Problems with the Evangelical Abortion Narrative

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5502785

Abortion is murder and sin. This needs to be stated in unqualified terms. The point of this inquiry is not to argue otherwise or muddy the waters on the core ethical points surrounding the practice.

However when abortion is considered in its political and social context, then the truth demands a wider discussion and necessarily a more complicated one. Again, this is not to give credence or standing to those who promote and defend abortion. Rather it is necessary as Christians to be honest with regard to how the issue has been framed and utilised, and to consider the narratives attached to it.

The linked NPR story (from 2006) is both right and wrong in what it asserts. Balmer need not be agreed with on all points, including his read of nineteenth century Evangelicalism. He posits a rather confused narrative at points (and also seems to assume the false narrative regarding supposed Evangelical a-politicism up to the 1970's) but it is nevertheless argued with some basis in truth – or rather, the truth is there if found between the lines. There is a dirty secret with regard to the rise of the political and consolidated Evangelical movement of the 1970's – the spectrum that would soon coalesce into groups like the Moral Majority and after its failures, The Christian Coalition. 

These groups have constructed a narrative in which they make abortion the key issue they utilise to rally their base. Abortion was made legal in all fifty states as a result of 1973's Roe v. Wade decision, and throughout the 1980's and 1990's they could point back to this as a watershed moment that led to their activism and larger project which (in its new 1970's phase) sought to consolidate the Christian vote, ultimately in the Republican Party. Abortion is still used as a kind of 'trump card' to shut-down any debate or silence those who express doubts concerning their larger Right-wing political project. You may doubt their arguments regarding the Biblical basis for capitalism, or the morality of US foreign policy, or their other positions, but their apologists quickly paint such dissenting Christians into a corner by appealing to the abortion issue. The other side (meaning the Democrats) supports abortion and therefore a Christian cannot vote for them. You may not like many of the things the Republicans stand for – but because of abortion you must vote for them nonetheless. Oh, and you must vote and so therefore your decision has effectively been made for you.

It's proven a successful (if deceitful) tactic and it has kept the ranks mostly in compliance. But apart from being framed in unbiblical terms to begin with, the dirty secret is this – the Supreme Court's 1973 abortion decision did not originally affect or even greatly motivate many of the Evangelical activists of the 1970's. Abortion was viewed as a Catholic issue and it wasn't something that Evangelicals cared a great deal about. Abortion was the province of the ghettoes and the minority populations and (though these chapters of history have been erased) there were many on the Right who (just a generation earlier) had been favourable to the idea of restricting reproduction among undesirable elements of society. Barry Goldwater, one of the chief figures of the new Republican Right of the post-war period held some of these views as did many other Republicans of his and the previous generation. Today's Christian Right would argue that the dark history of Eugenics is solely associated with the Democratic Party. It's simply not true and one doesn't need to dig that deep to discover this.

What really motivated Evangelicals in the 1970's was the issue of schooling, the new Christian school movement, and the interaction of these new institutions with the IRS and the federal government. There was outrage over schools losing tax exemption and while conservatives were upset over the Court rulings regarding Bible reading and prayer there was also considerable anger concerning integration and its second phase in the 1970's – desegregation or forced busing. This canceled out the practical aspects of White Flight – the continued move to the suburbs and outer-suburbs. The growth of private Christian schooling was one of the motivating factors for the early Christian Right and yet its genesis was not born of anti-abortion politics but in anger over taxes and fallout regarding federal civil rights policy.

These things are worth remembering given the present exuberance over the prospect that the US Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade in the near future. The Pro-Life narrative has been erected on a piece of cultural mythology and in terms of the actual ethics of the Christian Right it needs to be stated clearly – the movement is not Pro-Life and never has been. It may oppose abortion but in terms of the full spectrum of its political programme and ethical framework, the Christian alliance with Right-wing politics is one of violence and death. These people have consistently supported war and on occasions they have openly encouraged it. They collaborated with Nixon during Vietnam, and they played a part in fomenting war and producing war propaganda during the Reagan era. Ironically there's revisionism at work in this period as well as they were at first very hostile to his rapprochement with Gorbachev. Only later in the aftermath of the Cold War was Reagan's legend re-written and those events celebrated and viewed through a triumphalist lens. At the time they excoriated him as a dupe and fool that was putting America at risk.

