The Abortion Myth

[Bfgrn]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

Easy...they DON'T...they're a bunch of racists that USED Roe v. Wade as a political wedge issue...

Book Excerpt: 'Thy Kingdom Come'

by Randall Balmer

In the 1980s, in order to solidify their shift from divorce to abortion, the Religious Right constructed an abortion myth, one accepted by most Americans as true. Simply put, the abortion myth is this: Leaders of the Religious Right would have us believe that their movement began in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
---
In the course of one of the sessions, Weyrich tried to make a point to his Religious Right brethren (no women attended the conference, as I recall). Let's remember, he said animatedly, that the Religious Right did not come together in response to the Roe decision. No, Weyrich insisted, what got us going as a political movement was the attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies.

Evangelical: Religious Right Has Distorted the Faith : NPR

 

[elvis]

so now, not only do those who are against abortion not care about kids, but are racists as well?

 

[Againsheila]

Just remember, everyone in favor of abortion has already been born.

 

[Iriemon]

Just remember, everyone in favor of abortion has already been born.

Sperm against abortion!

 

[Zoom-boing]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

WTF did you come up with this?

 

[Bfgrn]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

WTF did you come up with this?

It should read:
The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling or the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

I'd like to add no regard for anything growing...

If God created trees, shouldn't liberals be the ones calling conservative christians tree huggers?

 

[Zoom-boing]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

WTF did you come up with this?

It should read:
The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling or the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

I'd like to add no regard for anything growing...

If God created trees, shouldn't liberals be the ones calling conservative christians tree huggers?

Like I said, WTF did you come up with this stuff?

 

[Cecilie1200]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

Easy...they DON'T...they're a bunch of racists that USED Roe v. Wade as a political wedge issue...

Book Excerpt: 'Thy Kingdom Come'

by Randall Balmer

In the 1980s, in order to solidify their shift from divorce to abortion, the Religious Right constructed an abortion myth, one accepted by most Americans as true. Simply put, the abortion myth is this: Leaders of the Religious Right would have us believe that their movement began in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
---
In the course of one of the sessions, Weyrich tried to make a point to his Religious Right brethren (no women attended the conference, as I recall). Let's remember, he said animatedly, that the Religious Right did not come together in response to the Roe decision. No, Weyrich insisted, what got us going as a political movement was the attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies.

Evangelical: Religious Right Has Distorted the Faith : NPR

Woo hoo! Another thread based on someone's bigotry stated as though it were fact, and a frigging straw man set up by a left-wing propaganda machine. Thank God. It's been too long since the last one.

 

[Cecilie1200]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

WTF did you come up with this?

It should read:
The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling or the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

I'd like to add no regard for anything growing...

If God created trees, shouldn't liberals be the ones calling conservative christians tree huggers?

I don't think he was referring to your grammar, twerp. I think he was talking about your bullshit assertion.

And if I were a tree, perhaps I would have more concern for trees than I do for species I don't belong to. Since I'm a human, I'm partial to THAT species. Duhhh.

 

[Bfgrn]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

Easy...they DON'T...they're a bunch of racists that USED Roe v. Wade as a political wedge issue...

Book Excerpt: 'Thy Kingdom Come'

by Randall Balmer

In the 1980s, in order to solidify their shift from divorce to abortion, the Religious Right constructed an abortion myth, one accepted by most Americans as true. Simply put, the abortion myth is this: Leaders of the Religious Right would have us believe that their movement began in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
---
In the course of one of the sessions, Weyrich tried to make a point to his Religious Right brethren (no women attended the conference, as I recall). Let's remember, he said animatedly, that the Religious Right did not come together in response to the Roe decision. No, Weyrich insisted, what got us going as a political movement was the attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies.

Evangelical: Religious Right Has Distorted the Faith : NPR

Woo hoo! Another thread based on someone's bigotry stated as though it were fact, and a frigging straw man set up by a left-wing propaganda machine. Thank God. It's been too long since the last one.

Some left-wing propaganda machine...

Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, earned the Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985. He has lectured at the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club of California and the Smithsonian Associates and to audiences around the country, and he has been a visiting professor at Rutgers, Yale, Drew, Northwestern, and Princeton universities and at Union Theological Seminary, where he is also an adjunct professor. He has been a visiting professor in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a visiting professor at Yale Divinity School.

