{"id":107206,"date":"2019-01-31T00:52:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T07:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=107206"},"modified":"2019-01-27T15:01:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T22:01:29","slug":"a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"A reader asks why I&#8217;m so much harder on &#8220;pro-life&#8221; Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>He writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever the GOP does something wrong, you hammer them for it, but when Dems do things wrong, you twist it to again focus on how everything is the GOP\u2019s fault. Smack the Dems around a bit too. They\u2019re deserving of it as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don\u2019t think I twist anything.  When Dems fail to live by their own principles, I say so.  And I hope to help Dems grow past their own short-sighted principles when it comes to abortion. (And, by the way, a third of them already do.)<\/p>\n<p>But those to whom much is given, much will be required. The servant who does not know his master\u2019s will and does not do it will be beaten with few blows. The servant who knows his master\u2019s will and does not do it will be beaten with many blows. <\/p>\n<p>Conservative Christians run around calling themselves the most prolife people in the history of ever while cynically using the unborn as human shields in order to pursue their <em>real<\/em> goals of power, money, and racist oppression.  It was not abortion, but Trump\u2019s stupid monument to white supremacy that \u201cprolife\u201d Christians were glad to shut down the government and inflict mindless cruelty on the country to obtain.  That\u2019s what really mattered to them. <\/p>\n<p>People on the left very often come from backgrounds that have never taught them the unborn are to be treated with respect. Are you offended when a Hindu does not worship Christ? Then why are you offended when somebody who does not believe the unborn to be as important as the born acts on their principles? Should their minds be changed? Sure. How do you expect that to happen when it is <em>obvious<\/em> that even most of those who claim to care about the unborn do nothing of the kind when the unborn are inconvenient to their real aims of money, power and racist oppression of the weak?<\/p>\n<p>So yeah. I absolutely smack the \u201cprolife\u201d GOP Christianists around more. They are a <em>scandal<\/em> and they make bearing witness to the gospel immensely more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>And I do bear witness to it and to the dignity of the unborn. The <em>only<\/em> people who lie that I don\u2019t are not unbelievers but right wing <em>lying<\/em> Christianists. <\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a simple test for every conservative Christian liar: just ask somebody who is pro-choice if they think I support abortion or am \u201csecretly not a real Christian\u201d.<br>\nI have a number of such readers right in my comboxes.  Guys? Are <em>you <\/em>confused about my views? Are you baffled about whether I am a Catholic or oppose abortion?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He writes: I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever the GOP does something wrong, you hammer them for it, but when Dems do things wrong, you twist it to again focus on how everything is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-107206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mailbag"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A reader asks why I&#039;m so much harder on &quot;pro-life&quot; Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"He writes: I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A reader asks why I&#039;m so much harder on &quot;pro-life&quot; Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He writes: I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-31T07:52:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-27T22:01:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html\",\"name\":\"A reader asks why I'm so much harder on \\\"pro-life\\\" Christians\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-31T07:52:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-27T22:01:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"He writes: I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A reader asks why I&#8217;m so much harder on &#8220;pro-life&#8221; Christians\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea&#039;s Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A reader asks why I'm so much harder on \"pro-life\" Christians","description":"He writes: I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A reader asks why I'm so much harder on \"pro-life\" Christians","og_description":"He writes: I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2019-01-31T07:52:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-27T22:01:29+00:00","author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html","name":"A reader asks why I'm so much harder on \"pro-life\" Christians","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-31T07:52:16+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-27T22:01:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"He writes: I just wish you would focus on the life issue at hand, instead of twisting everything in order to condemn the GOP and support Dems. Whenever","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-im-so-much-harder-on-pro-life-christians.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A reader asks why I&#8217;m so much harder on &#8220;pro-life&#8221; Christians"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea&#039;s Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}