The Not-So-Lofty Origins of the Evangelical Pro-Life Movement

[Gravitycollapse]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/6801/

...As the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade passes, it’s important to remember the both sides of the evangelical anti-abortion movement’s history. Yes, it did involve legitimate moral concerns about abortion, it did occasion serious reflection on the issue by evangelical scholars and pastors, and it did bring a formerly apolitical segment of America into the political process.

But its founding moral outrage stemmed not from Roe v. Wade, but from the prospect of government-imposed desegregation; it rest its intellectual foundation on highly dubious, non-scholarly arguments advanced by Francis Schaeffer; it mobilized lay evangelicals to action by telling them the Bible teaches something it does not actually teach; and it actively suppressed the scholarship of evangelicals who held alternative viewpoints.

Although it may be tempting to conclude with Mark Galli that “God uses the messiness of history to accomplish his will,” just because these strategies worked does not mean the movement has God’s endorsement.

Given the dubious origins of the evangelical pro-life movement, and the intractable nature of the conflict, perhaps the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade should serve as an occasion for evangelicals to reconsider their commitment to criminalizing abortion.

[xfundy]

1. Falwell was famously racist till he turned his political ire on gays & lesbians.

The guy was an asshole and makes me wish there was a hell so he, Reagan, Hitler and the rest of the assholes could spend eternity trying to rip each other off for "love offerings" while getting sodomized by hot red demons' pointy tails.

Fuck them all.