What Changed the Evangelical Stance on Abortion

[Realworldjack]

In the 1960's and early 70's evangelicals showed very little concern about abortion. In fact, there were a good number of evangelical individuals, and organizations who publicly supported abortion. Moreover, in 1968 "Christianity Today" (the flag ship magazine of evangelicals at the time) gathered 26 theologians from throughout the evangelical world to discuss the morality of abortion, and the statement coming out of this meeting of theologians stated,

“Whether the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed,”

So then, as we can see, these theologians could not agree as to whether abortion would even be a sin. However, the statement continues,

“but about the necessity of it and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord.”

As you can see, these theologians could not agree as to whether abortion would even be a sin, but they were of one accord as far as abortion being legal.

Another point I would like to make is, although there were indeed Christians who opposed abortion in the 1960's and early 70's there were very few, if any Christians who insisted that it would be impossible to be a Christian and support the right to abortion.

Question for debate: What was it which caused Evangelicals to change their position on abortion so drastically?

[Realworldjack]

[Replying to historia in post #8]

Sorry for the delay but I have been busy on other threads attempting to combat Christian nationalism.

You've written a lot over the past few posts arguing that there has been a change -- which no one here doubts

This seems sort of strange. In another post you seem to be questioning whether this was the case, by suggesting that abortion must have already been an issue for Evangelicals. At any rate, I am happy now to see that you agree that abortion was not a uniting issue as far as Evangelicals were concerned, until the Moral Majority and the Christian right made it an issue. There is absolutely no doubt that Evangelicals became engaged in politics over the issue of segregation. This is the issue which united the Evangelicals and got them engaged in politics. However, as we all know it does not look very good for Christians to be fighting for the right to be separated from another race. I mean, you just have to think about the fact that the Southern Baptist Conference would not exist today if it were not for the issue of slavery. In the 1950's and 60's the U.S. had just been through the battle for civil rights with many Christians in the south being on the side of the Jim Crow Laws. You then had the issue of segregation, and the busing of children to different schools in order to desegregate the children, and Evangelicals were upset about the whole issue. I know all of this because I lived through it as a child of white Evangelicals.

So then, it was years after Roe v. Wade that Evangelicals found the issue to unite them and that was abortion. In this way Evangelicals did not have to argue for segregation, but could rather support candidates who were against abortion knowing this would be a code word for Evangelical, which would mean the candidate would more than likely support the issues dear to the Evangelical.

In the end it was all about Christians wanting to rule and reign. These Christians have no desire to govern. They want to rule and reign and if they do not get to rule and reign through democracy, then they will do what it takes to be rid of democracy. This is exactly what you are seeing playing out before your very eyes in the Trump administration, as the Christian nationalists have taken over the republican party, and they could not care less about the rule of law. Their intent is to take over in the name of their god, and the ends justifies any means. It all started over 4 decades ago with segregation, which turned into abortion, and these Christians have had enough of attempting to get what they want through the ballot box. They have labeled anything they are against as evil. I mean, they identify the democrats as being evil, even though the majority of democrats identify as Christian. Once you identify all you are opposed to as evil, there is no compromise with evil. Therefore, the only option left is to take over to rid ourselves of the evil, and the end justifies any means. This is exactly how authoritarians take over. The funny thing is, you know, I know, and everyone else knows, Trump is no Christian, and could not care any less about Christ.

[historia]

In another post you seem to be questioning whether this was the case, by suggesting that abortion must have already been an issue for Evangelicals. At any rate, I am happy now to see that you agree that abortion was not a uniting issue as far as Evangelicals were concerned, until the Moral Majority and the Christian right made it an issue.

You seem a bit confused on my position. Perhaps post #10 can clarify that.

Here's the most relevant portion again:

It seems to me the OP lays out two separate, albeit related, changes: Since the early 1970s, white Evangelicals have changed (1) their religious views on abortion, and (2) their political views on abortion.

While we might be able to ascribe (2) to the efforts of the Moral Majority, I don't think we can say the same thing about (1). And, since (1) necessarily proceeds (2) -- you have to first consider abortion to be immoral before deciding what, if anything, the government ought to do about it -- it seems to me any satisfactory answer to the question of "what caused Evangelicals to change their position on abortion" cannot begin and end with the Moral Majority.

[Realworldjack]

[Replying to historia in post #12]

I believe you may be on to something here, which may help explain exactly what happened. I think you are correct in that there would seem to have to be a theological change in position before there would be a political change. But the thing is, Jerry Falwell, Bob Jones, Paul Wyrich and the like needed an issue in order to unite the Evangelical voters into a bloc. So then, by his own admission it was in 1978, some 5 years after Roe v. Wade that Falwell preached his first sermon against abortion. This was in an attempt to change the theological position on abortion, in order to change the political stance on abortion.

I mean, allow me to share this with you which may allow you to see exactly what I am talking about. The denomination I was raised in wanted to become members of the National Association of Evangelicals, but we were denied membership because of our teaching of what is called Conditional Immortality. I had no problem with this because I appreciated the fact the NAE was taking the Gospel seriously, and if they believed that what we were teaching was not sound then they should not have allowed us in. However, we were later allowed into the NAE when we did not change a thing concerning Conditional Immortality. Can you imagine why? Well, that would be because of the power of numbers politically which trumped sound theological teaching.

Allow me to give you an even better example. In 1994 Evangelicals and Catholics got together to sign what was called "Evangelicals and Catholics Together." Evangelicals and Catholics have a completely different understanding of the Gospel, and this is demonstrated by the Reformation, and the fact that there was a split from the Catholic Church. Evangelicals and Catholics are divided over the Gospel, and Evangelicals were willing to set this major difference aside for the sake of numbers and power. In other words, the war against the culture has become more important than the Gospel.

The bottom line is, there was not a theological consensus on abortion as far as Evangelicals were concerned, until Jerry Falwell, The Moral Majority, and the Religious Right made it their aim to make it a theological issue in order to fight what has been called "the culture wars."