SUMMARY: Like Pres. Joe Biden, all Christians are not anti-abortion. This may be the changing reality in society with which religious institutions must contend: religious dogma does not change with the times, but religious people sometimes do. The article considers the shift that is happening among values-based Americans who may be voting in the upcoming mid-term elections. This debate continues to have great political and relgiious implications in an ever-dividing country. In relaying a view on abortion that does not conform to Catholicism, Pres. Biden may inadverently contribute to the growing de-polarization of religious opinions on the issue, upsetting an age-old sacred cow. This article speaks to an insenuation from a well respected religious commentator, Pastor Albert Mohler implying that a Cahtolic president, only the second to serve in the country's hisotry, leans toward secularism as it relates to mainsteam religious thought in America. and what they must do to remain relevant amidst this transformation.
By Mona Austin
The release of a pending Supreme Court decision on an abortion case has forced Pres. Joe Biden to openly address his views on abortion and religious pro-lifers to blast him for it.
While recognizing the ideological nuances in varied definitions of conception, Biden, a Catholic, deviates from the Catholic world view in his stance on abortion. The president has been criticized for supporting women's access to abortion. Conservative Christian commentator Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has called Biden out for his position, citing his response on the Supreme court opinion leak earlier this week. The document revealed the intent of the court to overturn Roe vs. Wade and recharged the national debate on abortion rights, a position Biden vehemently opposes.
The issue of abortion lies at the intesection of law and morals. It has long been the duty of the Catholic church (and other religious organizations) to not only take the "moral highround' on the matter in addressing related public policies, but to have authority in determining the sanctity of human life, which they beleive was defined by God the Creator rather than heartbeat detection, a legal guiding point. The Catholic Church teaches that birth occurs at the moment of conception and that expelling the resulting fetus constitutes the expulsion of human life. Protestant institutions generally hold the same belief, classifying abortion as a sin.
As an attorney, politican and Irish Catholic, throughout his career Biden has struggled to reconcile his personal and professional beliefs on the complex subject. Reporters represeting various religious media have frequently brought up abortion in White House press briefings as Biden was perceived to be evading the issue. This week he addressed the issue head on and the backlash from the right has been swift and cutting.
From the National Catholic Register:
"Biden has given conflicting statements over the years about when he believes life begins.
“I respect those who believe life begins at the moment of conception,” Biden said in September. “I don’t agree, but I respect that. I’m not going to impose that on people.”
Yet at the 2012 vice presidential debate against Republican nominee Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., Biden stated plainly that he believed life began at conception.
“Life begins at conception, that‘s the Church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life,” he said. "But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.”
The Church is becoming increasingly more concerned about the blight of the presence of a biblical worldview in the public sphere. It is necessary to address various issues such as abortion, sexual identity, immigration and poverty from both a law and moral standpoint Christians worried about the U.S. becoming a pagan nation have argued. On abortion in particular, the funadamental message from the Church appears to be fading as people's needs and desires change.
Franklin Graham said follwoin the document leak,
In his comments on the POTUS' response Mohler quoted Biden as saying, "And think what Roe says. Roe says what all basic mainstream religions have historically concluded. That the right that the existence of a human life and being is a question, is it at the moment of conception, is it six months, is it six weeks, is it quickening like Aquinas argued?" The latter part fo this remark is a reference to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic priest whose teachins adressed the value of life. Save for this reference, Biden's view would be entirely secular. Mohler, interpreted this as meaning that Biden "concluded that there is no rightful answer to the question of when human life begins." It was a "gotcha moment" as Mohler's title indicates his Biden "Accidentally Tells the Truth."
MS. AUSTIN: A Christian conservative — his name is Albert Mohler — has commented on President Biden’s stance in an unusual position on abortion. I’m now quoting. He said that, 'He and his administration do not trust the public in various areas to have the right to determine whether or not abortion should be legal in that area or not.'
So, he’s essentially saying that Biden does not think that states should have the right to determine how abortions — to the degree that abortions are legal or not.
MS. PSAKI: The President believes that it should continue to be federal law that women have the right to make choices with their doctors, as it has been for 50 years.
And I would just say, with all due respect to the person you mentioned, even a Fox News poll earlier this month showed that 63 percent of Americans want Roe to stand. So I think that’s actually kind of an outlier position as it relates to the American public.
Mohler went on to say that Biden accidentlly told the truth about abortion -- that is is the life of a child that is being taken -- in his commentary:
"Now, what we see here is the case of a major American politician accidentally speaking the truth. That is exactly what abortion is. It is the abortion of a child, but that's exactly what the president tried to say, it was not just a matter of seconds prior. That is exactly what the Democratic Party and the pro-choice, pro-abortion movement tries to say the issue abortion is not. They try in every way possible to say it is not the abortion of a child. It is not the abortion of a baby. It is instead, as we're going to see in just a moment, a statement about a woman's own body. But you'll notice the president let the cat out of the bag. He accidentally spoke the truth."
Biden is not the only person of faith that has grappled with the language and what to call the phases of fetal development in abortion conversation. It is a clash between science and
"Abortion really is the taking of a human life," Tennessee based pastor Allen Jackson has stated in a sermon.
It is the emphasis on the words "really is" to congregants that reflects a different mentallity about what constitutes the death of a human.
Next week Democrats will try to pass federal legislation to retain the right to abortions federally. "Repulicans can not hide" from what their doing on abortion Senate Mjorty Leader Chuck Schumer said. Althouh Democrats may not get the votes, bringing the issue to a vote will expose who is for or against abortion ahead of mis term elections.
Mohler also said, "He and his administration do not trust the public in various areas to have the right to determine whether or not abortion should be legal in that area or not," which is not a reliious questions but a legal one.
Polls from CBS News and FOX NEWS indicate that motericans
Mohler's commentary shows that even if he does not embrace the Cathilic view on the sanctity of human life fully, and he is calling him out for not adhering to the def rejection of abortion, the reliious reis are lososening.