I have said for a long time that Right to Life was the worst thing that ever happened to the Christian Reformed Church. It politicized the church and did nothing to reduce abortion. Think if all of the millions of dollars spent on the politics of abortion had instead been spent by organizations like Positive Options, loving and caring for women with unplanned pregnancies. If we had shown the love of Christ instead of the judgement of men, the CRC would be growing instead of rapidly shrinking.
THESE words" But he has also performed, even if inadvertently, a public service. He is a political and moral CAT scan, showing the ethical core of many of his supporters. It has been quite the revelation."
I've long believed that Trump is a living breathing, judgement on evangelicals. J&JW was a validation of what I what I had seen dimly over previous decades. Despite having spent my adult life in evangelical circles and being told what to believe, I developed an "acquired" taste of thinking and reading between the lines of what I was hearing. Bravo, Kristin!
Great article by Wehner. I can’t understand how evangelicals vote for Trump in the first place based just based on his character alone . But Wehner’s article really drills down on the blind sidedness of their main argument.
I asked a conservative Evangelical friend who votes only on the abortion issue if he was interested in reading it and he said yes.
I find it astonishingly perplexing how anti-government many Christians have become in the last decade; many now libertarian at their core: Minimize government because the private sector should handle everything possible. Get government out of education, roads, alcohol sales, etc (I live in Doug Ford’s Ontario, where he’s spending, in essence, 1 billion dollars of funds/future revenue to put beer in corner stores to curry votes for a possible early election call).
Yet when it comes to the many highly complex, intimate, emotional and nuanced situations involving pregnancy, this is where these same individuals encourage, laud and promote big government interference and forced intervention. Profoundly duplicitous.
Yes, “the ends justify the means” when the goal is power and control. As you aptly quoted, “they want power and revenge”. I’m so discouraged and disappointed that this appears to be what underlies one rationale of why Trump gets so many Christian votes.
Nice piece in the Atlantic. If I remember correctly I believe abortions were down during Bill Clinton’s presidency as well . Seems that a good economic phase pays benefits beyond dollars and cents.
I loved Pete’s piece! Trump’s about face, I believe, is a straight up lie. Abolitionist abortion policies involving the Comstock Act are discussed prominently in the Trump sanctioned Project 2025, Trump is trying to stay out of prison. He will say and do anything.
He correctly understands that those in the pro-life movement have nowhere else to go. What? They’re going to vote for Satan? a Democrat? Heck no. As Pete points out though, the data doesn’t support the mythology.
I’m a math teacher/administrator. The slopes (rates of decline) of abortions were steepest under Clinton and Obama (down 30%). Yes really! The numbers of abortions went down under HW Bush and GW Bush, but not as significantly.
Abortions increased under Trump, then increased again after Dobbs. The abortion rate is now close to what it was at the end of W’s term. It’s also higher in red states than blue states-even accounting for travel to a pro-choice state.
I’m pro choice. I have my own infertility stories and I know horror stories of 7 different female friends who are still alive because of Roe, 2 had ectopic pregnancies, 3 had major fetal abnormalities, 2 had devastating molar pregnancies (not discovered until 5 months).
. I myself had fibroid (benign) tumors. A fetus couldn’t implant in my uterus because of all the fluid buildup and significant bleeding. At the same time, I needed yearly D & Cs to “clean me out” to avoid sepsis. In many states that’s illegal now.
I’m tired of the myths and the bad data circulating in the far right Christian spaces. It’s bad data.
I was in high school (Hersey HS) in Chicago when Roe was decided. My high school student council and administration invited Phyllis Schafly (Actually she invited herself because she had just started a new show on WGN and wanted to grow her audience to Republican leaning suburban women.). The administration chose to let Schafly speak in debate form with a woman from NOW (The National Organization of Women)
This was 1973. Imagine a set of high school audiences. Our high school was so large that there were 2 debates scheduled for that visit that day. I was a freshman serving on the student council. I was chosen as 1 of 2 “sherpas” to escort Ms Schafly around our new high school prior to the debates.
It’s been said “Never get close to a celebrity. You’ll never like what you see up close.” That was my experience. At the time, abortions were associated only with unwed teens. Now we know, through good data collection, that rape, incest, abuse, poverty, and medical complications make up a good number of abortion decisions, In 1973, an unwed teenaged pregnant girl was the poster child for each side of the issue.
1973 was the year of hot pants, hip riding, mile wide bell bottoms, long hair, and large eye glasses for young women. Mrs. Schafly came dressed in a peach colored jacket and skirt combo that looked similar to Jackie Kennedy’s pink outfit the day of the assassination. Her strawberry blonde hair was up in a bouffant hairdo. She smelled of Aquanet hairspray and cigarette smoke. The woman from NOW had big glasses, a tunic top, and bell bottom jeans.
