In a statement that would make Russell Moore’s favorite abortion doctor blush, newly-appointed president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) Brent Leatherwood out-lefted every other “pro-life” leader by simping for the Biden administration with a statement celebrating the State of the Union speech as a “bad day for Planned Parenthood.”
Leatherwood’s statement was liked and retweeted by none other than SBC President Bart Barber, indicating that both men found it laudable that Biden spent less time accepting a standing ovation for his commitment to murdering the unborn than he did talking about other Democrat priorities.
Also praiseworthy to the leadership of the SBC’s public policy arm was Biden committing to “craft policies that help families,” continuing to send billions of dollars to “our Ukrainian allies” (Leatherwood apparently doesn’t know what “ally” means), and Biden’s “passion” about the murder of Tyre Nichols, which Leatherwood stated he hopes will lead to federal government action of some kind. He found it “encouraging” that the president who engineered the largest border crisis in the history of the country spoke of “matching immigration reform and border security.”
Leatherwood, Barber, and a chorus of “pro-lifers” in SBC leadership continue to bend the knee to a pro-life industry that continually refuses to advocate for equal rights for the unborn and instead employs standpoint justice by counting as victims women who knowingly and actively choose to murder their children. And making matters worse, they actively simp for an incompetent, corrupt, and overtly evil presidential administration that is doing everything in its power to weaken the United States and enshrine the Molechian “right” to murder the weakest among us.
This is far more than gross incompetence and weakness. It is deliberate synchronization with evil, made clear by the indefensible remarks of the leaders of a formerly faithful but now woefully corrupted SBC.
Note: On the bright side, Leatherwood’s statement was ratioed into oblivion and nearly universally opposed by respondents on Twitter. People are seeing this horror for what it is.
One of the magical things about social media (especially Twitter) is how easily it can reveal the underlying beliefs of those who use it. Enter SBC presidential candidate Bart Barber – a self-described Twitter addict – who has mastered (or so he thinks) the art of dog-whistling to the progressive elite within the SBC while playing a non-controversial simpleton for the sake of the rubes in the pews.
In the wake of the leak of the SCOTUS draft striking down Roe vs Wade and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) helping kill anti-abortion Louisiana House Bill 813 on grounds that it dared to hold pregnant mothers responsible for their role in killing their children, Barber posted a series of tweets claiming victory for the “incrementalist approach” and chastising abortion abolitionists, who (ironically now that Roe v. Wade seems likely to be overturned) Barber claimed had put zero points on the board:
Don't let people distract you from this fact: If Roe v Wade is set aside in the ruling on the Dobbs case, this is indisputably a victory won by "incrementalism." Every baby's life saved from abortion in your lifetime or mine has been saved by the Pro Life, incremental approach.
Why? Because Mississippi's "incrementalist" Pro Life law is the law that is being reviewed by SCOTUS in the Dobbs case. This is the kind of law hated and opposed by those who have sponsored the Louisiana law you are reading about on Twitter these days.
Barber said the quiet part out loud, revealing that he believes the mother is never responsible for the abortion she has:
1. In an abortion at a clinic, the mother is never the one doing the killing and is often also not the one doing the hiring. Abortions are sometimes paid for by other parties.
This conversation took place in view of Barber claiming he had “no obligation” to read LA HB813 – the pivotal piece of information in the conversation he inserted himself into:
I responded to a QUESTION with a comment about a law that I haven't read, because someone's asking me a question doesn't obligate me to read anything.
This technique is typical Bart Barber, who consistently plays dumb when confronted with direct questions about hot-button issues, nuances his statements to the point of near irrelevance, and peppers his interactions with winsome calls to just get along.
Now his soft, unbiblical doctrine is being laid bare for formerly-unaware Southern Baptists. All that remains to be seen is whether messengers will respond strongly enough against the Barber-represented drift to overwhelm the institutional employees that will be flown into Anaheim to protect the SBC establishment.
