Thread by @malinablue

As abortion rights are poised to be taken away, it's a good time to remind you all about the genesis of the anti-abortion movement and what it was really about - racial segregation.

Yup. You heard right.

Once upon a time many Protestant Christians had no problem with abortion.

The Bible says life begins with breath and - for many Evangelical Christians - abortion was a "Catholic issue." They largely ignored the topic or, in the case of the Southern Baptists and the highly-influential magazine "Christianity Today," actually supported it in some cases.

Famous fundamentalist W.A. Criswell said: “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person and it has always seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”

Baptists, in particular, praised the Roe v Wade decision. “Religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision,” wrote W. Barry Garrett of Baptist Press.

So what happened? How did Christian Evangelicals become so fixated on ending abortion? Why the sudden obsession with an issue they previously cared little about?

Here's how - they were manipulated by craven politicians who also didn't care about abortion.

What those politicians and religious leaders DID care about was the federal government denying them the right to have all-white schools and colleges.

After Brown vs Board of Education forced public schools to desegregate, white parents pulled their kids from public schools.

They created all-white private schools. In some districts, literally every white kid left for these "segregation academies." But then another court decision - Green v Connally - denied those all-white schools the tax-exempt status given to charitable educational organizations.

So that was a problem. They couldn't be discriminatory and still get those tax write-offs. But it's hard - or at least, it was then - to form a political movement around blatant racism. They needed another issue to rally religious whites & form a coalition with political clout.

Above all, they wanted to get Carter out of office, blaming him for the IRS decision to go after discriminatory all-white schools, even though Carter himself was an Evangelical and the decision had been in effect before he took office.

Paul Weyrich, a conservative activist, had been trying for years to find an issue powerful enough to bring together Evangelicals to create a formidable political block. Pornography, prayer in schools, the ERA - nothing clicked. Then he hit on abortion.

Weyrich and leaders like Jerry Falwell began to preach about the evils of abortion and were delighted to see opposition to abortion begin to pull together "many of our fringe Christian friends." Suddenly an issue few Protestants had cared deeply about before became an obsession.

The "Religious Right" was born. On the surface, it was a moral movement to save fetuses. And many Evangelicals no doubt believed that was all it was about. But their leaders had pulled their strings - creating outrage about one issue to mobilize them to fight for another.

That outrage was directed by leaders against Carter and helped to elect Reagan (who as governor of CA had, ironically, signed the most liberal abortion bill in the country.) Reagan never mentioned abortion during the election. It didn't matter because it wasn't the real issue.

The anti-abortion movement was thus created. An issue most had ignored - abortion - was used by racist religious leaders to mobilize a political army to elect a politician who sided with them on a completely different (racist) issue.

That's how they always roll, isn't it - create outrage, stoke anger, mobilize & manipulate. They're still doing it today with imaginary immigrant invasions, Antifa, and made-up tyrannies.

The whole story is here: politico.com/magazine/story…

Things are muddled now. GOP leaders & Evangelicals supported an adulterer who never goes to church to get their anti-abortion judges.

But abortion STILL isn't really the issue - no one cares Trump used to be pro-choice & now they really love him. Seems racism remains the winner.