All of the three other sherpas and I, two for each guest, were chosen because of our diplomatic skills, our healthy boundaries, and our academic skills. It was supposed to be an honor to have this responsibility. As we toured, the other guide was proud to tell Mrs Schafly that her family, a very religious Protestant family, had happily agreed to have a young pregnant teenaged girl, who had been sexually assaulted, stay with them until she delivered her baby. Her family had disowned her. The young girl was willing to give the baby up for adoption. The other guide had been excited to tell her story. She started to tell the story when Mrs, Schafly rudely interrupted and said, “Why couldn’t that fucking girl just kept her legs together? Your family believed her “fucking sob story? She deserves what’s coming to her.” The other guide and I were shocked and appalled. Neither of us confronted her.
Mrs. Schafly walked on the theater stage and debated the woman from NOW. Onstage Schafly acted like a poised knowledgeable debater, not the cruel woman we had escorted to the debate. Both debates ran well. With all the rancor that has been infused into the culture by the warring sides now, you wouldn’t believe me. However, both audiences in that auditorium full of normally raucous high school students sat quietly and listened to the debates and asked good questions of the participants afterward.
The next day, in our classes, on secret ballots, we were asked to vote. The results? 70% to 30% pro choice.
Kristin, Sarah Posner, Randall Balmer, and others have all written about the about face of the SBC and other Protestant denominations from the 1970s onward. I was there to see the changes as they happened. What’s changed over the years? The degree and the vitriolic nature of the fight.
Who’s better for women and children in terms of reducing the numbers of abortions and trying to improve quality of life? By the data and my own beliefs, II will continue to support Harris-Walz.
I saw you live talking about your experience at the DNC. I have been reading your emails. It is good to put a face to the words. You are a beautiful young woman. Thank you for your reflections. BetteM
I have said for a long time that Right to Life was the worst thing that ever happened to the Christian Reformed Church. It politicized the church and did nothing to reduce abortion. Think if all of the millions of dollars spent on the politics of abortion had instead been spent by organizations like Positive Options, loving and caring for women with unplanned pregnancies. If we had shown the love of Christ instead of the judgement of men, the CRC would be growing instead of rapidly shrinking.
THESE words" But he has also performed, even if inadvertently, a public service. He is a political and moral CAT scan, showing the ethical core of many of his supporters. It has been quite the revelation."
I've long believed that Trump is a living breathing, judgement on evangelicals. J&JW was a validation of what I what I had seen dimly over previous decades. Despite having spent my adult life in evangelical circles and being told what to believe, I developed an "acquired" taste of thinking and reading between the lines of what I was hearing. Bravo, Kristin!
Great article by Wehner. I can’t understand how evangelicals vote for Trump in the first place based just based on his character alone . But Wehner’s article really drills down on the blind sidedness of their main argument.
I asked a conservative Evangelical friend who votes only on the abortion issue if he was interested in reading it and he said yes.
What are your friends view now
I find it astonishingly perplexing how anti-government many Christians have become in the last decade; many now libertarian at their core: Minimize government because the private sector should handle everything possible. Get government out of education, roads, alcohol sales, etc (I live in Doug Ford’s Ontario, where he’s spending, in essence, 1 billion dollars of funds/future revenue to put beer in corner stores to curry votes for a possible early election call).
Yet when it comes to the many highly complex, intimate, emotional and nuanced situations involving pregnancy, this is where these same individuals encourage, laud and promote big government interference and forced intervention. Profoundly duplicitous.
Yes, “the ends justify the means” when the goal is power and control. As you aptly quoted, “they want power and revenge”. I’m so discouraged and disappointed that this appears to be what underlies one rationale of why Trump gets so many Christian votes.
Such a great article by Wehner! I'm waiting to see how a lot of my old church friends deal with this one. Not optimistic...
Nice piece in the Atlantic. If I remember correctly I believe abortions were down during Bill Clinton’s presidency as well . Seems that a good economic phase pays benefits beyond dollars and cents.
I loved Pete’s piece! Trump’s about face, I believe, is a straight up lie. Abolitionist abortion policies involving the Comstock Act are discussed prominently in the Trump sanctioned Project 2025, Trump is trying to stay out of prison. He will say and do anything.
He correctly understands that those in the pro-life movement have nowhere else to go. What? They’re going to vote for Satan? a Democrat? Heck no. As Pete points out though, the data doesn’t support the mythology.
I’m a math teacher/administrator. The slopes (rates of decline) of abortions were steepest under Clinton and Obama (down 30%). Yes really! The numbers of abortions went down under HW Bush and GW Bush, but not as significantly.