A professing pregnant abortion activist wanting to make it clear that even if Roe v. Wade were abolished by the Supreme Court, getting an abortion would always be a super easy and convenient thing to do, shocked the conscience of many by taking an abortion pill on live TV, in order to drive her gruesome point home.
During a segment on Fox 2 Detroit, the host asked a self-professed “satanist” and pro-baby murder advocate Jex Blackmore (they/them) about the fact that she was promoting abortion pills on her website as a viable alternative to surgical abortions, asking her whether or not they were dangerous to take, and if this was a practical alternative should Roe v. Wade get overturned.
Jex Responds:
“Yes, so they are incredibly safe, safer than Viagra or Tylenol. They’ve actually been in medical practice since 2000. So if you order it through the mail, there’d be the same thing you would receive if you were to walk into a clinic.
And the change that recently happened is previously, you had to actually physically go to a doctor to receive at least the first of the medication. And now you can get it sent to you through the mail on a sliding scale, and, and it is extremely easy and private and allows you to really self-manage your abortion.
And Charlie, I just really, I want to share with you really quickly, this here is Mifepristone. this is the first of two pills you would take the end of pregnancy. It would induce an abortion, this very pill, by blocking the hormone and allowing a pregnancy to grow. And I want to show you how easy it is and safe it is by taking it myself.
The host, clearly taken aback, asks “you’re not pregnant, are you?”
“I would say that this is going to end a pregnancy, which would be my third abortion”
This tragic event begins at 1:20.
This act by Blackmore further serves to demonstrate the lie that all women who get an abortion are victims and are simply being victimized in their naivete, but rather themselves are the victimizers who know full well what they’re doing.
On this episode of Polemics Report for December 3rd, 2021, JD and David discuss the twisting of the meaning of Christian Nationalism as it relates to the woke evangelical definition of “pro-life,” and touch on the aftermath of James Merritt’s shameful endorsement of his son’s social gospel. In the patron portion, JD answers sincere questions including SBC interference in local church matters, Christian colleges, and pastors who won’t sign religious exemptions.
To listen to the free, truncated version, click below.
To listen to the full program, support us on Patreon for only $5.95 a month for this and every other full-length, subscriber-only podcast from the #1 Polemics Organization in the world. Not a bad deal, right? Click here to join.
In what is turning out to be a hopeful turn of events, the Supreme Court seems poised to not only uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, based on the conversation and questioning that occurred Wednesday as the Justices heard arguments from both sides regarding the controversial law, but in what will prove to be the most important abortion case in decades, they seem open to overturning Roe v. Wade.
With the courts conservatives having a 5-4 advantage ( we don’t consider John Roberts a conservative) most seemed amenable to letting the 15-week ban stand but were divided on whether or not they should just pull the trigger and overrule Roe entirely.
Based on the day’s events, Justices Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil M. Gorsuch are open to overruling Roe entirely, Justice Roberts want to stick with the narrow decision of 15 weeks, and Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett did not say much, but hinted that they are not in favor of stopping at 15 weeks, and would side with the conservatives.
Kavanaugh is seen as the main swing vote, as during his confirmation hearing he frequently argued that his judicial policy was that precedents should not be overturned, and yet during this hearing, he had the opposite approach, citing Brown v. Board of Education which outlawed “separate but equal” education as a precedent that needed to be overturned, much to the chagrin of seething liberals
Should Roe be overturned, it would give the states the right to ban abortion altogether if they desired, and would trigger nearly 20 state laws already on the books to ban abortion in the event of this decision.
As far as when a decision may come- it likely won’t arrive until the summer, nearly 6 months away. Lifesite News explains
The justices will cast tentative votes at a private conference in the coming days. The senior justice in the majority will then assign the majority opinion to a colleague or, just as likely, keep it. Draft opinions, almost certainly including concurrences and dissents, will be prepared and exchanged.
