It’s possible to be pro-life and still be seriously wrong about the fight against abortion. I saw one good example on Facebook just now. Stream contributor George Yancey had written an update late Tuesday night, saying,

I am not happy that Jones won but more relieved that conservative Christians did not make another mistake supporting someone who would so badly damage their cultural impact. I fully expect Jones to lose in 2020. So having him in there is a small price for political conservatives to pay to show that they have standards.

Someone, whom I’ll call JR, wrote back: “I’ll tell the 3rd trimester fetus that I meet in the Sweet By And By that’s going to have his skull punctured a couple of months from now that his brutal killing was a small price to pay to show one has standards.”

Sadly, JR got a whole lot wrong there.

Politics Can’t be the Short-Term Solution

I share JR’s horror. The political battle matters, no doubt about that. But we have to keep it in perspective. I think he makes four mistakes, because the makes the fight against abortion essentially political.

First, Moore’s loss on Tuesday isn’t going to be the reason that baby dies. Congress couldn’t possibly do anything that would change what happens to that child two months from now. No, that baby will die because the mother and the abortionist decided he would.

JR is wrong to think the political fight is going to make such a difference in the short run. It’s a long-term campaign. Someday, we pray, Congress and the courts will scale back the country’s near-wholesale approval of abortion. Someday, we pray, good laws will put abortion centers completely out of business.

No one thinks that’s going to happen in the next few months, though.

Christian Integrity Counts

Second, politics is only part of the story. In the short run, it’s practically out of the picture. Mothers don’t check who won the latest Senate seat before they decide whether to keep their babies.

So what then is it that might save that baby’s life, two months from now? Not Congress. Not the courts. A mother’s decision. That’s pretty much it, in the short term.

If it’s babies’ lives we want to save, say, from now through the end of 2018, the first thing we have to ask is what will best influence mothers to make the right decision.

Which brings me to the third error JR makes: He dismisses the importance of showing we have standards. He forgets that the most effective baby-saving influence on moms is likely to come from pro-life Christians. He forgets that the more these moms actually trust pro-life Christians, the more likely they’ll be to take their advice as words of wisdom. And he forgets that living by standards of integrity makes us more worthy of trust.

In other words, maintaining our standards will make it easier for moms to trust us when we talk with them about their babies. It will help us save babies’ lives right here, right now.

Integrity Counts Alongside With Politics

Finally, I wonder whether JR thinks political decisions actually make all the difference in saving babies’ lives. If that’s what he thinks, he’s wrong. That will never be the case.

Christians’ pro-life mission begins and ends with Christian integrity. Yes, it matters whether we have standards.

Take the best, most wildly optimistic scenario, in which the Congress, the courts and all 50 states unite in putting a complete end to legal abortion. Abortions would still be available somewhere, somehow. Babies’ lives would still depend on mothers’ decisions.

And wouldn’t it be better if moms kept their babies because they were persuaded it was right, rather than because they couldn’t find a way to kill them?

Note that I’m only talking about abortion here. I haven’t even begun to address all the other huge, eternal spiritual implications flowing out of Christian integrity. Yes, babies’ lives have extreme importance, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only important thing. What about adults’ decisions regarding their eternal future? That matters, too.

Moore’s defeat has other implications, too, besides its potential effect on abortion. I can’t speak to all of that here. I only wish to emphasize one thing: Christians’ pro-life mission begins and ends with Christian integrity. Yes, it matters whether we show we have standards. Yes, it matters whether we actually have standards. And yes, our integrity in maintaining those standards could actually save babies’ lives.