Abortions increased under Trump, then increased again after Dobbs. The abortion rate is now close to what it was at the end of W’s term. It’s also higher in red states than blue states-even accounting for travel to a pro-choice state.
I’m pro choice. I have my own infertility stories and I know horror stories of 7 different female friends who are still alive because of Roe, 2 had ectopic pregnancies, 3 had major fetal abnormalities, 2 had devastating molar pregnancies (not discovered until 5 months).
. I myself had fibroid (benign) tumors. A fetus couldn’t implant in my uterus because of all the fluid buildup and significant bleeding. At the same time, I needed yearly D & Cs to “clean me out” to avoid sepsis. In many states that’s illegal now.
I’m tired of the myths and the bad data circulating in the far right Christian spaces. It’s bad data.
I was in high school (Hersey HS) in Chicago when Roe was decided. My high school student council and administration invited Phyllis Schafly (Actually she invited herself because she had just started a new show on WGN and wanted to grow her audience to Republican leaning suburban women.). The administration chose to let Schafly speak in debate form with a woman from NOW (The National Organization of Women)
This was 1973. Imagine a set of high school audiences. Our high school was so large that there were 2 debates scheduled for that visit that day. I was a freshman serving on the student council. I was chosen as 1 of 2 “sherpas” to escort Ms Schafly around our new high school prior to the debates.
It’s been said “Never get close to a celebrity. You’ll never like what you see up close.” That was my experience. At the time, abortions were associated only with unwed teens. Now we know, through good data collection, that rape, incest, abuse, poverty, and medical complications make up a good number of abortion decisions, In 1973, an unwed teenaged pregnant girl was the poster child for each side of the issue.
1973 was the year of hot pants, hip riding, mile wide bell bottoms, long hair, and large eye glasses for young women. Mrs. Schafly came dressed in a peach colored jacket and skirt combo that looked similar to Jackie Kennedy’s pink outfit the day of the assassination. Her strawberry blonde hair was up in a bouffant hairdo. She smelled of Aquanet hairspray and cigarette smoke. The woman from NOW had big glasses, a tunic top, and bell bottom jeans.
All of the three other sherpas and I, two for each guest, were chosen because of our diplomatic skills, our healthy boundaries, and our academic skills. It was supposed to be an honor to have this responsibility. As we toured, the other guide was proud to tell Mrs Schafly that her family, a very religious Protestant family, had happily agreed to have a young pregnant teenaged girl, who had been sexually assaulted, stay with them until she delivered her baby. Her family had disowned her. The young girl was willing to give the baby up for adoption. The other guide had been excited to tell her story. She started to tell the story when Mrs, Schafly rudely interrupted and said, “Why couldn’t that fucking girl just kept her legs together? Your family believed her “fucking sob story? She deserves what’s coming to her.” The other guide and I were shocked and appalled. Neither of us confronted her.
Mrs. Schafly walked on the theater stage and debated the woman from NOW. Onstage Schafly acted like a poised knowledgeable debater, not the cruel woman we had escorted to the debate. Both debates ran well. With all the rancor that has been infused into the culture by the warring sides now, you wouldn’t believe me. However, both audiences in that auditorium full of normally raucous high school students sat quietly and listened to the debates and asked good questions of the participants afterward.
The next day, in our classes, on secret ballots, we were asked to vote. The results? 70% to 30% pro choice.
Kristin, Sarah Posner, Randall Balmer, and others have all written about the about face of the SBC and other Protestant denominations from the 1970s onward. I was there to see the changes as they happened. What’s changed over the years? The degree and the vitriolic nature of the fight.
Who’s better for women and children in terms of reducing the numbers of abortions and trying to improve quality of life? By the data and my own beliefs, II will continue to support Harris-Walz.
This is so heartbreaking. https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2024/08/12/ectopic-pregnancies-texas-abortion-ban-women-file-federal-complaints-hospitals/74766110007/
It gives me hope when I read this article about this person who changed and deepen hid understanding of such an issue like women’s choice.
I once heard a minister ask is an embryo a human before they take in their first breath/ the breath of God. Interesting thought.
How dare men deny women health choices.
Congress has none nothing to the men who impregnated said women.
"[Trump] is a political and moral CAT scan, showing the ethical core of many of his supporters. It has been quite the revelation."
That is how I see it. Thanks KDM.
I saw you live talking about your experience at the DNC. I have been reading your emails. It is good to put a face to the words. You are a beautiful young woman. Thank you for your reflections. BetteM
Thank you! Should be required reading for every Christian nationalist.
What now, II Chronicles 7:14 Christians?
https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathanbrownson/p/danger?r=gdp9j&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true