Professor Balmer has published widely both in academic and scholarly journals and in the popular press. He is an editor for Christianity Today, his commentaries on religion in America, distributed by the New York Times Syndicate, have appeared in newspapers across the country, and one of his essays, "Adirondack Fundamentalism," appears in the Ninth Edition of The Norton Reader. He has published opinion pieces in the Des Moines Register, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the San Diego Times-Union, the Dallas Morning News, Slate, the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Newsday, the Albany Times-Union, the Nation and the New York Times. His first book, A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies, won several awards, and his second book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, was made into a three-part documentary for PBS. Professor Balmer was nominated for an Emmy for his script-writing and for hosting that series.

His second documentary, Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham, was aired on PBS and also appeared in A&E's Biography series. "In the Beginning": The Creationist Controversy, a two-part documentary on the creation-evolution debate, was first broadcast over PBS in May 1995 and then recut and broadcast in fall 2001.

Professor Balmer has co-written a history of American Presbyterians, a book on mainline Protestantism, and another book, Protestantism in America, with Lauren F. Winner. Other books include Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, published by Baylor University Press, and Religion in Twentieth Century America, part of the Religion in American Life series, published by Oxford University Press. A spiritual memoir, Growing Pains: Learning to Love My Father's Faith, published by Brazos Press in 2001, was named "book of the year" (spirituality) by Christianity Today. Professor Balmer recently completed a history of religion and the presidency entitled God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. It will be released by HarperOne (formerly Harper San Francisco) in January 2008.

Complete CV (PDF)

 

[Cecilie1200]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

Easy...they DON'T...they're a bunch of racists that USED Roe v. Wade as a political wedge issue...

Book Excerpt: 'Thy Kingdom Come'

by Randall Balmer

In the 1980s, in order to solidify their shift from divorce to abortion, the Religious Right constructed an abortion myth, one accepted by most Americans as true. Simply put, the abortion myth is this: Leaders of the Religious Right would have us believe that their movement began in direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
---
In the course of one of the sessions, Weyrich tried to make a point to his Religious Right brethren (no women attended the conference, as I recall). Let's remember, he said animatedly, that the Religious Right did not come together in response to the Roe decision. No, Weyrich insisted, what got us going as a political movement was the attempt on the part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to rescind the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies.

Evangelical: Religious Right Has Distorted the Faith : NPR

Woo hoo! Another thread based on someone's bigotry stated as though it were fact, and a frigging straw man set up by a left-wing propaganda machine. Thank God. It's been too long since the last one.

Some left-wing propaganda machine...

NPR? Yup.

Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, earned the Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985. He has lectured at the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club of California and the Smithsonian Associates and to audiences around the country, and he has been a visiting professor at Rutgers, Yale, Drew, Northwestern, and Princeton universities and at Union Theological Seminary, where he is also an adjunct professor. He has been a visiting professor in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a visiting professor at Yale Divinity School.

Ooh, a college professor! He's admired by other college professors! Excuse me while I widdle myself at the amazing and well-known conservativism of college professors . . . or not.

Professor Balmer has published widely both in academic and scholarly journals and in the popular press. He is an editor for Christianity Today, his commentaries on religion in America, distributed by the New York Times Syndicate, have appeared in newspapers across the country, and one of his essays, "Adirondack Fundamentalism," appears in the Ninth Edition of The Norton Reader. He has published opinion pieces in the Des Moines Register, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the San Diego Times-Union, the Dallas Morning News, Slate, the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Newsday, the Albany Times-Union, the Nation and the New York Times. His first book, A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies, won several awards, and his second book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, was made into a three-part documentary for PBS. Professor Balmer was nominated for an Emmy for his script-writing and for hosting that series.

His second documentary, Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham, was aired on PBS and also appeared in A&E's Biography series. "In the Beginning": The Creationist Controversy, a two-part documentary on the creation-evolution debate, was first broadcast over PBS in May 1995 and then recut and broadcast in fall 2001.

