Progressive American
Led by people like Franklin Graham, who has compared Planned Parenthood to Nazi death camps, conservative Christians insist that abortion is a political “make or break” issue. Graham has even “quit” the Republican Party over the issue. Abortion is a frequently cited reason for Evangelical support of Trump during the last presidential campaign. But the reality is that abortion is a playing piece in their lifestyle choice.
Like their boasts about the importance of “spreading the gospel” most conservative Christians also make hollow boasts about the importance in their lives of stopping abortion. I have demonstrated this in my last article and, when talking to conservative Christians one-on-one, can easily show that their claims are empty. Their pious words seem to be merely part of the script in their lifestyle choice: Christianity. Like people who dress as Star Wars characters, who have an obsession with Disney characters and stories, who belong to lodges and clubs, whose lives become centered around a celebrity complete with statues and portraits painted on velvet, they choose a lifestyle that resonates with them for some reason and commit to it to varying degrees. And those degrees vary based on whim, comfort, and political expedience. Whatever degree they choose they will often argue that you cannot be pro-choice and a Christian.
One of the “important” features of this lifestyle choice is opposition to abortion. Or, at least, talking about being opposed to abortion. Rarely does a conservative Christian do something to actually reduce abortion. I have been watching them for over 40 years. I was one of them on the political front lines when abortion became the big issue. The “most important moral issue of our time.” They have talked about the horror of abortion but have demanded an “all or nothing” approach and insisted that only complete bans are acceptable.
Solutions that could reduce abortions by 80%+ have been rejected routinely for 40 years. This tells me that “saving babies” is merely rhetoric from their lifestyle choice and not something they actually want to do. You would think that saving some is better than none. But they continue to talk and talk. Actions always speak louder than words and inaction screams the loudest. There is always some reason for them to explain why they do nothing (in areas like evangelism, feeding the poor, visiting widows, caring for the sick, and abortion). Usually it involves hobbies, entertainment, sports, TV, “church” events, and a myriad of other things they will, in other contexts, condemn the people of the “world” for but are just fine for them. They have become masterful at concocting excuses while maintaining the religious facade their lifestyle choice demands.
But…
Sometimes Abortion Is Acceptable For Conservatives
According to them if we spend one dollar on non-abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood then we are freeing up money to provide abortions. Therefore not one cent should be given to them because it would facilitate abortions and would mean that they are participating in that abortion. They are quite proud and smug about this line of reasoning. But there is a huge problem: Israel.
Israel has the most liberal abortion laws in the world. The government of Israel pays for elective abortions for its citizens. Free abortions! Israel provides abortions for everyone from teen aged girls (with no parental consent required) on up. We, the American taxpayers, give Israel $3 Billion dollars a year. Conservative Christians are happy about our financial support of Israel. They are joyful about giving money to the secular state of Israel (that they wrongfully conflate with the Biblical Israel) and therefore heartily endorse and participate in EVERY abortion in Israel. No? Why not?
Why Is Planned Parenthood Different?
In America they piously tell us that one dollar that subsidizes abortion, even indirectly, is too much and is participating in murder. But when it comes to Israel they become silent. And they come up with a litany of excuses. As they showed with Trump, the gospel, and numerous other things, their “moral principles” are merely convenient preferences. Nothing more than a lifestyle choice. A lifestyle choice they insist that YOU embrace in spite of their obviously tepid and conditional support for it’s “moral principles.”
So today, when a baby is aborted in Israel they will remain silent. Their money will be used, in the same way they claim it is used by Planned Parenthood, to do what they say they hate. But we all can see they hate abortion only on their convoluted terms, only as part of the lifestyle choice they wish we would all adopt. They “hate it” but remain silent when they finance it in Israel. They hate it enough to talk incessantly about it. They draw political and religious lines based on their professed hate for abortion. They hate it and yet have spent decades doing almost nothing to reduce it. They hate it because the script of their lifestyle choice demands they say they hate it and demands nothing more.
I have many friends who are against abortion. I chide them on these issues and challenge them to begin living and acting like they believe what they claim. Your profession of your beliefs will mean a lot more if you disentangle your politics from your moral beliefs. Because, like with your support of people like Donald Trump, you are forced to compromise. In doing so you send a message to the world around you. And that message is that your beliefs are merely a lifestyle choice and hold little real value.
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