Thank you, Dr. Bock, for your generous and careful reply. I hope you don't mind if I am bold enough to submit a further comment.

You are right it is not an isolated one issue (Republicans) vs. one issue (Democrats) situation. That was actually part of my point, however ineptly put. In this country right now we have one party that tends to be pro-life. What we do not have (despite propaganda to the contrary) is a party that is pro-poverty, pro-genocide, or pro-let's-strip-the-earth-of-its-natural-resources-and-laugh-all-the-way-to-the-bank. On these issues the parties differ more on strategies and, in some cases certainly, a difference in sequence of priorities. Therefore, I would hope that the biblically-informed Christian in the voting booth would reason something like this: Even if I concede that the Democrats are "slightly more right" on all those other issues (a dubious concession), I am still faced with the stark difference on the life-and-death issue of abortion. And if I vote pro-life, that does not mean I give up my ability to speak my conscience on all those other issues as opportunity affords.

P.S. Thank you again. I'm so glad the Kingdom of God - unlike the U.S. - is not a democracy!

Ray