Candice Watters: Kamala Harris is wrong about faith

MARY REICHARD: Today is Tuesday, September 24th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. World Opinions Contributor Candice Watters now…with what Vice President Kamala Harris gets wrong about faith in action.

CANDICE WATTERS: During this month’s presidential debate, Kamala Harris said this:

KAMALA HARRIS: One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.

She’s partly right. We don’t belong to the government. This is deeply ingrained in the American psyche and our representative form of government. But neither do we belong to ourselves—at least not in the radically individualistic, deterministic way Harris meant it.

From a civics perspective, we belong to the communities we join or are born into. We are members of families, volunteer organizations, and churches. Our memberships require things of us, and we are not free to neglect or defy those obligations without consequence. These community bonds make for rich cultural relationships. They knit us together in ways that enrich us even as we enrich others. All of this is free from government intrusion and control—and rightly so. But, the freedoms we cherish as enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are rooted in bodily integrity, not autonomy. We are not free to do whatever we want with our bodies. Every parent lives this out experientially. A young girl who beats up her younger brother doesn’t get off by claiming she “can do what she wants with her body.” If she tries, wise parents will respond with fitting consequences.

Does Vice President Harris really believe the government should have no power to determine what we do with our bodies? Doubtful. Instead, she wants the government to remove all obstacles to a pregnant woman getting an abortion. With slippery words, Harris assures us that we can agree with her and remain faithful to our “deeply held beliefs.” This is where she goes doubly wrong.

We cannot, must not, join in the doublespeak that calls murder “healthcare.”

What we do with our bodies affects other people. When those effects are harmful, governing authorities rightly intervene for the protection of the innocent. This is why the Declaration of Independence says “Governments are instituted among Men” to secure the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” for all. That’s the most fundamental purpose of the U.S. government—a purpose most urgently needed for the most vulnerable people among us: the unborn.

The declaration’s reference to rights “endowed by their Creator” points back to the creation, when God made “man in his own image.” Christians who believe in what Jude 1:3 describes as the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” know that we are not our own. The Apostle Paul reminds the church in Corinth: we were bought with a price—the very blood of Jesus. We must not do whatever we want, but instead glorify God in our bodies .

We cannot defy the image of God in fellow human beings, even unborn ones, without defying God Himself. He has spoken clearly on this. God forbids murder in Exodus 20:13. In Provers 24:11 He commands us to “Rescue those who are being taken away to death.” And in Revelation 21 verse 8 He promises that eternal punishment awaits murderers. He will hold every person accountable for how they respond to His Word, or don’t.

Harris said her view isn’t inconsistent with deeply held beliefs. She added that embracing abortion doesn’t mean abandoning the faith. But she’s no theologian. If it’s faith in Christ Jesus, the God-man who shed His blood to ransom sinners, that’s exactly what following her views on abortion would mean—abandoning Him. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 19 Paul calls it having “made shipwreck of their faith.” We need to be shrewd and wise, thinking deeply about what’s at stake, and not be duped. These are treacherous waters. The culture of death or faithfulness to God, we can’t have both.

I’m Candice Watters.

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