Thread by @AbolitionRising

🧵Why Abortion Remains Legal in Every State: An SBC Case Study

The first abolitionist resolution was at the 2021 #SBC annual meeting. The Resolutions Committee declined it, but the messengers voted overwhelmingly to bring it to the floor over Nathan Finn's objections. (1/16)

I was in the room and would estimate that 85-90% of the messengers voted to override the committee. In years of observing SBC annual meetings, I have never seen the platform overruled by the messengers by such an overwhelming margin. (2/16)

That night, Bart Barber and other SBC leaders made impassioned pleas on social media to messengers asking them to oppose the resolution on the floor the next day. (3/16)

When it was brought to the floor, the proportion of messengers who voted for the resolution decreased after 24 of SBC leaders whipping votes against it, but the resolution still was easily affirmed with 65-70% in favor. (4/16)

However, after the meeting was over, SBC leaders continued opposing the resolution and the Abolitionist Movement. Eight SBC ethics leaders wrote an article in Public Discourse insanely slandering the resolution as having a "misogynistic edge." (5/16) freethestates.org/2021/07/agains…

@dhmccain wrote a condescending piece arguing that the messengers didn't know what they were doing. What she really meant was, they didn't know how important it was to toe the party line on this subject. (6/16) freethestates.org/2021/06/refuti…

They spent the entire next year persuading people in the convention that the Abolitionist Movement was bad. In the leadup to the 2022 convention, @DennyBurk wrote another piece opposing the Abolitionist Movement. (7/16) dennyburk.com/eyes-wide-open…

After being coached in anti-abolitionism for 12 months, the 2022 messengers responded much differently than they did in 2021. They had been told by the leaders they trust to oppose anything abolitionists propose and most of them did. (8/16)

When the pro-life resolution came to the floor for consideration, abolitionists were intending to debate the merits of the resolution and offer amendments, but a motion was made immediately to close debate and the messengers voted in favor of the motion. (9/16)

A few minutes later, messengers voted down abolitionist Janice Wright's (from @gfbc1689) motion to bring the abolitionist resolution out of committee. SBC leaders had successfully trained their people to shut down all possibility of discussion about abolitionism. (10/16)

It was a similar situation at #SBC2023. Read this running thread for a rundown. (11/16)

https://twitter.com/AbolitionRising/status/1668661564004610048

This phenomenon within the denomination exactly mirrors what happened in the political realm in Louisiana in May, 2022 when the Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act easily passed through committee by a 7-2 margin. (12/16) freethestates.org/2022/05/abolit…

Every pro-life Republican on the committee voted in favor of the bill. But after it passed, 76 pro-life organizations, including the ERLC, signed and published an open letter opposing the bill. (13/16)

After being coached by the pro-life leaders to oppose abolition, most of the Republicans who supported the bill in committee flipped and opposed it on the floor. The bill was gutted and then pulled from consideration. Abortion remained legal in LA. (14/16)
freethestates.org/2022/05/alan-s…

The obvious lesson here is that abolishing abortion is common sense to Christian people. Upon reading our resolutions and legislation, Christian support them. Only after being coached by institutional pro-life leaders do people turn against the abolition of abortion. (15/16)

For abortion to be abolished, people must stop blindly trusting the pro-life leaders. Consider our bills and resolutions in light of the Word of God and not in the light of the pro-life establishment's false narratives. (16/16)