Poverty and Misplaced Priorities

I read an interesting stat in God's Politics (by Jim Wallis) the other night that I wanted to comment on.

Apparently, while Clinton was in office the rate of abortions was down. Now, with Bush in office, it has gone back up again. Wallis suggested that the reason for this is because poor women had more assistance when Clinton was in office than they do now.

This could possibly be an interesting point of misplaced priorities for those in the Right. I have to wonder if we spent less time and resources picketing abortion clinics and fighting Planned Parenthood and instead focused our time and energy on fighting poverty, if we would be more effective in lower the number of abortions that are performed each year.

The sanctity of life is a valuable concern and issue for anyone who understands God's love for humanity. We often don't see poverty as a moral issue so we put less of a priority on it. In the Bible, in the book of Matthew, Jesus talks about how when the end has come and he's ready to claim us as his children or not, he will look to see if we have clothed the naked, fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, visited and brought comfort to those sick and in prison...and whatever we have done or have not done for the least of these, we will have done or have not done for Jesus himself.

Faith can and should play a role in politics but perhaps we need to reconsider how.