Across my Facebook feed this week, a meme of U.S. President Donald Trump, smiling benevolently and words from his State of the Union address: "let's work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth; all children, born and unborn, are made in the image of Holy God."
Trump?
A poster boy for social conservatism?
Ask nearly every public figure and politician and you will know that there is an ever-lengthening list of topics they can't be seen to have an opinion on, or feel forced to affirm some new idea cooked up by those idealists cooking up ever better ways for us to get along so that we don't have to ever disagree (gasp!) on anything, because of the political risk.
Perhaps the reason for Trump's popularity among social conservatives lies in the fact that Trump funded his own nomination run, and so owes no man anything, and can say whatever he wants?
Or maybe because, like other unprincipled politicians before him, he will say whatever he needs to get re-elected?
So we are left with this very odd picture, this aberration of this serial adulterer, verbal brawler, with a quick trigger finger on Twitter, and whatever else you may wish to call him, being used as a poster boy for what is arguably the most conservative political position on our continent.
Wasn't there anyone else?
Reminds me of another 2016 U.S. election meme "America, really, you have 350,000,000 people and these are the best two you could come up with?
Where have all the social conservatives gone?
Or maybe a better question is why don't they speak up?
Have social conservatives become lily-livered?
Can't defend those views?
Or are just too nice?
Preston Manning's book Faith, Leadership and Public Life lies on my coffee table.
I need to actually read it but already I have found intriguing ideas: "The abolitionists working with Wilberforce were zealous for the cause... but they didn't rely exclusively on these elements in communicating their cause. They also meticulously and assiduously armed themselves with the facts, and this required research - exhaustive, thorough, and comprehensive research."
A meme about the value of human life deserves better than someone so widely known to be so combative, but why is he the only world leader willing to say what probably most other leaders privately think?
