Page 132

"Bumper stickers...short ideas for people who can't think"

Why I can't be a social conservative-part 2

Earlier this month I wrote an entry about Why I can't be a social conservative and Chris, one of our regular visitors here at Page 132, commented that the

The Repubican in me wants to scream, "I'd rather be on the side of truth and decency at the cost of progress than on the side of perversion and baby-killing for the sake of progress."

I wasn't trying to make the argument for "progress" because I don't think we can decipher if a change is really progress until we can look back on the change and evaluate the results.

It can be argued that America (and any true democratic society) is moving toward greater justice for all. We aren't becoming more moral or upright, but I think one could look at the history of America as a march toward increasing justice. I'd like to believe, as C.S. Lewis does, that our God given innate sense of justice/fairness is moving America in that direction.

Whether that is cause or not, to be a social progressive does not mean that we always have to be the agents of change. In some places, social progressives will push for change like civil rights and (the push for) universal health care. In other areas, social progressives just have to be able to react to change with a forward looking plan.

Let's take as an example, the Roe v. Wade ruling. James Dobson has called it the American holocaust and his plan is to change the ruling is to stack the court with his guys and to return American law to the early 1970s. It ain't gonna work and even if it does, it doesn't deal with the root problem of women getting pregnant and not wanting their child.

Social progressives may not like the change that Roe v. Wade brought, but social progressives (within the church) began to look toward the future and craft a way to deal with the problem. The American church has begun to accept pregnant teens and teen moms into their congregations and into their lives. Social progressives have pushed adoption and sexual education as a way to make Roe v. Wade a moot point.

Does it work? Not always, but a lot more kids have been adopted and many more children not conceived than laws overturned by James Dobson's fictional court.

posted by Expat Teacher @ 12:07 PM