Do you call yourself “Pro-life?” Understand, there is a significant and growing internal conflict among the self-described #Prolife. It is not going away. Some know this and have begun to try to confront it. There are at least three groups within the current Pro-life Movement. 1/
Let's briefly consider each Pro-life group. This is so important b/c this modern holocaust 10x's that of Hitler’s is ours to steward and legally abolish. Where do you stand? (1) ESTABLISHMENT or BIG PRO-LIFE; (2) CONFLICTED-CONSISTENT; & (3) BLURRY MIDDLE.
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GROUP 1: THE ESTABLISHMENT or BIG PRO-LIFE. On May 12, 2022, 70+ Pro-life orgs, self-described as “America’s leading advocates for life,” released a letter defining & defending their long-standing strategy. Here are four tenets of their position. 3/
1. “Second-victim.” Women seeking preborn homicide (abortion) are always victims.
2. Deny equal protection from fertilization/conception. Never support any measure or legislation to criminalize the act of preborn homicide from fertilization for all parties to the homicide. 4/
3. Post-abortive trauma is evidence of victimhood.
4. Incrementalism. Continue to pursue a pragmatic, incremental strategy that at no point criminalizes the act of preborn homicide.
The Pro-life Establishment is able to host a spectrum of folks wanting abortion exceptions & 5/
allowances: rape, incest, life of the mother, pre-heartbeat, pre-pain, pre-viability, separation of personhood and humanity, and punishment for only providers.
This is why @philvischer's 'consensus' crowd rightly can call themselves "Pro-life." 6/
The Pro-life Establishment is intentionally a big tent (i.e. Big Pro-life) that includes many denominations, Christians, and non-Christians.
The consequence of GROUP 1: PRO-LIFE ESTABLISHMENT:
1) Implicit denial of personhood from fertilization/conception AND 7/
2) Denial of criminalization which grants equal protection of preborn homicide from fertilization…
3) Results in implicit Christological heresy—not affirming the true personhood of Christ or granting Him equal protection from fertilization/conception. 8/
GROUP 1: PRO-LIFE ESTABLISHMENT is the 1,000 lbs gorilla on the left side of the spectrum of the Pro-life movement. They hold to at least implicit heretical anthropology & Christology, & secular political theology & practice. 9/
Bif Pro-life wars against equal protection/criminalization bills in every state & slanders, misaligns, & lies about Christians holding to a consistent, biblical position.
Big Pro-life has a proven, defined, & defended track record in every state, especially those states... 10/
...where abolition bills have been introduced.
GROUP 2: THE CONFLICTED-CONSISTENT. These see the consistent bibl position, yet self-label as "Pro-life." Affirming:
1) Life & personhood begin at fertilization/conception—created in God’s image, owned by God, for His glory. 11/
2) Thus must be granted equal protection under the law by criminalizing preborn homicide according to Scripture.
GROUP 2 may assume that their conservative, Pro-life legislators & Christian leaders affirm life/personhood & = protection from fertilization/conception... 12/
...but assuming this is neither wise nor sufficient. GROUP 2 may assume they can reform the Pro-life establishment, but they will not.
This is *not* to say that individual Pro-lifers will not change their position, they will. It is to say that Big Pro-life always will be... 13/
...biblically compromised, well-funded by those wanting abortion exceptions & allowances, and politically secular & pragmatic. This group needs to #Plexit. Leave the Pro-life movement for the biblically consistent Abortion Abolition position. 14/
GROUP 3: BLURRY MIDDLE. The 3rd Pro-life group sees the compromises of Big Pro-life & is tugged toward a more biblically consistent position, but a pint of pragmatism, a tbsp of tradition, & an oz of Big Pro-life pride is a sure recipe for a bland, lukewarm loaf of midwayism. 15/
Big Pro-life has disciplined the BLURRY MIDDLE by demonizing and keeping attention away from the biblically consistent position of equal protection for all preborn from fertilization, namely the criminalization of preborn homicide. 16/
The BLURRY MIDDLE sadly has an underdeveloped understanding of Big Pro-life’s existing homicide exception bills, malicious undermining of biblically consistent proposed equal protection bills, and is under the malaise of Big Pro-life pride & propaganda. 17/
The consequence is the perpetuation of Big Pro-life in the face of the glory of God and the delay of the abolition of abortion.
