Gavin Newsom, quoting the Bible, and why it matters that we get it right

In early September California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a multi-state billboard campaign to promote abortion on demand using the words of Jesus from Mark 12:31, “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

Newsom is targeting states with laws that restrict elective abortion services, such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. The billboards urge women in those states to come to California to receive an abortion.

And notice his strategy: Quote the Bible on billboards in states considered part of the “Bible belt.” Newsom uses the Bible when it’s politically expedient. And Christians rightly criticize him for employing the words of Jesus to promote abortion (see responses here and here).

He is not alone in quoting Jesus

But Newsom is not alone. Politicians and pundits and even people living next door frequently quote Jesus or the Bible in support of their causes when it is expedient.

For instance, in the August 3 episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg claimed that God sides with her argument in favor of abortion, and that God would support abortion on demand as another choice among various alternatives.

She defended her position by saying that God gave us freedom of choice. And she said, “I know that God made me smart enough to know that if there are alternatives out there that can work for me, I will investigate them, but I also know God said, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’” quoting Jesus from Matthew 7:12.

She, like Newsom, believes that unfettered access to abortion on demand is more loving than any restrictions to abortion access. And they think Jesus would agree.

Another example is Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. She professes to be a Christian, and she advocates a position similar to Whoopi Goldberg’s.

“While your faith tradition may tell you that you personally do not want to make that choice [to have an abortion], it is not my right as a Christian to impose that value system on someone else,” Abrams told Yahoo News. “Because the value that should overhang everything is the right to make our own decisions, the free will that the God I believe in gave us.”

Before you respond, consider this

If your tendency is to fume and fuss, or to dismiss poor biblical interpretation as unworthy of your response, pause and consider this.

Every time people invoke the Bible, it provides an opportunity for a conversation.

See, even invoking the Bible assumes its authority. And, for us, it acknowledges the historical fact the Bible has been held in esteem by Americans since our nation’s founding. The undercurrent of biblical authority still streams through our culture.

So, talk about it. As long as you are able, promote a conversation rather than fuel a confrontation (Rom. 12:18, Col. 4:5-6).

But if we agree that the Bible has authority to speak on ethical matters, on life and death, shouldn’t we do our best to get it right?

Newsom, Goldberg, and Abrams make similar mistakes when they claim Jesus and the Bible side with them. Anytime we try to make Jesus agree with our causes or force the Bible to comply with our preferences, we’ll make these same mistakes.

• Taking verses out of context

Public figures often extract Bible verses from their context to justify their personal and political positions, quoting random verses as if they are standalone platitudes. Be sure you don’t do the same thing.

Newsom, for instance, cites “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these” as if Jesus just abruptly declared it, as if He was citing a blurb for a bumper sticker.

The fact is, in Mark 12:31 Jesus was answering a question about what matters most in your faith. Loving your neighbor follows His declaration that loving God matters more than anything else (Mark 12:29-30). And the Bible consistently teaches that loving God means obeying God (John 14:15).

So, it’s dangerous to trim out verses you favor and apply them without reference to the rest of the Bible. It leads to egregious errors. And you might end up siding against God, rather than with Him.

Keeping verses in context helps us sustain a balanced view of God’s character and what God wants. For instance, I can both affirm the freedom of people to choose and advocate for the protection of the unborn. In a biblical worldview these two positions are completely compatible (Gen. 2:7, Jer. 1:5, 2 Cor. 3:17, 1 Peter 2:16).

Remember, the best interpreter of the Bible is the Bible itself (Rom. 15:4), not our preferences, opinions, or political causes.

• Making the Bible say what you want

Goldberg and Abrams illustrate another common error. They read into the Bible what they want it to say.

For them, free will means the freedom to do whatever they want to do—whatever makes them happy or fortifies their agenda. So, they impose on the Bible what they want the Bible to say, reading it through the lens of their personal opinions.

But, while they are correct that God gave people free will, they ignore the glaring fact that freedom to choose assumes that right and wrong choices exist. And if right and wrong exist, then we are obligated to choose what is right.

And God defines what is right. A good example–God explicitly commands us to choose life (Deut. 30:19).

In other words, the Bible teaches that God gave us free will, but not so we could do what we wanted. He gave us free will so we could choose what He wants us to do (Gal. 5:13, Prov. 16:9, Mark 8:34).

And when we choose to reject what He wants, we also choose the consequences of rejecting His will.

How do we know what He wants? By rightly interpreting and applying the Bible (Ps. 119:9-16).

• Avoiding personal application

Another common error is to apply the Bible to other people, or to culture, or to your favorite causes, while blissfully ignoring what is says about you.

Newsom, Goldberg, and Abrams hide proudly in a shroud of self-righteousness and disregard God’s claims on their own lives. They are more concerned with political posturing than submitting to their Creator.

But don’t be too quick to condemn. We do this, too. We tell someone else what the Bible says about their condition but ignore what God says about our own choices. We advocate for the unborn but refuse to give up the habits and behaviors that God clearly despises. And we cling to the illusion that we are just fine, when God says we are not (Rom. 3:10, 23).

Jesus had plenty to say about that (Matt. 6:1). Let’s be sure we are rightly applying the Bible to our own lives before we judge the way someone else foolishly misapplies it.

Because if we want God to change our culture, we have to let Him use the Bible to change us first (Heb. 4:12).

Jesus answered them, ‘You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God’

Matt. 22:29