The Religious Right's "Malignant Approach to Politics"


If we go back to before the 2016 election of President Trump, there was an overarching narrative everywhere in the religious right. It was, "Yes, the man seems morally corrupt. It would be better to have a President with genuine Christian values. But, he has promised to appoint Supreme Court judges who will throw out Roe v Wade. That's the reason we have to vote for him."

This was a "malignant approach to politics" because now the Roe has been tossed, there are almost as many abortions as when it was law. By focusing only on this issue, conservative Christians brought to the Presidency a man bent on not retaining democracy. It opened, or could have opened, the door to an administration some years off that required abortion. That the religious right was so self-centered and intellectually lazy as to not see this was a "malignancy." The term "malignancy" was used by W. Bush's speech writer, a Christian who died recently.

To prohibit abortion nationwide, which is the goal of anti-abortion religious and political leaders, because it's "my church's position" or "the Pope's position" or "I think it's murder" is a foolish approach. It is exactly like the approach of prohibition advocates. The view of prohibition was to stop retail sales of beer and other alcoholic brews in order to stop husbands from drinking in bars instead of being at home, to stop absenteeism at work and to abolish an immoral activity, drinking. I was a Methodist when it was an abstinence denomination. It was a moral position with that group. To be honest, I can't remember hearing what justified the moral argument. There was plenty of wine drank in the Bible.

Anti-alcohol and anti-abortion are identical in that neither had a way to enforce their morality laws. When I've pointed that out here previously, anti-abortion readers have said, "When something is immoral, we need to pass laws against without regard to their enforceability." That is exactly what the anti-alcohol Bible thumpers said. What both anti groups need to do is persuade the general public their moral views are correct. So far, neither anti group has come close to doing that. I read columns by anti-abortion writers who claim they need more time and then they will be successful in bring the public to their side. They have had thousands of years. How much time do they need?

The Jan. 6th attack, the insistence that VP Pence appoint some other electoral college reps and Trump's insistence the 2020 election was stolen are evidence of beliefs government must be used to impose the will of the minority. It is alive in our country. 

   

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