I’ve been trying to talk myself out of writing this piece, mostly because there’s so much other good commentary out there on this subject. But over and over I find myself pondering these questions and seeing very few in the Evangelical pro-life movement who are addressing them. Let me emphasize that none of the following ideas is new with me, just that they don’t seem to get much if any airing in my circles. And that’s my purpose here: to give these ideas an airing. I’ll tell you up front that I’m not going to end with a list of quick and easy solutions. I just want to prod my readers, most of whom would identify as pro-life, to think about the ramifications of that term and to be able to engage in rational discourse with those who would disagree with them. We need the very best weapons available in the fight for life.
Weak Arguments for Trump
What Are These People Thinking?
I haven’t written anything on this site for a long time, as there’s so much good stuff out there that’s much better than I can produce–plus, for the most part, those other writers are getting paid! But I wanted to do something brief today, sparked by my listening to two podcasts just in the last week or so. One was on the Matt K. Lewis podcast in an interview with Napp Nazworth, an editor at the Christian Post who put his money where his mouth is and resigned from said publication over the whole Christianity Today flap. If you’re not up on that issue, I’ll just say that CT published a solid editorial laying out why Donald Trump deserves to be removed from office. Nazworth explains why he resigned rather than be the editor in charge of publishing CP‘s rebuttal. But then he goes on to say some pretty scathing things (and deservedly so) about Wayne Grudem, whose flip-flops on Trump since 2016 have been legendary. Here’s the history of Dr. Grudem’s viewpoints:
Donald Trump’s List of Accomplishments, No. 3–“Reformed Tax Law”
Hmmm. This is referring to the massive tax cut that, along with the massive budget, is going to add to our deficit–massively?
Need I say more?
Evaluating Donald Trump’s Accomplishments–Number Two on the List
Number Two on the Laundry List of Donald Trump’s Accomplishments
Here’s the next on the list I was sent:
2. Empowered military.
As I said yesterday, this is a very generalized, generic list, but since these ideas are used as talking points to support the President I’m addressing them as well as I can.
I think what this second point must be referring to is the idea that, as the Washington Examiner (a pro-Trump news outlet) says, “Empowered military leaders to ‘seize the initiative and win,’ reducing the need for a White House sign off on every mission.” That announcement has indeed been made by the White House. I’m not at all sure that the WH has ever had to “sign off on every mission,” but we’ll accept it as read.
My Comments on the John MacArthur/Ben Shapiro Interview
I’ve had a couple of people mention this program on Dec. 2, 2018, in which conservative writer Ben Shapiro interviewed John MacArthur on his weekly “Sunday Special.” Shapiro has a wide range of guests on this show, and this one has gotten a lot of buzz in the Evangelical world. So I decided to watch it, as I’ve done with some of Shapiro’s other specials. His podcast, “The Ben Shapiro Show,” heard every weekday, goes in and out of my “favorites” podcast playlist, depending on how shrill and obnoxious he is at any given time. I do like a lot of what Shapiro says, and I think he wrote the most incisive article of the 2016 election season, “You Can’t Pretend Trump’s Flaws Away,” in which he compared those who idealized Trump to people in abusive relationships. Great, great piece.
What Does It Mean to be Pro Life?
Am I pro life? You bet. When I became pregnant at age 41 with my son, the obstetrician suggested on my first visit that I get amniocentesis to test for Down syndrome so that . . . I stopped her. “I’m not interested.” She looked a bit taken aback. “But even if you aren’t going to terminate the pregnancy, you could know ahead of time about the child and be prepared.” Of course I still refused. “It won’t make any difference. And there’s a risk of miscarriage with that test.” She allowed as how that was true, and we went on from there. The subject was never brought up again. (That son is now earning an MFA in creative writing, by the way.)
My Take on the Kavanaugh Controversy
Not that anybody asked me. But here’s my take: I think it’s entirely possible that Christina Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh are both telling the truth as they remember it.
How well do you remember events that occurred when you were “stumbling drunk”? I’ve drunk some wine on a very, very few occasions and remember a slight buzz, I guess, but I don’t know what being drunk is like. I’ve done a little bit of Wikipedia diving and found that yes, you can indeed forget/not be able to remember something that happened when you were very drunk.
In Which I Attempt to Deconstruct a Meme
Writing this post is in some ways a self-indulgent waste of my time. Let me say right off the bat:
ALL MEMES ARE BY VERY DEFINITION THOUGHTLESS.
Why? Because they’re the equivalent of a pie in the face. Show me a thoughtful meme and I’ll . . . well, I don’t have to say that I’ll do because no one will be able to find such a thing. I’m reminded of the old joke about college lectures:
College is a place where a professor’s lecture notes go straight to the students’ lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either.
A Little Lesson in Logic
As long-time readers of this blog and Facebook page know, I don’t write very many articles myself. So many excellent writers out there are saying such good things, much better than I could possibly do, that I usually content myself with posting a selection of said articles with perhaps a short intro from me. But every now and then I feel compelled to weigh in a little more when I get particularly riled up, a reaction that often happens when I get some particularly outrageous comment on Facebook.
More Nonsensical Reasons to Support Trump from Dennis Prager
I just don’t know where to begin here. Dennis Prager, a well-known conservative commentator whose articles run once in awhile on National Review Online, has produced another head-scratcher titled “A Defense of Evangelicals Who Support Trump.” Just what we need! Erick Erickson, a true Christian conservative, has already written a rebuttal in which he says, “Dennis Prager Is Just Wrong Here.” To which I say, “Yay, Erick!” I want to do a little more eviscerating on points not covered by Erickson. My main divergence of opinion with Erickson is his insistence that Christians didn’t need to dirty their hands in the last election by voting for either major-party candidate or indeed by voting at all, but that’s a topic I’ve covered more than thoroughly and so I won’t go into it here.