Professor Balmer has co-written a history of American Presbyterians, a book on mainline Protestantism, and another book, Protestantism in America, with Lauren F. Winner. Other books include Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, published by Baylor University Press, and Religion in Twentieth Century America, part of the Religion in American Life series, published by Oxford University Press. A spiritual memoir, Growing Pains: Learning to Love My Father's Faith, published by Brazos Press in 2001, was named "book of the year" (spirituality) by Christianity Today. Professor Balmer recently completed a history of religion and the presidency entitled God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. It will be released by HarperOne (formerly Harper San Francisco) in January 2008.

Complete CV (PDF)

I'm neither planning to hire him nor buy him. The source in question, numbnuts, was NPR.

That being said, none of this makes him immune to having political agendas on specific subjects, or worth a tinker's damn on the subject of "the abortion myth" based on the bullshit contained in your first quoted paragraph. The "Religious Right" has no stake in making you believe anything about when their opposition began. Their stake is in making you believe their opposition is CORRECT, whenever it started. Also, the implication we're supposed to pick up that their opposition to abortion is somehow "fake" because it didn't spring up immediately after Roe v. Wade is complete horse doody. A lack of speedy organization indicates nothing except a lack of speedy coordination. Contrary to leftist conspiracy theories, the Christian community tends to suck at cohesive political activism.

Now say something more productive than slobbering over this guy's resume, or move it along. You're boring me.

 

[krotchdog]

I am against abortion and I am not religous. I just hate the idea of that baby squirming around while a doctor kills the poor thing.

I can see how way back in the 1960's when so many people were strung out on drugs and people were less educated abortion was needed.

This is the 21st century, we are better educated, our science has advanced far enough that we understand what causes pregnancy.

Its time to move forward and act with responsibility.

 

[Said1]

I can't take a person who goes by the moniker 'krotchdog' seriously, Krotchdog.

 

[krotchdog]

You said one what, seriously, you said 1 fact, you said 1 lie, I dont get what you are trying to say.

 

[Said1]

You said one what, seriously, you said 1 fact, you said 1 lie, I dont get what you are trying to say.

Like. Ha. Ha. Man.

 

[krotchdog]

tit for tat, ha, ha, ha.

 

[Father Time]

This is the 21st century, we are better educated, our science has advanced far enough that we understand what causes pregnancy.

... I think we as a species knew that for a long time.

Or maybe I missed the headline.

"STUNNING DISCOVERY"

Scientists have discovered through months of exhaustive research that sex and not the stork causes women to get pregnant.

Said a scientist "At first we thought it was alcohol and drugs since so many women who got hammered or high ended up being pregnant but then we discovered that sex was the key to making a baby."

The science states that during regular heterosexual intercourse the sperm end up fertilizing an egg in the mother causing pregnancy. This runs counter to the religious claims that babies are miracles from God that can't be explained.

 

[DamnYankee]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling [and] the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

Easy...they DON'T...they're a bunch of racists that USED Roe v. Wade as a political wedge issue...

Well, there's a sure-fire way to remove the wedge! Great job....

 

[jillian]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling [and] the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

Easy...they DON'T...they're a bunch of racists that USED Roe v. Wade as a political wedge issue...

Well, there's a sure-fire way to remove the wedge! Great job....

I agree. I do. And opening salvos like that don't really add anything. By the same token, I didn't exactly see better behavior from the "representative" of the *other side*... you know,the one who tells posters to "move along" because she rants and raves at anyone who disagrees with her. So the OP certainly got us there sooner... but ultimately discussions about reproductive choice end up trashed anyway.

 

[DamnYankee]

The Religious Right...how can people that have no regard for the crawling [and] the walking have such a passion for the unborn?

Easy...they DON'T...they're a bunch of racists that USED Roe v. Wade as a political wedge issue...

Well, there's a sure-fire way to remove the wedge! Great job....

I agree. I do. And opening salvos like that don't really add anything. By the same token, I didn't exactly see better behavior from the "representative" of the *other side*... you know,the one who tells posters to "move along" because she rants and raves at anyone who disagrees with her. So the OP certainly got us there sooner... but ultimately discussions about reproductive choice end up trashed anyway.

Agreed, but Bfg and I "know" each other and are generally on opposite sides of the fence. Throwing the racist card in this discussion was quite unnecessary as its difficult enough to get both sides to talk to each other and come to any sort of compromise. Reactionary responses, as you've described, are expected when one side begins with such an inflammatory argument.