50 Million dead since 1973. All in the name of “choice.”
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Dorian
I wonder how many abortion statistics are floating around on the internet. Better yet, I wonder how many of them are the truth.
I find this one startling if it is true:
If we mix the two, (and my Math is correct) 34,350,000 of those abortions were from people who identify themselves as Christian. (9,000,000 from Evangelicals.)
That just makes it all the more horrifying.
Hey guys check this out:
I remember sitting in my Evangelicalism and The American Experience (TH407) class with Dr. Harper and he was telling us about this years ETS conference. He said there was a forum with Richard Mouw, Randall Balmer, and some other guy I forget and that they were asked their thoughts on “What do you think of the political activity of Evangelicals in coming years?”
Balmer chimed up with a theory the beginning of the religious right. Balmer said (according to Dr. Harper) that he is becoming pessimistic about whether or not Evangelicals and the Religious Right are truly concerned about outlawing partial birth abortion in America or if they are using it as a political platform to get their candidates in office. The reason why is because there was pro-life legislation in all 3 branches of government for nearly 4-6 years, and no one did anything to try and outlaw abortion. Other than the partial birth abortion act of 2003, there was no real attempt to over turn Roe V Wade in those years! Furthermore, he noted how so many evangelicals are so inconsistent with their activism. It’s become common that every election year, particularly presidential, the Religious right speaks up about abortion, but other years they are quiet and don’t say anything! Balmer questioned why there is some much inconsistency and he is beginning to think Evangelicals aren’t truly going to do anything, but just keep making noise about it.
Furthermore, he thinks that historically, the religious right started around the 1960s when the supreme court rule that no NPO can be racially segregated in the US. This caused problems for an Evangelical Non-Profit Institution called Bob Jones University because they were racially segregated (and had no plans of changing!) And, because it was the more liberal minded Democrats pushing for Civil Rights equality, Balmer wonders if that is when the Religious Right really began as a fight for racial segregation by BJU and it’s affiliates.
Balmer noted that in 1973, after Roe. V Wade was passed, W.A. Criswell (who was as theologically and politically conservative as you could’ve gotten w/o being a separatist, according to Dr. Harper) was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and spoke out in support of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights!
Remember this is coming second hand from Dr. Harper who admitted that he (being pro-life) isn’t sure of Balmer’s theory, so this could be crap.
I found some semi-decent information on Balmer’s theory in depth here: http://www.eewc.com/CFT/v32n1a2.htm
It’s not all legit, since it is from a feminist site, but the second half entitled “Another Explanation for the Emergence of the Religious Right”
Understand I am by NO WAY affirming Abortion rights or legitimizing abortions! I AM PRO-LIFE!!! My question is, why did we sit around and do nothing about abortion for all those years that we had pro-life control of ALL 3 Branches of the Federal Government? Something to think about. Nevertheless, keep fight the good fight of the right to life.
grace and peace,
jeremy
Jeremy, I think Balmer was talking about Republicans not caring about abortion and throwing it on their platform to attract the religious right. Or did I not hear Harper correctly? Either way, it would be hard to make the case that “evangelicals” as a whole don’t care about abortion.
Yes, it’s clearly all the religious right’s fault. Never mind the young hip evangelical lefty’s who want to move christianity “beyond abortion and gay marriage,” especially the likes of Donald Miller. Have we ever thought that the reason a righter might want to use the anti-abortion platform to get his candidate in office is because his candidate is pro-life? Is that so much of a stretch?
Ok, so one one side there’s hypocrisy and on the other side there’s indifference (“if we choose our issues better, the world will like us more.” Please.). Nominal pro-lifers are on both sides of the fence. And I’m going to come out and say it (and then duck the rocks that are going to come for sure) If you voted for Obama, you are nominally pro-life.
I think his comments about the level of anti-abortion activity is just wrong. It’s kind of like saying that since child-sex slavery wasn’t completely erradicated in some places, there was no serious attempt. The efforts of people in working towards social justice are not measured by their visible success. Many people are out there working their hearts out for many issues and their labor is unseen by the masses.
i think you’re right bryce. Honestly i can’t remember the full conversation, but Balmer’s theory about the beginning of the Religious Right is interesting regardless. And you have to ask why is it that Christians only get involved in Politics every 2-4 years when it’s time to talk about abortion and keep quiet the other times? Seems inconsistent to me. Why are we not organizing other grass-roots efforts to get rid of abortions besides just political lobbying? And, as long as abortion is legal, why are Evangelicals not promoting education to reduce abortions while simultaneously working to outlaw abortions?
