People who are pro-abortion, anti-death penalty, and pro-euthanasia may seem confusing, but they make more sense when you realize they're not driven by philosophy or ethics but by the egoistic desire to avoid anything resembling suffering.

"I wouldn't enjoy being burdened with a baby I didn't want and I wouldn't enjoy being executed and I wouldn't enjoy having to live with some debilitating disease."

That's all there is to it.

These folks also typically make the "how does it even affect you" argument in favor of gay marriage. They simply can't conceive of justice as something that exists outside of them and their dopamine receptors.

Nor can they conceive of victimhood or exploitation. The unborn child, the families of those murdered, the elderly who are pressured into ending their lives, etc... They can't see them. They can only see their fleeting desire to escape discomfort, pain, or humiliation.

Pastors should be careful not to bind consciences to political policies that are not mandated by the Scriptures or that are not the only ways to live according to Christian principles.

But one thing we can do and should do is make it clear to people that voting in your own self-interest is a dangerous game. Rather, we should vote in service of our neighbor, especially our most vulnerable neighbors.

And one way to ensure we've done that would be to ask people if they can name one policy that they support even though doing so makes their lives less comfortable or would make their lives less comfortable if they were in that specific situation.

If we can't name a single one, we are probably not viewing our engagement in the political process the right way.