On average, it takes the court about three months after an argument to issue a decision. But the decision in the abortion case is not expected until late June or early July, when major rulings tend to arrive whether they were argued relatively early in the court’s term, as this one was, or in the court’s final argument session, in April.
(Free the States) On Tuesday, Oklahoma Baptists became the fourth Southern Baptists state convention this year to pass a resolution calling for the immediate abolition of abortion following Arkansas, South Carolina, Utah-Idaho. All of these follow the Resolution on Abolishing Abortion passed by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in June.
The Oklahoma resolution reaffirmed the language passed by Oklahoma Baptists in 2019, and the SBC resolution from this summer. Below is the language of the resolution with amendments added during the discussion process in bold.
We, the messengers to the 2021 Annual Meeting of Oklahoma Baptists, meeting at Southern Hills Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, November 15-16, 2021, believe in the sanctity of human life beginning at conception, that every person—preborn, born and unborn — is created in God’s image and deserves life. We echo and underscore the emphatic resolutions on ending abortion previously approved by Oklahoma Baptists in 2019 and by Southern Baptist messengers in June of 2021, both of which called for the immediate end, the abolition of abortion, without exception or compromise. With God’s grace, we work to see a day in which every unborn child in Oklahoma and America is protected and valued.
The most important amendment is the final one — making clear that what is being called for is the immediate abolition of abortion. Blake Gideon, the convention’s immediate past president, offered the amendment, saying to the Committee and the convention:
“I know you’ve wrestled with this issue and I appreciate you very much. But I would like to call for clarity and strength in this resolution… One of the things I love about the Bible is the clarity and strength of scripture. I believe that our resolutions need to not only be scriptural, I believe they also need to reflect the tone of scripture. That is the purpose for this amendment…
“The 2019 resolution was a call for the immediate end of abortion, which was passed by this body. The resolution at the Southern Baptist Convention was on the abolishment of abortion, which was passed by the Southern Baptist Convention. All we’re asking is for this resolution to reflect what the intent of those two resolutions were: the immediate end and the abolition of abortion. You could read this resolution and not come to that conclusion if you’re not familiar with [the previous resolutions].
“We live in a day where there’s a culture of death all around us, and we can’t tiptoe around issues. We must be clear and we must be strong. 20 children today will be murdered in the state of Oklahoma.”
Gideon’s amendment was not received as friendly by the Resolutions Committee. The language did nothing but spell out more clearly the obvious implications of the…
(Montana Daily Gazette) “One of our boys was just arrested in Greenville, South Carolina, for preaching the Gospel at the murder mill. No warning. No decibel meter. No nothing including- no reading of hisrights. The cops came, told him to get off the ladder, put him in cuffs, and he’s now sitting at Greenville County Detention Center. It’s here in SC; getting arrested forpreaching the Gospel is here. Pray that God would grant us wisdom and discernment over the next several hours as we reason with our magistrates to do the right thing.”
“God hates the hands that shed innocent blood.”
The above was written yesterday by Matt Brock of Greenville, South Carolina. Brock and a group of comrades have been protesting the “murder mills” for years on end, but this event marked the first and only arrest.
To be clear, the arrest was over a supposed “decimal” level-of sound discrepancy emitted from a megaphone-and which has never been an issue before. No “calibrated meter” was used at the time of the arrest by police. The arrest was for preaching the Gospel.
Here is a video clip concerning the incident. View here to see Josh’s release from the Greenville County Detention Center.
This article can be read in its entirety at the Montana Daily Gazette here. Note: Title changed by Protestia.
(Free the States) Abolitionist momentum within the SBC continued on Friday as the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention passed the Resolution on Abolishing Abortion at their annual convention. The resolution had 79 cosigners and was based on the resolution passed at the national annual meeting, with some edits made by Idaho pastor Paul Thompson with the help of Free the States.
