Confronting the abortion myth could reorient the whole evangelical agenda

Evidence

Once evangelicals come to terms with the abortion myth and the racism baked into the Religious Right, I dare to hope that they might then reexamine other aspects of their political agenda, an agenda that has been inordinately dictated by the fusion of the Religious Right with the far-right precincts of the Republican Party. A fresh reading of Jesus’s injunctions to feed the hungry and welcome the stranger or an appreciation for evangelical social reform in the nineteenth century might prompt evangelicals to reconsider their views on immigration and public education, their attitudes about prison reform and women’s rights, or their support of tax cuts for the affluent. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 177

Categorization

• XREF: Directly echoes Chapter 1’s thesis (the abortion myth and racial origins of the Religious Right); this is the book’s prescriptive payoff. — connects to: The abortion myth obscures the segregationist origins of evangelical activism. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 166; Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 160; Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 122 (+4 more)

Related

• Some evangelicals sincerely oppose abortion regardless of their movement’s origins (similarity 0.92)
• The abortion myth obscures the segregationist origins of evangelical activism. (similarity 0.92)
• The Religious Right’s founding narrative claims Roe v. Wade roused evangelicals from political passivity (similarity 0.87)
• The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters (similarity 0.87)
• Early Moral Majority insiders confirm abortion was not its founding issue (similarity 0.86)
• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. (similarity 0.85)
• The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons (similarity 0.84)
• Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain (similarity 0.84)
• The Religious Right fabricated an origin myth linking its birth to Roe v. Wade (similarity 0.84)
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling (similarity 0.82)
• Conservatives commandeered the once-diverse antiabortion movement (similarity 0.82)
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s (similarity 0.82)
• The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion (similarity 0.82)
• Internal Religious Right correspondence celebrated abortion as an effective organizing issue (similarity 0.82)
• Operatives treated the 1978 election as a test of abortion’s mobilizing power (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain #corroborates (0.78) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 255
• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #expands (0.75) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160
• Internal Religious Right correspondence celebrated abortion as an effective organizing issue #corroborates (0.75) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 130
• Evangelicals frame abortion as the slavery of their generation #corroborates (0.72) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 248
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s #expands (0.70) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 122
• The Religious Right’s founding narrative claims Roe v. Wade roused evangelicals from political passivity #responds-to (0.70) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 89