It’s been a bit since I sent out a newsletter. I’ve been busy with the start of the Spring semester at Texas Baptist College. I taught a winter course on Introduction to Ethics and am currently teaching two courses: Intro to Apologetics and The Church And the Digital Age. I’m also wrapping up a Bible study project for Lifeway and am about to start a new book project about which I’ll have more information soon.
I was also in Washington, D.C. for the March for Life. It was a wonderful time, though the weather was very wintery. The Capitol was covered in snow. Still, we all braved the elements as we always do and attended this annual event. We are in a new phase of the pro-life movement, with Roe having joined, to quote former VP Pence, “the ash heap of history.” I was encouraged by the turnout at the March. It was as crowded and spirited as ever. I had the chance to visit with my former colleagues at ERLC and there was even a Jim Harbaugh sighting. I was also invited to a pre-March event with VP Pence at his organization. He and Karen were gracious hosts and seemed committed to staying active on issues he cares about, particularly the sanctity of life.
The Dispatch also asked me to write an essay on the past and future of the pro-life movement. I was glad to do it. Here is a short excerpt:
In the fall of 1973, horrified by the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision earlier that year, a lawyer in the Labor Department organized a meeting of a small group of women in her home. Nellie Gray, a Texan and veteran of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II, worried that the anniversary of the monumental decision would pass by without being remembered. And she had reason to think so. Many considered this the end of the conversation over abortion.
While the Catholic Church was vocally opposed to the practice of abortion, evangelical Christians had a mixed response. Christianity Today condemned the ruling as “counter not merely to the moral teachings of Christianity through the ages but also to the moral sense of the American people” while the largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist convention, was initially ambivalent. A poll taken a few years before Roe found 70 percent of Baptists supported the right to abortion. Few pundits and prognosticators thought this would be a contested issue in American life.
Yet what Gray and others catalyzed in those early days grew: 20,000 people showed up in January 1974 to march past the Capitol and on to the Supreme Court in what would become an annual rite for those who care about the sanctity of life. Evangelical philosopher Francis Schaeffer toured the country with Boston pediatric surgeon C. Everett Koop, giving lectures on the moral horror of abortion and touting their video and book, Whatever Happened to the Human Race? Pro-life ethicist Richard Land became the Southern Baptist Convention’s chief public policy spokesperson. Ronald Reagan, who had signed legislation loosening abortion laws in 1967 as governor of California, ran for president in 1980 promising to oppose the practice. Shortly after he wrote a small book, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation, outlining his beliefs.
As the march grew into a movement, there were small yet significant victories along the way. The 1976 Hyde Amendment prevented the federal funding of abortion. The 1984 Mexico City Policy kept foreign aid going to abortion, though the policy has typically been enacted by Republican presidents and rescinded by Democratic presidents.
Yet the biggest goal, overturning Roe, always seemed more aspirational than probable. Year after year pro-lifers worked to elect presidents to nominate and senators to approve Supreme Court justices who might be willing to strike down the case. Yet after many near-misses—such as 1992’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood decision—it all still seemed impossible. Come 2022, many pro-life groups were meeting in anticipation of a half-century anniversary.
Then the unthinkable happened: The Supreme Court reversed itself in the Dobbs decision in June 2022.
What began in a living room in Washington in 1973 became one of the most effective social and political coalitions in American history, provoking—through a mosaic of legislative, legal, cultural, scientific efforts—the nation’s conscience with a new moral vocabulary.
So now what?
You can read the rest here
Lifeway asked me to write about this coming election season and how pastors can wisely shepherd their people. It’s probably the question I get asked the most by pastors this year. I sense a lot of nervousness about how ugly it might be. We are still in primary season, obviously, but it does seem we’ll have a sequel that a majority of Americans don’t want. So I offered what I hope are helpful guidelines. You can read them here.
A few other housekeeping notes:
I plan to start recording podcasts again after a holiday break. I’ve got some great guests lined up.
If you are planning your Easter services at church or are just looking for something to read as a guide during the Lenten season, you might consider my book, The Character of Easter.