“And you have to ask why is it that Christians only get involved in Politics every 2-4 years when it’s time to talk about abortion and keep quiet the other times? Seems inconsistent to me. Why are we not organizing other grass-roots efforts to get rid of abortions besides just political lobbying? And, as long as abortion is legal, why are Evangelicals not promoting education to reduce abortions while simultaneously working to outlaw abortions?”
Jeremy, I’m sorry but that is just a very ignorant thing to say. It’s just not even true. Some Christians are hypocrites. Many, thankfully are not, and are involved politically, legally, making grassroots efforts and pouring their time and money into education to reduce abortions. If you haven’t seen it, then I’m sorry, if your looking for some of these people so you can right their name on a donation check, ask me and I’ll give you a long list.
Many of the Christian left are so busy complaining about the Christian right, that they end up contributing just as much to the efforts to end injustice as the people they criticize. It’s very sad.
For some reason my comments aren’t showing up. You guys getting this one?
Brandon, I’ve been deleting your comments. I sent you an email about it to brandon@desirearmed.com.
I see. I’ll check my email and get back to you.
I guess even the conservative media also has an agenda of what they want to people to see and hear. Things like Abort73.com and other organizations, those are great organizations but i don’t get why we only hear about them in Christian magazine and such and nowhere else. When whoever it was who displayed abort73 around Multnomah was the first I’d heard about it. If anything, we need to engage the broader culture, like this public pro-life thing, that’s a great event but these events are a rare find these days (esp. in Portland!) Of course Christians are going to rally against abortion, but why are we not engaging the broader culture in efforts to fight for the right to life. I think we are only preaching to the choir a lot of times. Holding protests is one thing, but I’d rather engage and dialog and try to educate people calmly about pro-life issues and not make this a shouting match all the time where people end up getting pissed off at each other.
And for that matter, why is the “pro-life” position only limited to abortion? I think Rick Warren’s statement on ABC’s Meet the Press about being “full life” is a good point…if we are “pro-life” then we should care about the people dying of AIDS in Africa along with the children dying in abortions as well our elderly dying because they are not receiving the medical care they need and are being told to literally “Go home and die” because they are old. We need to care about all life, not just the life of the unborn.
And finally, since when is being pro-life only a republican stance? Why are we not encouraging the Democrats to take pro-life stances?
PS. Dorian what do you mean “nominally pro-life”? I’m really bad with my formal vocabulary and am not sure what this means.
Jeremy,
I’ve never figured out why you think that these things are only shown to Christians. It’s just not true. You don’t see most of the work these organizations do, and it seems like you just assume that they only do what you’ve seen them do.
As someone who follows closely the work of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, I can assure you that there is a mind blowing amount of extra-christian culture engagement going on, its sad that you don’t see it. But Christians need to be exposed to the horror of the issues just as much as anyone else. Even I need to watch the videos and see the pictures because I can so easily slip into indifference. I actually think its great that things like Abort73 are played for Christians, ESPECIALLY, abort 73. Its really sad how abortion is reduced to the issue of strategizing and culture engagement and the horrifying truth of it all is more or less taken for granted by Christians. Multnomah would almost be the first place I would play it, because there is such a sad laziness and indifference to the real horror of abortion itself. As one of your favorite teachers has quipped “Jesus wants to save Christians.” Well, we should engage Christians on these issues as well.
Abortion is not about strategy, culture engaging, or quiet dialogues. It’s about murder, it’s about the literal dismemberment of innocent babies. The sooner we stop strategizing and start crying ourselves to sleep at night for the sake of the slaughter of innocent children, the sooner the real engagement will begin.
Jeremy, by “nominally pro-life” he means “marginally pro-life” or “pro-life in name only.”
Thanks bryce, but I doubt I would say I am “pro-life in name only” because being or leaning “left” does not equal pro-choice of course, but this is turning into an argument and not a conversation and it’s getting pretty long. We’re starting to beat dead horses on some things (not the abortion issue since we are all pro life) and it’s not getting us anywhere good. I’m out.
grace and peace,
jeremy
Jeremy, I hope you did not take my comment the wrong way. I was simply explaining what the term meant.