While abolitionist resolutions in other states have produced fierce debates on the floors of conventions between abolitionists and pro-lifers, the Utah-Idaho resolution sailed through without any substantial edits from the Resolutions Committee nor opposition from a single messenger. Resolutions Committee Chair Jason DeFoor presented Thompson’s resolution to the messengers without any substantive amendments, no one spoke against the resolution, and according to Thompson, the vote in favor was unanimous.
As passed, the resolution reads:
Whereas, the word of God, the Holy Bible, is a lamp to our feet (Psalm 119:105), its words are sweeter than honey to our mouth (Psalm 119:103), the law of God is perfect, the testimony of the Lord is sure, the fear of the Lord is clean, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous (Psalm 19:7-9), and that this Holy Scripture, as given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:14-17), and
Whereas, from the moment of fertilization, all humans are created in God’s image by, through, and for Jesus to the glory of God, and all souls belong to Him (Genesis 1:27; 4:1; 21;2 Isaiah 7:14; Colossians 1:16; Romans 11:36; Ezekiel 18:4), and
Whereas, all humans display His divine worth, power, and attributes – they possess equal and objective worth before God regardless of means of conception, ethnicity, age, size, mental development, physical development, gender, or contribution to society (Romans 1:19-20; Genesis 1:27; 9:6, Matthew 18:6), and
Whereas, God, who is above all rule and authority, establishes all governing authorities as His avenging servants to punish the evildoer and commands these authorities to judge justly (Colossians 2:15; Psalm 82; Proverbs 20:10; Romans 13:4) and,
Whereas, over the past forty-eight years, there have been more than sixty million reported inhumane acts of induced abortions (actions to intentionally stop an otherwise natural birth) of fellow image-of-God-bearing humans, and
Whereas, the Baptist Faith and Message, according to Article XV, affirms that children “from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord”; and further affirms that Southern Baptists are mandated by Scripture to “speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death,”
Whereas, the messengers of the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting affirmed and declared, the Southern Baptist Resolution on Abolishing Abortion, that abortion must be immediately abolished and preborn children must be afforded the equal protection of the law in accordance with God’s Word and the U.S. Constitution, Now, let it be
Resolved, that we, the messengers of the Utah/Idaho Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Meridian, Idaho October 29, 2021, agree with God that no human institution, government, rule, or authority has permission from God to allow the intentional shedding of innocent blood and we reject any position that allows for any exceptions to the Holy and Righteous standard of Justice (Psalm 94:6, Isaiah 10:1-2; Proverbs 24:11; Psalm 82:1-4), and be it further
Resolved, that we affirm that the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law, and be it further
Resolved, that as Southern Baptists we will engage, with God’s help, in establishing equal justice and protection for preborn children by calling upon Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson and the rest of the Utah State House, and Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams and the rest of the Utah Senate to pass, sign, and enforce legislation that would fully, finally, and immediately abolish the heinous act of abortion in Utah immediately without exception or compromise, and be it further
Resolved, that as Southern Baptists we will engage, with God’s help, in establishing equal justice and protection for preborn children by calling upon Idaho Governor Brad Little, Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke, the rest of the Idaho House, Idaho Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Winder, and the rest of the Idaho Senate to pass, sign, and enforce legislation that would fully, finally, and immediately abolish the heinous act of abortion in Idaho immediately without exception or compromise, and be it further
Resolved, that as Southern Baptists we will engage, with God’s help, in establishing equal justice and protection for preborn children by calling upon President Joe Biden, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Senate President Pro Tempore Charles Schumer and the rest of the U.S. Senate to pass, sign, and enforce legislation that would fully, and finally, and immediately abolish the heinous act of abortion in the United States immediately without exception or compromise, and be it further
Resolved that we encourage pastors and churches to use their God-ordained gifts of preaching, teaching, and leading our communities to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor — yes, even our pre-born neighbor — as if he/she were our own life, and be it finally
Resolved, that we stand ready to rescue those being led to the slaughter motivated by our love for God by means that are pleasing to Him, so help us God (Proverbs 24:11).
