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 A few weeks ago, my husband and I had a rousing discussion about the role of “government.” On one hand, we agreed that there are many good reasons why people should be free to make their own decisions, without some elite group dictating to us all. There is much evidence that the “order” imposed by such power brokers is self-serving, leads to corruption, and creates as much crime as the propaganda says they are “controlling.” On the other hand, there are probably always going to be some groups or individuals with more power and opportunity than others, and they will try to impose their “rule” on whomever they can. They will almost always claim to have such power “by the will of God,” since using the Bible that way is pretty handy, until the next guy comes along and gains power and claims the same thing. What remains for us common folks, is two things: 1) to do what we can to stay free, within the parameters of our personal convictions about how that is best done, and 2) to defend those more vulnerable than ourselves. The issue of so-called abortion falls under this second item, and is one which is apparently complicated for the Christian libertarian. I suggest to you that if we cut through the political vocabulary, it is easier to evaluate what a Christian perspective should be.

Of importance are the meanings of the words legal, abortion, and life. Abortion is obviously based on the root word abort, which means to “fail to complete” or “to cut short.” It has come to be strongly associated with the political issue of whether or not terminating a pregnancy should be legal, but it can and is used more broadly.

As for the word life, life seems to be something that everyone agrees exists, but no one can completely define. There are aspects of it which elude the most learned scientist and only flirt with the poet. It can be partly explained on a cellular level, but never totally grasped in a purely organic way. Say what you will about life’s beginning, end, and meaning, the phenomena of it is mysterious.

The idea of whether something is legal is fortunately more straightforward. The catch is to realize that legal does not necessarily coincide with moral. Something is legal or illegal simply by the decree of those who have the power over others to designate it so. Making something illegal can be historically proven to not stop the activity, or even lead to justice. What happens is that the criminally inclined take over the distribution of said product or service, and violence erupts as the so-called government gang fights with the other gangs that dare to thwart it’s power. Any appearance of justice being dispensed based on “law,” is usually an illusion that is really just one group imposing it’s power on another.

Back to libertarians, who basically believe in extremely limited government, but have degrees of believing how much their government of choice should h