George HW Bush was not greatly admired by the movement but there was eager support for his slaughters in Panama and Gulf War I – and the propaganda that accompanied them.

And while Evangelical support for Clinton's wars was tepid, they vigorously supported and campaigned for the militarism of George W Bush and his policies of regime change, torture, kidnapping, and assassination.

They continue to support the economics of international capitalism and its usurious exploitation of the poor, the theft of resources, and the financial, political, and military domination of other countries. The costs in human life are massive and difficult to quantify and yet this movement continues to defend the decadent American way of life, its materialist consumerism, ostentatious pursuit of wealth, and have proven more than willing to support the annihilation of any individual, movement, or nation that would oppose it. The death toll that has resulted from American Imperialism (the ideology and movement the Christian Right has sold its soul to) is in the millions, and by some measures in the tens of millions.

And finally we've seen their true colours once more during the Covid era as the majority of the movement has embraced a functional programme of elder euthanasia and they remain hostile to any measures that might inconvenience them, generate physical discomfort, or in any way hinder profits. They are more than willing for large numbers of people to die than to curtail creature comforts or to rein in their avarice. It has been one of the most disgusting displays of ethical abandonment and anti-Christian behaviour I have ever seen.

The Christian Right is a literal death machine. The politics of abortion are a farce, an emotional manipulation of their increasingly ignorant and malleable base.

And yet their policies are in the end self-defeating. Politics being the real goal of the actions, a repeal of Roe v. Wade will create a situation in which the majority of US states will outlaw abortion. The battle will continue in the states where it remains legal and the Christian Right will attempt to rally voters in those locales – but largely to no avail as the demographics in places like New York, New Jersey, Massachussetts, and California are going to be greatly against them. Other states like Pennsylvania and Colorado are going to turn into real battle grounds.

But in so many other states, abortion will be outlawed and then the Christian Right will effectively lose its political trump card. They will still be able to appeal to the issue in terms of national politics but on the state level it will be a dead issue and so Evangelicals in their ranks will not be as easily controlled and brow-beaten, nor will the leverage exist to have their emotions manipulated in terms of the ballot box.

It's also self-defeating because throughout this whole process they have contributed to the downgrading of the law and the judiciary. Legal tricks and bogus tactics have made a mockery of the judicial system and the legal code. Corruption is endemic as seen with the moral and financial fraud exhibited by such activist groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Liberty Counsel, and worst of all, the racket known as the ACLJ.

They are not solely to blame as this legal corruption is inherent in the flawed American system which is structured in such a way as to almost demand lawsuits in order to force judicial review. It's a self-destructive and unethical system to begin with but it's one the Right celebrates – and yet ironically has played a significant part in undermining.

Abortion is murder and sin but a simple of repeal of abortion will not solve deep societal problems. In fact it will aggravate them and generate a greater demand for abortion – which will still happen even if it's relegated to the 'back alley'. As many pro-abortion advocates will argue they too would like to see it as something rare if obsolete. But the reasons for abortion are wedded to other social issues, they are part of a larger package. If the other problems are dealt with, the idea is that then abortion would become unnecessary and largely unknown. This is not a moral solution and indeed many of society's problems have no good solutions, but the point is that for the Right to target this one issue, and channel all their energy into this solitary concern, and yet to keep feeding the machine that creates the social conditions that lead to the poverty and desperation that drives such women to abort their babies is neither sound, wise, nor moral.

We can rejoice at the prospect of lives being saved, but such actions will in no wise make America more moral or righteous, nor is the cause of life furthered by the political machinations of the Christian Right. Rejoice we will, not with the Christian Right, but in spite of it. There is no victory to celebrate, all the more as those who are disobedient to Christ and yet claim His blessing will use such a 'victory' only to further they wayward and frankly anti-life agenda. And the leaders will continue to line their pockets making merchandise of God's people and bringing Judgment on themselves.