ABOLITIONISM: The outlawing, or criminalization of preborn homicide (abortion) thereby establishing justice as = protection from fertilization. 18/
Abolitionism is committed to the five biblical tenets as outlined in the acrostic GATES:
G - Gospel-centered
A - Aligned Providentially
T - Through the Church
E - Engaged Biblically
S - Sought Immediately without Compromise
Why would Christians advance any other agenda? 20/
Only abolition bills:
1. Outlaw abortion from fertilization/conception.
2. Do not include exceptions for preborn homicide (ectopics & emergencies are *not* preborn homicide).
3. Criminalize preborn homicide and establish justice as equal protection for the preborn. 21/
4. Do not submit to unconstitutional rulings (like Roe).
5. Repeal or supersede all statutes which allow for preborn homicide.
Why would Christians support any other bill?
Abortion is murder and everyone knows it. 22/
It’s past time for Christians to act like abortion is murder. It’s past time for a mass exodus of Christians from the Pro-life Movement. It’s past time for a Christian Pro-life exit in favor of abolitionism. It’s time to #Plexit. 23/end
Make no mistake, @BartBarber’s 2-day tweet-fury is less about me & more about a movement stirring a reformation. According to Barber, the ab0rt10n abolitionist movement now “represents one of the gravest threats to the work of the SBC” establishment.
Abolitionism is a happy, salty, sola Scriptura, grassroots movement that has begun consequentially challenging the SBC status quo. If it were no threat, you would not see a slanderous, uninformed tirade against a small-town SBC pastor and abolitionism. 2/11
We simply want ab0rt10n abolished by establishing equal protection both for all our preborn neighbors from conception and for women tragically coerced into ab0rt10n so that they will not be viewed the same as women who willfully murder their preborn children. 3/11
1/ 🧵Read it all. On 3/30/2016, Presidential Candidate Donald Trump told @MSNBC: "There has to be some form of punishment" for abortion. Big Pro-life pounced, proclaiming they have only ever treated an abortive woman as the second victim in abortion. google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…
2/ Jeanne Mancini (@jeannemfl), president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said, "No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen abortion. This is against the very nature of what we are about." npr.org/2016/03/30/472…
3/ The same day, 3/30/2016, @tedcruz tweeted, “We shouldn’t be talking about punishing women; we should affirm their dignity and gift to bring life into the world.”
You need to know about two very important amicus briefs filed in the #DobbsvJackson case before #SCOTUS. When contrasted they are worth their weight in gold for a Presidential vote at #SBC2022. Let's consider: (1) @ERLC's and (2) Abolitionists'.
2/20 Let us contrast each brief on three points: (1) Filers or amici curiae (friends of the court); (2) List of authorities; and, (3) aims. Ask yourself, "Which amicus speaks for me?" For clarity, let's call them the RC/ERLC and FAA briefs.
3/20 RC/ERLC FILERS: The @ERLC did not write their own amicus, but signed onto one written and submitted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Filers include three other Roman Catholic orgs, Lutherans, and Nat'l Assoc of Evang. Who's NAE? supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/1…
1/3 SBC 2021 Messenger, "Establish a task force to study strategies to end abortion." @ERLC, "Already doing it." Is writing a letter with the Roman Catholics to kill LA HB813, an abolition bill, an effective strategy to end abortion? #changethedirectionbaptistpress.com/wp-content/upl…
2/3 Here's the letter the @ERLC + 70 other Big Pro-Life Establishment orgs hurriedly wrote to kill HB813 "The Louisiana Abolish Abortion Act." Written at the exact moment HB813 was being argued on the house floor. #changethedirectionnrlc.org/uploads/commun…
3/3 #ERLC rejected the best strategy to abolish abortion, an actual abolition bill, in defiance of SBC2021 messengers. "Pro-Life Lobbying Groups Issue Letter Against Charging Women With Crimes For Seeking Abortions" #changethedirection dailywire.com/news/pro-life-…
Jesus said for those who believe on Him there is a never-ending river of water from which to drink.“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (Jhn 7:38). Faith taps into the boundless supply of the life of Christ.
Revelation 7:17, “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Matthew Henry says, “In this he deals with them as a tender father who finds his beloved…
child in tears, he comforts him, he wipes his eyes, and turns his sorrow into rejoicing. This should moderate the Christian's sorrow in his present state, and support him under all the troubles of it; for those that sow in tears shall reap in joy; and those that now go…
1/4Southern Baptist Resolution on Equal Protection of the Laws for Preborn Children
To be presented at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting Anaheim, California, June 14-15, 2022. docs.google.com/forms/d/1L0gMY…
(1) WHEREAS, an individual human life begins at the moment God combines the reproductive cell of a man with that of a woman and begins the process of forming the body of the child in the womb—biblically called conception, and biologically called fertilization (Genesis 4:1, 17…2/