By Bob Steinberg
Christian Action League of North Carolina
Dr. Alveda King, a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives agrees that Barack Obama’s election to the presidency has changed the face of America. She says it strikes a blow to white guilt because hundreds of thousands of white people voted for him to prove they were not racist. Dr. King goes on to say that it gives blacks who voted for him hope, because there has never been a black president of America.
There has also never been a president who has promised to do more to advance abortion rights than our new president-elect. As a pro-life activist, Dr. King is deeply concerned.
Alveda King is the mother of six and a grandmother. Her uncle was the famed civil-rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her father, the Rev. A. D. King, was the slain civil-rights leader’s youngest brother, whose untimely death at age 38, one year after King’s assassination in Memphis, was considered by many to be suspicious. He inexplicably drowned in his pool at home. King’s grandmother Alberta King was shot and killed by a deranged black assassin while playing the organ at a service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1974. During the Civil Rights Movement her family’s home was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King, perhaps better than most, understands the cost of change. And perhaps better than most she also understands civil rights, including the civil rights of the unborn.
The nation is almost equally divided on the issue of abortion with a slim majority in favor. In a May 2007 Gallup Poll 49 percent said they were pro-choice; 45 percent stated they were pro-life.
The Supreme Courts 1973 decision in Roe V. Wade held “a mother may abort her fetus for any reason up until the point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable.” The court defined viable as being able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid- usually at about seven months or 28 weeks.
Abortions performed annually in the U. S. have been decreasing (839,226 in `04) according to the Center for Disease Control in Washington. Increased education about birth control along with the continued committed advocacy of pro-life groups has undoubtedly contributed to this decline.
But now America has elected a president who strongly supports The Freedom of Choice Act which was introduced in the House by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York).The Senate version of this bill was co-sponsored in 2007 by then Senator Barack Obama. If enacted this bill would nullify all state laws that in any way attempt to limit or regulate abortion, including the heinous procedure of partial-birth abortion. In a speech to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in July of that year, Barack Obama said “The first thing I would do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That is the very first thing I would do.”
Dr. King says that many Americans feel they are entering a period in American history where their highest hopes for the nation and themselves might be realized. But she is equally concerned that many Americans will now have to face their greatest fears. The slogan of change that echoed throughout Barrack Obama’s campaign will soon become reality. On issues where most Americans agree, like finding solutions to this nation’s economic woe, there is hope he will succeed. On issues where we are divided, like abortion and the Defense of Marriage Act (which Barack Obama promises to overturn), there are heightened anxieties that threaten to further separate us.
So what will be the cost of “putting to rest forever white guilt?” Dr. King feels it could be life and family. She describes this election as perhaps nothing more than a dirty band-aid that may not be capable of healing all the wounds that divide us. King wonders if we can really bury racist guilt and oppression. And what about the horror’s of abortion and other immorality? Will the implementation of further “freedoms” led by Barack Obama and a Democrat controlled congress continue to erode Judeo-Christian beliefs upon which this nation was founded? Or is this belief system in jeopardy of further succumbing to idolatry?
Strictly defined idolatry is the worship of idols or false gods. Dr. King said in a recent commentary that idolatry includes self-absorption to the point where there is no longer respect for human-life or decency. King sees our spending everything on ourselves to worship the “un-mighty and dirty dollar,” as further evidence of idolatry. She also believes our elected officials are leading the lemmings among us down this path of destruction.
Barack Obama said repeatedly throughout his campaign that “it is time for change we can believe in.” Well Dr. Alveda King knows a thing or two about change. Several members of her family gave up their lives to help affect change. So her advice on change for Barack Obama: “That change should start in his own heart.”
*******
Bob Steinberg is a free lance columnist from Edenton, North Carolina and an Advisory Board Member of the Christian Action League.