media on our culture and families. In addition to what they see on television and at the movies, Americans have made pornography a $10 billion-dollar-a-year industry. We have scarcely begun to understand the effects this kind of media will have on all of us.

The ongoing litigation against our own InnerChange Freedom Initiative� and the news out of places like the Sudan are reminders of the importance of religious freedom. And then there�s the question of judges short-circuiting the democratic process and imposing things like abortion-on-demand and same-sex "marriage" on the American people.

This last issue brings me to the two issues that I believe are central for Christian voters: the sanctity of human life and defending traditional marriage. While every one of the issues I�ve mentioned are important, they are not equally important. As the editors of Touchstone magazine write in this month�s issue, there is a clear hierarchy among these issues.

Experience tells us that "no candidate is better on all these issues." It also tells us that in the case of issues like education or helping the poor, what separates candidates is often a question of means, not ends. They all agree they�re important, but it�s a question of how to reach the desired goal.

But the same cannot be said about the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage. A candidate is either committed to protecting human life from conception to natural death, or he is not. He is either prepared to defend the traditional family, or he is not. What�s more, with these issues, it�s easier to look beyond the rhetoric. Their voting records�their records in office�tell us what they think in a way that isn�t true about many of these other issues.

Even if this weren�t the case, the fact remains that, as Touchstone reminds us, these issues are "timeless and foundational" in a way that the others aren�t. Our beliefs about the sanctity of human life will shape our beliefs and actions in nearly every other area of life. If we allow the traditional family to be deconstructed into irrelevance, then no amount of tinkering with education and the media will ever make a real difference.

Over the course of this week, Chuck and I will be discussing what you should keep in mind when you enter the voting booth. As I said earlier, we don�t presume to tell you for whom to vote but, rather, to encourage you to vote in a way that reflects what we know to be most important.

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Crosswalk - BreakPoint: What Matters Most, October 25, 2004

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