It's not a new thing, by any means, but the trending conversations among a lot of my fellow Christians, today, reaffirm that many of them completely believe that it's cool to judge someone's faith based on their political positions.

It's not.

1/

A Christian can be pro-choice without being anti-Jesus, for many reasons - the biggest being that they respect the free will that God has given each of us. There are a lot of things that the Bible specifically says are sins that Christians get caught in on a regular basis...

2/

Greed, adultery, bearing false witness... The Bible even equates hatred with murder, at the heart of it, and it's increasingly hard to find Christians who DON'T use words or actions that regularly reveal hatred towards other people ( like Muslims, Atheists, and Democrats).

3/

There's also the fact that the Bible doesn't actually even say that abortion is a sin, and it gets even harder to justify equating being pro-choice with being anti-Jesus.

The most common rationale to pull abortion under the Biblical scope of sin is to equate it with murder.

4/

But, even in the Old Testament, murder was treated much more harshly than doing something to cause a woman to have a miscarriage (which is the closest equivalent to an abortion, since it does not appear that the Bible records any surgical procedure to terminate a pregnancy).

5/

Point is... Christians regularly engage in sins that the Bible addresses much more thoroughly and more harshly than abortion.

Heck, the reason that the conversation is happening, right now, is because of a pro-choice pastor running for a Senate seat...

6/

But, the very same people now using abortion as a moral hammer against @ReverendWarnock have spent the last four years arguing that when it comes to politics, morals don't matter - an argument they make because they can't otherwise justify their support of @realDonaldTrump.

7/

Many Christians are engaging in the same relativistic behavior that the religious folks did in Jesus' day: "These sins - abortion and homosexuality - are obviously worse than our own sins. Who cares that neither of them is treated particularly harshly in the scriptures."

8/

Don't get me wrong... I am pro-life, and I consider my position to be inspired, in no small part, by my faith. But, it's based on my personal understanding of life and God's relationship with humanity.

Others can disagree with my politics and still have a healthy faith.

9/

It's not my place to judge the heart or intentions of my fellow believers. The important thing is that they - and I - strive live a life based on love, compassion, and empathy. The details of our political - and even religious - beliefs shouldn't drive that.

10/

Jesus valued personal autonomy and often criticized people for judging the perceived sins of others.

Attacking others' faith for policy positions that you don't agree with - like calling them "anti-Jesus" - directly contradicts Jesus' actual example.

So, don't do it.

/fin