Making America great again means making America moral again

By: James Harden, originally published November 8, 2024, The Christian Post/Voices

Kamala Harris put all her political eggs in the abortion basket. She was the nation’s Abortion Czar. By voting against her, the American people voted against abortion and for a return to a morality that recognizes equality is only real if all people are protected without qualification, including preborn babies.

To make America great again requires making America moral again.

One might ask, “If a vote for Trump was a vote against abortion, then what should we make of 7 out of 10 abortion ballot initiatives passing?”

Voters in Florida, South Dakota, and Nebraska rejected making abortion a constitutional right. Yet, abortion won with an average 60/40 split in the usual left-leaning states like Colorado, Maryland, and New York.  

Pro-abortion ballot wins in a handful of states does not mean abortion won. It means abortion, and secular fundamentalism, lost, and lost big even while outspending pro-lifers 7.5 to 1. While the nation solidly rejected Harris and her fundamentalist ideology generally, the results of the abortion ballot initiatives signal that the light of Christian morality may be dawning.

The abortion ballot initiatives are less about abortion and more about a war between the two rival versions of government and morality, the secular fundamentalistic rule of man vs. the Judeo-Christian Constitutional Rule of Law.

If Republican candidates fail to see the big picture, they may be tempted to interpret the seven winning abortion ballot initiatives as justification to back away from America’s abortion problem. However, it’s quite the contrary. Exit polls indicate two of the most important issues for voters are the state of democracy and abortion. Translation: What does it mean to be human and how can our nation survive?

If the popular vote is a mandate to “Make America Great Again” it must necessarily signal a desire to “Make America Moral Again.” A floundering government, a failing economy, abortion, and even immigration are influenced by a moral house built around a rotting framework. Returning to the foundational truth revealed in the Bible and acknowledged by the Declaration of Independence is key to returning to civil order. Either all humans, without qualification, are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights or humanity is just a cosmic accident where those with the will to power dominate.

If we believe we have a Creator in whose image we are made, then we are obligated to recognize the inherent dignity and worth in each other. If humanity is a cosmic accident, then any form of universalizable meaning and morality is absurd.

If Republicans or President Trump back away from abortion they will miss the mandate and inadvertently join the ranks of a Harris secular ideology which will make holding the moral high ground impossible. For the government to permit the dehumanization of any person or class of person in order to justify the destruction of that person or group, like preborn babies and abortion, forgets the primary purpose of a Constitutional Rule of Law. Equal justice under the Constitution was not designed for the powerful but as a safeguard for the weak, sheltering them against the machinations of the powerful. The 5th Amendment says no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The 14th Amendment says all people shall enjoy equal protection under the law. Lauding these rights out of one side of the mouth while out of the other extolling abortion rights is to arbitrarily disqualify babies in utero from personhood, mocking both the rule of law and human dignity.

And make no mistake, the seven state abortion ballot initiatives that passed are wicked not just because they undermine the very moral purpose of government, but because, in their barbarity, they oppress the weak and voiceless preborn boy and girl while harming the health and wellbeing of their mothers. It goes without saying that abortion harms the baby. But abortion harms women too, increasing their risk of breast cancer by 44% and future preterm deliveries by 52%.

If Republicans and the Trump Administration fail to connect America’s rejection of the moral bankruptcy of secular fundamentalism, it will lose the key to the moral engine powering America’s return to greatness. To make America great again requires America to be moral again.

The Church has been given a window of opportunity. Government is downstream of morality. As evidenced by the passing of immoral ballot initiatives in left-leaning states this year, the Church now must evangelize, “teaching them to observe all that I [Christ, the World’s Savior] commanded you” (Mt. 28:20).

Rev. Jim Harden, M.Div. is a medical ethicist, author of the newly published Ethical Theory and Pertinent Standards in Women’s Reproductive Health, and CEO of CompassCare Pregnancy Services.