The pursuit of power and the pursuit of ending abortion.

There is no such thing as an "end" to abortion because there is no such thing as an end to women wanting dominion over their own bodies, nor is there any end to the brutal realities of pregnancy itself. The fact that anti-choice Christians are unable to talk other women into giving up control over their own bodies ought to be the end of it.

Speaking of those anti-choice Christians, how many of them are forgoing abortion in cases of life-threatening pregnancies? The answer is none of them, as evidenced by the movement's total lack of martyrs that they're willing to hold up as evidence of their own commitment to the cause. As usual, Christianity - and particularly American Evangelical Christianity - is nothing more than rules for everybody else to endure unwillingly.

Christians dwelling in a pluralist society do NOT have an obligation to try to make the laws of that society more Christian.

(Similarly, free market economists do not have an obligation to try to make the laws of society more free-market-y. Instead, political economists can demonstrate the relevant opportunity costs of alternative policies to the public in deliberation, and then LET THEM DECIDE.)

Rather, Christians in a pluralist society have a mandate to engage in sacrifice for the sake of even our enemies, solidarity with the marginalized, and abdication of privileges.

We follow these practices despite the laws we live under, and indeed to spite the law-makers.

Regarding abortion, the debate could seek to come to consensus regarding whether abortion is murder or not.

But a pluralist society might not be able to come to a consensus on that issue.

By pursuing an end to abortion through the mechanisms of the state beyond what can be agreed upon, we employ power, and in so doing become slaves to power.

This is where conservative evangelicalism has been stuck for two generations. And progressive evangelicalism is no better, because it simply contends for the same hold on power.

The most difficult thing to accept is that no set of means will be successful at bringing about the end to abortion many seek. Not the use of government, not voluntary action and adoptions. That goal is unattainable and inappropriate, though the compassion motivating it is not.

Rather, the goal must be to simply be faithful in the face of the challenges before us, regardless of the law. Our actions are our testimony, and I do not want my testimony to be:

He sought power to do good.

Only the first three words of that sentence matter.