I’m going to post about Abby Johnson one more time this week, and after this I hope she goes away. She’s a disagreeable bully who has made an international fool of herself this week, repeatedly attacking not one but two men of color who are Christian clerics and refusing to apologize. Today she tweeted a particularly sulky non-apology, not to her victims but to her own followers, and painting herself as the victim all along. She also says she believes that the Bishop Talbert Swan II, the first cleric she attacked, “fails to protect the most vulnerable.” She does not mention my friend Father Stephanos Pedrano, whom she libeled, at all. And her followers are still being misled by her and behaving as she does, claiming Bishop Swan is not Christian, that he’s some kind of fake bishop, that he wants the death of black children.
Clearly, this woman is not fit to run a pro-life charity the size of “And Then There Were None.” The pro-life group “New Wave Feminists” concurs with me, and yesterday they announced that they would no longer work with Johnson or And Then There Were None, and I hope many other such organizations follow suit. Abby claims to understand all about how abortion impacts the black community, and then she pulls something like this. Trusting her to be a pro-life leader is about as wise as letting your alcoholic friend run your liquor store for you. She ought to step out of the limelight and stay out. But whom should she hand the keys to when she’s gone?
I’ve got an idea for who could take over Abby Johnson’s job.
It has to be someone we can trust to be knowledgeable and honest– someone who really understands the issues at hand, and someone who’s not afraid to speak their mind freely. Someone famous for not mincing words. Abby Johnson is proud of her “sharp tongue,” but she’s proven herself to be a racist. Someone who can do that without the racism.
How about someone who has experience running a great pro-life charity? Because the Church of God in Christ is a Christian denomination that launched the Family Life Campaign, a network that serves African-American women in crisis pregnancies. They’ve taken on this project in response to the disproportionate number of African-American women who get abortions in this country, something Abby Johnson claims to care deeply about. But they don’t try to help African-American women in crisis pregnancies by screaming racist things at strangers on Twitter like Abby. Instead, they have a network of pregnancy clinics across the country. Take a look at what Leslie Monet, their international director, told the Christian Post:
“We recognize that Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood, was a deeply racist woman. She [advocated] for populations to be decreased because she thought that they were unfit. And that includes the African American community. Throughout history, Planned Parenthood has sought to fulfill Margaret Sanger’s legacy and aimed for our community. And that’s why it is important to the Church of God in Christ.”
They sound like wonderful people. Maybe we could find someone from the Church of God in Christ to take over Abby’s job.
I’m talking about someone with leadership experience, who understands the Black community. I’m talking about one of the clerics who signed the “Open Letter to Hillary Clinton Regarding Religious Freedom for Black America” back in 2016. The open letter read in part: “abortion in the black community has had a catastrophic impact… Black babies are dying at terrifying rates… How do you justify your unconscionable silence in the face of such destruction of innocent black life? Don’t black lives matter?”
And you know where I’m going with this by now, if you’ve read those links. Bishop Talbert Swan II, Johnson’s first victim this week, is a bishop in the Church of God in Christ. Bishop Talbert Swan signed that open letter. Swan doesn’t support Planned Parenthood like Abby presumed.
Abby Johnson made a fool of herself this week, in a racist outburst trying to school an African-American man about how abortion impacts the African-American community. I guess she presumed he wasn’t pro-life because he’s not Republican, or maybe because he isn’t white. And all along, that man was against abortion and a bishop in a denomination that’s taking huge steps to understand and address abortion in the African-American community.
In any case, even if Abby refuses to give up her little racist snit, you all know of organizations you can include in your charitable giving from now on, instead of a charity that might be racist. Boycott And Then There Were None, and support New Wave Feminists and the Family Life Campaign.
It’s what I plan to do.
(image via Pixbay)
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