Thread by @blackrepublican

RACISM, NOT ABORTION , was the founding issue of the religious right

“... before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, the biggest white evangelical group in America, the Southern Baptist Convention, supported its legalization.”

#AbortionIsMurder

bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/0…?

“The rise of the religious right is usually credited to abortion activism, but few evangelicals cared about the subject in the 70’s. The Southern Baptist Convention expressed support for laws liberalizing abortion access in 1971.”

— Chris Ladd

“Criswell (two-term elected [racist] president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970.) himself expressed support for the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe, taking the traditional theological position that life began at birth, not conception.”

The denomination did not adopt a firm pro-life stance until 1980.”

“Southern conservatives discovered that they could preserve white nationalism through a proxy fight for Christian Nationalism. They came to recognize that a weak, largely empty Republican grassroots structure in the South was ripe for takeover and colonization.”

— Chris Ladd

“Don’t force me by law, by statute, by Supreme Court decision…to cross over in those intimate things where I don’t want to go.“

— Pastor Criswell, Present of the Southern Baptist Convention

#JimCrow #CivilRights

“Beyond all the boilerplate racist invective, Criswell outlined an eerily prescient rhetorical stance, a framework capable of outlasting Jim Crow. In a passage that managed to avoid explicit racism, he described what would become the primary political weapon of the culture wars.”

“He had constructed a strangely circular, quasi-libertarian argument in which a right to oppress others becomes a fundamental right born of a religious imperative, protected by the First Amendment.”

— Chris Ladd

“Criswell’s bizarre formula, as it metastasized and took hold elsewhere, could allow white nationalists to continue their campaign as a “culture war” long after the battle to protect segregated institutions had been lost.“ — @ChrisALadd

@ChrisALadd “W. A. Criswell, in a discussion of racial integration, stated that he expressed astonishment at the cowardice of ministers “whose forebears [sic] and predecessors were martyrs and were burned at the stake” but who themselves refuse to speak up about “this thing of integration.”

@ChrisALadd “True ministers, he argued, must passionately resist government mandated desegregation because it is “a denial of all that we believe in”.”

skeptic78240.wordpress.com/2018/08/26/mor…

@ChrisALadd Just days before his 1968 election as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, under pressure from church leaders, Criswell “changed” his views on segregation.

@ChrisALadd The immediate reaction of “The Black Church” of America: ”Yeah, right sure you did”.

@ChrisALadd Continue — Pastors, NOT Politicians, Turned Dixie Republican via

@ChrisALadd

forbes.com/sites/chrislad…

@ChrisALadd In America, one cannot talk about abortion without talking about white supremacy. I see how both liberals and conservatives use black peoples to make millions off of this one issue. Whilst black folks don’t see a dime, are hurt.

It’s a web of lies, racism, and false choices.

@ChrisALadd Pro life! Abortion Rights!

This issue pays people’s bills.

The debate alone has people throwing millions to organizations all claiming they’ll solve the problem. But, can’t do it without a monthly donation. Every year, “save the babies” nonsense.

It’s a money maker ...

@ChrisALadd They really have ZERO incentive to stop this! I’d even go as far as to imagine that some of these legal challenges to Roe vs Wade aren’t serious. That they’re not meant to win. I’ve heard a few. Dumb arguments.

Who knows? Maybe these legal challenges bring in lots of cash.

@ChrisALadd You got an army of pro-family, pro-abortion, telemarketers calling people, “Praise the lord, brother Johnson. We’re calling to tell you about what the liberals are doing to kill the black babies - they’re sucking the brains out with tubes, scissors” can you commit to 50 a month?”

@ChrisALadd “Today, W.A. Criswell’s Dallas megachurch is pastored by Robert Jeffress, who has remained faithful to the most bigoted strains of the olde tyme religion.”

@ChrisALadd “Jeffress has called the Catholic Church “a Babylonian mystery religion.” He explained that Obama was sent to pave the way for the Antichrist. He has demogogued relentlessly on gay marriage. And naturally, he endorsed Donald Trump.

@ChrisALadd "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!”

— Jesus of Nazareth

Founder of “The Way”.