J. Michael Jones

I have been writing, blogging, and now podcasting on what’s wrong with the modern “Evangelical” movement since 1990. I have been tempted to revisit the abortion question with the Supreme Court leak on banding abortion, but I’ve fought the temptation as I have done enough. But I just listened to a great podcast on the history of the evangelical movement and how the abortion issue is now their most sacred cause, what I would call idolatry. It is consistent with what I’ve been trying to say since the 1990s, but they say it much better. For example, it may surprise you the the evangelicals voted to support women’s choice of abortion until the mid 1970s. But you can find this great podcast here.

If you have not listened to my podcasts about abortion, my simple points are, 1) The vast majority of women do not approach an abortion nonchalantly, but as a painful choice. 2)Those who do approach it as just another form of birth control, while rare, need to understand the value of the fetus. 3) Evangelicals argue that the Bible says the fetus has the same value of a full human, from the moment of conception. The Bible, however, says almost nothing about abortion, but does imply that the fetus is of value as a “human in the making,” but not fully human (see Exodus 21:22 and listen to the interpretation of Jewish ancient Hebrew language experts and not evangelical pastors). 4) But those arguments only matter, as a side bar. The greater point is that the criminalization of abortion is a lazy, horrible, and unloving way to approach this problem. The watershed of abortion is unplanned pregnancies. We have the power of almost eliminating unplanned pregnancies in a loving way by fully supporting reproductive health and unwanted-pregnancy prevention and decreasing the financial burden of new babies on the poor. It was predicted that the abortion rate would increase under the previous administration’s actions to reduce support for reproductive health for women and that came true as the abortion rate increased for the first time since 1980 under that administration. But I digressed and presto I’ve given into temptation (and steroids), I have written about abortion once again. But my spirit is to find something we all can agree on, not to sew division. We can all work together to support women lovingly, to support reproductive health and reducing unwanted pregnancies in a loving way and therefore almost eliminate the need for an abortion. My two cents on an emotional issue.

On an unrelated note, my cancer is still in limbo, but out of control. I have a bone marrow biopsy in the morning and meet with my local oncologist so I hope we can get a new plan in place. I will update you in a few weeks.

Happy Mothers’ Day!