Committing to What’s Right
I was listening to Laura Ingraham’s show this afternoon…which, if you’re a listener, I can explain it as a weird oddity of the local talk station: one hour comes on at 9 and the other at 2 after Limbaugh.
The show featured an exchange between Wolf Blitzer and Vice President Dick Cheney. At the end of the rather heated interview, Blitzer brought up the pregnancy of Cheney’s lesbian daughter and asked for his comment on that in light of a Focus on the Family person’s comment of the detriment to a child not being raised in a traditional family home.
Cheney, as you might imagine, was not amused. He basically said he was happy to have a new grandchild on the way, that he loved his daughter, and he believed the question was far out of line. Of course, Blitzer was doing the John Edwards “oh, but we respect and think a lot of your daughter” thing to compensate for making her lesbianism an issue.
My first thought was, how tasteless was this? Public officials have open lives, but using the private life of a family member to pin him down? It reminds me of how Cheney told a Senator on the floor of the Senate to “go f— yourself”…I’m sure he wanted to give Blitzer the same advice. This wasn’t National Enquirer TV, it was CNN!
My second thought was, how often do they give any heed to what Focus on the Family has to say about anything? Nobody in the traditional media gives a hoot about the organization or their pursuits unless it helps them mock the conservative right. It’s normally used as a “can you believe they believe this stuff?”, but here it’s actually used in an attempt to divide the base. Blitzer’s not known for having a political slant, but this reeks of having a leftist agenda.
My third and most substantial thought was, how would Cheney have answered if it were a private, honest question from someone he respected? I understand that VP Cheney is not morally against homosexuality or children out of wedlock, and the fact is that he can’t help it no matter what he thinks of the issue. What was he expected to say about it? The only thing he can do is love her, love the child, and keep the communication lines between them open, whatever he personally thinks. But the phrase that came to mind was, “you never know how you’ll respond until you face a similar problem.” And THAT got my wheels turning.
People who’ve had or had children who’ve had abortions yet are faithful and true Christians will either confess to having been weak at the time, or they’ll give you the comeback I mentioned earlier. And this is axiomatic in the same vein as “it came to pass” and “look both ways before crossing the street”. You never know what you’ll do when confronted with something UNLESS you’ve committed to something. Are you committed to believing what the Bible teaches about the sanctity of life and saving the life of an unborn child, so helpless and completely innocent, rather than sacrificing him or her upon the altar of preference and convenience? Are you committed to obeying God’s edict concerning homosexuality to such a degree as to even deny yourself if you felt attracted to one of like gender, or tell a beloved friend or family member so engaged that it’s sinful, self-destructive, and still prove that you love them?
For example, in the past few months, I’ve begun carrying a firearm wherever I go (yes, I have a carry license). People like to tell me that I won’t be able to make myself shoot someone, or I’ll do nothing since I’d be scared stiff, or whatever. The trick to this is to adopt a combative mindset that means I take stock of where I am, wherever I am. This mindset also requires that I practice drawing my weapon, bringing it to where I need it in order to effectively fire it, and practice hitting a target enough to where all this takes place in well less than two seconds. When the time comes, I will be able to defend myself and others effectively. By going through those motions, I KNOW what I’ll do when I face the problem.
You may be asking yourself, what in thunder does this have to do with moral, right decisions? Everything! Deciding to potentially end someone’s life, no matter how debased, is a moral decision…and living with the decision hinges on whether you know were right in doing so. The only real difference is the time frame in which the decision is made, but immediacy not withstanding, it requires making a judgment call based on prior teaching and practice.
What would I do if I had a daughter who was gay and announced that she was pregnant (through whatever means or circumstances…normal relations, rape, in vitro, etc.)? I can tell you with great confidence that I wouldn’t disown or otherwise sever ties with her, and I certainly wouldn’t address such matters on a television interview using my authority as vice president of the greatest nation on Earth. She’d certainly know what I thought of it, because it would have been taught to her all her life, and I’d be sure to tell after the fact. But another part of the Bible says to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15, if you’re curious)…not pulling a Westboro (a “Baptist church” that calls itself Christian and then preaches hate…see 1 John 4:20) prevents a lot of problems in the conveyance of Christian teaching.
Knowing what you’ll do in a given situation, like learning to draw, point, and fire a handgun effectively; is a matter of knowing and being committed to what is right.
By the way, is it just me, or does “Wolf Blitzer” sound like a perfect name for a new Mega Man X villain? It cracks me up every time I hear it.