The distinctive feature of this resolution is its call for specific public officials in each state and the federal government to work to abolish abortion. This is particularly applicable in Idaho where State Representative Heather Scott has filed an abolition bill each of the past three sessions. Governor Brad Little, House Speaker Scott Bedke, and Senate President Chuck Winder have not lifted a finger to support it thus far.
Scott Herndon is the director of Abolish Abortion Idaho and the lobbyist who wrote the Idaho abolition bill. He is now running for State Senate and explains:
“As the author of the bill that would abolish abortion in Idaho and treat it properly as the crime of homicide, I am pleased at the progress the resolution of the Southern Baptists for Utah and Idaho represents.”
Herndon noted that only five years ago, no one in Idaho politics had ever considered abolishing abortion immediately in defiance of Roe. He also tracked the progress of the movement in Idaho from an abolitionist ballot initiative in 2016, to the first abolition bill in 2019, to the making the Republican platform abolitionist in 2020, to the SBC victory in 2021.
“Now a group that represents 170 churches in Idaho and Utah are specifically calling on Governor Little and the Idaho legislature to act. To establish equal justice and end the murder in Idaho, it is my prayer that House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate leader Chuck Winder would heed the Southern Baptists’ call and act now. 29 children a week die while we tarry, and 48 years of traditional pro-life legislative efforts that capitulate to unconstitutional court tyranny have only resulted in NO abortions banned and tens of thousands of dead Idaho babies.”
Editor’s Note. The following post was written by James Silberman and originally published at Free the States, the organization creating and drafting abolitionist bills across the US, and who were instrumental in crafting and supporting the recent ‘Abolition of Abortion’ resolution that the SBC adopted this summer. Reprinted in full with permission. If anyone would like to support the work they do, they can do so below.
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(End Abortion Now) Since 1973, Americans have murdered over 63 million babies. Protestant denominations took nearly a decade to comprehend what was occurring—and once they did, a strategy called “incrementalism” was adopted.
You are probably familiar with the various legislative proposals that the modern pro-life movement routinely forwards. Most of them work within the perceived parameters of Roe v. Wade to try and “incrementally” end abortion. Heartbeat bills, for example, prohibit abortions for babies with beating hearts. Born-alive protection acts prevent abortionists from killing babies if they survive abortion attempts. Pain-capable acts ban abortions for babies old enough to feel pain.
Many—if not most—members of the pro-life movement have good intentions. However, for the following reasons and many more, these laws—and the movement behind them—are neither biblical in their foundation nor helpful in their application.
The pro-life movement does not establish equal justice.
Apply the logic of a pro-life bill to any other issue of criminal law. Would we ever laud a bill that bans sex trafficking for children between six and eighteen years of age, but greenlights it for children younger than six? Of course not—but that is the logic of the heartbeat bill. Would we ever laud a bill that lets a serial killer drown his victims, but bans him from finishing the act only if they manage to crawl out of the river? Of course not—but that is the logic of the born-alive protection act. Would we ever laud a bill that lets us kill children who cannot yet walk, but bans us from killing them once they can? Of course not—but that is the logic of the pain-capable act.
God calls for His people to “seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless” (Isaiah 1:17). He also proclaims “woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice” (Isaiah 10:1-2). Pro-life bills are iniquitous decrees because they do not ban murder—instead, they regulate when, how, and why it can happen. They turn our needy preborn neighbors away from justice, failing to uphold the rights of all image-bearers of God.
The pro-life movement wrongly catechizes our culture.
Anyone who has ministered in front of an abortion facility can attest that mothers often raise excuses such as “my baby can’t feel pain yet,” “my baby doesn’t even have a heartbeat,” or “my baby is only ten weeks old.” Where did they learn to speak about their babies like this? From pro-life laws. The result? Their consciences are soothed as they murder their own children.
