The President Is Wrong on Abortion and Homosexuality

by James C. Hefley                                                                                             Vol. VI, No. 4, May 1993

Our new president, as is now well known, is a Southern Baptist. He reads the Bible. He sang in the choir at Immanuel Baptist, Little Rock, before moving to Washington. He says the late W.O. Vaught, long-time pastor of Immanuel, was "like a father to me."

Now he is trampling underfoot the sincere beliefs most Southern Baptists have about abortion and homosexuality. By "most," I refer to the overwhelming majority votes by both the Southern and Arkansas Baptists conventions against the killing of unborn babies and the sanctioning of homosexual unions. [Editorial Comment: Won't it be wonderful when we achieve similar votes here in Virginia!]

On abortion, Mr. Clinton has already opened the door to the buying and selling of aborted babies for medical research, and the use of public tax money for abortion counselling and abortions in military hospitals. He has further pledged to sign the proposed "Freedom of Choice" Act which will wipe out state restrictions on the killing of the unborn.

This bill will go far beyond the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. This, in my judgment, is a return to the first century A.D. when unwanted babies were thrown upon garbage dumps and Christians earned a reputation for rescuing those babies.

Our new president is also plugging the unholy causes of gay activists. He talks nobly about finding more money to find a cure for AIDS, when already more money is being spent for this disease than for research on cancer. Mr. Clinton is correct in saying that we have a responsibility to help AIDS sufferers. He also has a responsibility to say that most, victims contract the disease by what the Bible calls immoral and unnatural sexual relationships. Tell the American people, Mr. Clinton, that AIDS is primarily a behavioral disease and that the major cause of this deadly epidemic in America is immoral behavior by Bible-defying sinners.

Scripture is clear about sex outside of marriage and unnatural same-sex relationships. The Bible speaks of women who turned "against God's natural plan for them and indulged in sex sin with each other." And men "doing shameful things with other men and, as a result getting paid within their own souls with the penalty they so richly deserved" (Romans 1:26-27, Living Bible). From almost the first day of his presidency, Bill Clinton set out to normalize abnormal sexual relationships. He ignited a firestorm by his announced determination to bring admitted homosexuals into the military. (Will White House approved homosexual marriage be next?)

Never mind what the Bible and the majority in Mr. Clinton's denomination say about homosexuality. Never mind that the Joint Chiefs of Staff and apparently most members of Congress are against such action. Never mind the potentially grave consequences for undermining the protectors of our nation. Though he is willing to allow congressional hearings on the fractious issue, our new president has given no indication that he will abandon his crusade for the gay activist groups that helped elect him.

When Bill Clinton announced that he intended to fulfill his campaign pledge on putting gays into the military, I called the office of my Congressman, Harold Volkmer, a Democratic supporter of the president. Volkmer's representative said that the Congressman was against the president's intended new policy. "That's fine," I said, "but I want him to speak up loud and clear and tell the president that most Americans oppose this action."

I also requested my pastor to take a stand on the issue, and he did.

Yes, we must pray for the president. We must also raise our voices when he stands for the normalizing of an immoral life style. Sure, we'll be called homophobic. Critics will say we're mixing religion and politics. Better to speak than to be silent against this and other evils that are engulfing our nation.

Mr. Clinton, who has many admirable qualities, received 43% of the national vote in the last election, not quite a mandate. In my home White Township, in Newton County, Ark., he received only 21 percent of the vote.

Even though he was elected by a minority, Mr. Clinton is by law our president. He has a responsibility to lead, but we are not required to remain quiet when he is wrong.

[Reprinted from “The Hefley Report” that appeared in The Indiana Baptist, 16 March 1993.]