tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36267841.post237544898559742620..comments2023-05-14T06:36:31.287-05:00Comments on A Debtor to Mercy: Evangelical Politicking: A futile exerciseWyeth Duncanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07037542472866679987noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36267841.post-12386737437475645352008-11-09T03:06:00.000-06:002008-11-09T03:06:00.000-06:00"The proof: Remember the powerful effect that the ...<I>"The proof: Remember the powerful effect that the gospel had on 18th century society in England and the American Colonies in the days of Whitefield and the Wesleys? Cannot God do the same thing today?"</I><BR/><BR/>The gospel did have a powerful affect on 18th century British society, but this included political change. For example, both John Wesley and William Wilberforce supported using politics to outlaw the immoral British slave trade. <BR/><BR/>The progress in the fight against abortion is certainly slow (although <A HREF="http://thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2008.10.24_New_Michael%20J._Pro-Life%20Politicians%20Have%20Made%20a%20Difference,%20Pro-Life%20Laws%20Work_.xml" REL="nofollow">not non-existant</A>), but the campaign against slavery was also very long. In Britain, the first attempt to outlaw the slave trade in Parliament was in 1783. It took until 1807 for the slave trade to be outlawed, and then until 1833 for slavery to be outlawed in the British empire.<BR/><BR/>Abortion should not be our only concern, as <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce#Other_concerns" REL="nofollow">slavery was not William Wilberforce's only concern</A>, but abortion, the legalised murder of children, is in my view, the biggest moral outrage of our day in terms of violations of the second greatest commandment (<A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2022:36-40;&version=31;" REL="nofollow">Matthew 22:36-40</A>).Ben Stevensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08180387993747753614noreply@blogger.com