Because the pro-life movement treats women as “second victims” of abortion, post-abortive mothers and fathers fail to experience forgiveness through the gospel. One can only repent of sin after it is rightly defined by God’s Word. It is never loving to soften a square blow rightly delivered by Scripture—after all, love “rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:5).
The pro-life movement is built upon faulty legal premises.
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, we all remember the bouts of intense mourning displayed by the Left. The woman was treated like a deity. But the Right manifested a similar idolatry when President Trump appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett—there were processions and parades, the Republican establishment mobilized on her behalf, and many placed their hope of salvation into the potential for a conservative Supreme Court.
However, for the vast majority of the past five decades—even during Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey—the Supreme Court has maintained a solid conservative majority. Republican-appointed Justices have perpetuated abortion—because they are equally as devoted to the ideology of judicial precedent as their Democrat-appointed counterparts. Nevertheless, the Republican political machine uses the prospect of judicial appointments as a grift to drive votes; in election years, we always seem to require only one more Supreme Court seat to finally end abortion.
Abortion does not need to end with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It is not the law of the land—which is why President Biden explicitly campaigned on the promise of codifying it at the federal level. Justice Clarence Thomas himself argued in June Medical Services v. Russo that “the Constitution does not constrain the states’ ability to regulate or even prohibit abortion.” The judicial branch does not make law, and it has no power to legislate from the bench. Nevertheless, all fifty states—even the ones that still have laws on the books outlawing abortion—bow to its will.
The pro-life movement delays actual abolition.
For the past few years, Christians have begun to recognize the above truths—and innumerable others—about the pro-life movement and its legislative strategies. In response, these Christians have been proposing bills of abolition—which outlaw abortion from conception, include no exceptions, establish equal justice by criminalizing abortion as murder, nullify Roe v. Wade, and repeal all other statutes that permit abortion.
The response—especially in states with Republican governors and Republican legislative supermajorities—is always the same. The abolition bill is suppressed; then, a pro-life bill is adopted and marketed to voters as a landmark legislative victory.
Pro-life bills allow civil magistrates to avoid their biblically-defined duty—as articulated by the doctrine of interposition—to protect their constituents from tyrants who overstep their boundaries.
To Americans who know their history, this phenomenon should sound eerily familiar. Slavery endured for decades after the American Revolution because of anti-slavery gradualists. Indeed, Christian abolitionists—such as Harriet Tubman and William Lloyd Garrison—were the ones who truly brought about the end of slavery. We remember the cowardly gradualists as villains—but we remember the bold abolitionists as heroes.
The pro-life movement is not rooted in the biblical worldview.
Politicians, activists, and intellectuals in the pro-life movement—even the ones who are evangelical Christians—set aside their Bibles and argue against abortion from the grounds of philosophy or science. The Bibles they set aside, however, explain that men “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Do philosophy and science have their place in Christian apologetics? Absolutely—but they only confirm what Scripture authoritatively declares.
The problem for the person who partakes in abortion is not a lack of evidence—it is love of sin and rebellion against their Creator. Neglecting the Word of God in the name of pragmatism—which, by the way, is also the reason that most churches in America are currently filled with false converts—is rooted in unbelief in the power of God.
In short, the pro-life movement does not hold the gospel of Jesus Christ as central—but abolitionism does. The pro-life movement does not stand upon the solid ground of God’s Word—but abolitionism does. The pro-life movement does not acknowledge that the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God—but abolitionism does.
It is time for Christians to open their Bibles and their history books to see how the Church of Jesus Christ has fought injustice through the ages. It is time for Christians to repent of abortion apathy and to seek justice for their preborn neighbors. It is time for bad ideas to die and for righteous ones to take their place.
It is time to be biblical, even if it means being unpopular.
It is time to love God and our neighbors.
It is time to abolish abortion.
Editor’s Note. This op-ed was published by Ben Zeisloft on EAN. Reposted in full with permission.
