Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden is a group formed recently by notable leaders such as Pastor Joel Hunter. For the record, Joel’s massive congregation was less than two miles from my home when I lived in Central Florida. I had friends who sang in the praise band. Their congregation was so large that they had worship services six times a week. Their music was very professional and on special occasions, we attended his congregation at least five or six times on a Friday/Saturday night. I also had the opportunity to meet Joel and speak with him on a few occasions. He was and still appears to be a very kind fellow, though I suggest largely deceived.
In those days, Joel had a close relationship with Condi Rice and he was not timid about mentioning some of those conversations from the pulpit. I had a distant high regard for his interest on social issues and kept a fairly close eye on his evolution in the last few years. In 2016, he voted for Donald Trump, but as he recently stated, it was not long after that where he began to doubt Trump’s ability to unite the country. He found it particularly distasteful when Trump began to demean illegal immigrants.
He even now agrees with some of Trump’s policies but believes that Biden is a more unifying figure and that is what the country needs at this stage. When pressed recently by an NPR journalist about all of Trump’s accomplishments with a conservative flavor, Joel acknowledged them but still feels that Biden has the characteristics of someone who can build coalitions and provide the framework for what Joel calls a “whole life” view or a “consistent ethic of life.” A quick tour through those who signed on to the movement and one can easily dissect a very clear trajectory.
The argument made, which I have heard many times, is that we are to be pro-life from the womb to the tomb, and that those who suffer throughout life, especially the poor and needy, the marginalized, and those most affected by immigration policies, and women tortured by abusers, contemplating an abortion due to harships, are all just as important as those who are still in the womb. Therefore, we are to be concerned with more than just the unborn, but all those born who for a variety of circumstances find themselves in dire places in life.
I find Joel’s argument utterly uncompelling. Interestingly, missing from Joel’s argument is that Donald Trump has avoided the neo-conservative trap and has consistently been an anti-war voice in the last four years. Contra Obama and Biden and Hillary, it is the cantankerous Donald Trump who has argued in favor of bringing troops home and ending what he calls “stupid wars.” My inner Ron Paul is happy! Yet, we would think that a consistently pro-life view would consider the vast implications of an anti-war president. But, no! Not once.
I find this entire combination of Pro-Life Evangelicals and a support for Biden to be completely unfounded, inconsistent, and frankly, infantile. It lacks the gravitas of a thorough social and political analysis. Is it pro-life for Joel Hunter to support Biden when he espouses transgender rights for 8 year old children? As Robert A. J. Gagnon observed, this means that “if you as a parent of such a child don’t buy into the self-dishonoring, Creator-denying delusion, state social services can take your child away from you.” Is that pro-life?
Is it pro-life to support a president who believes that Amy Coney Barrett is not fit to serve on the Court because Biden’s colleague says that Barrett’s catholic dogma lives loudly within her? Is it pro-life to support economic policies that have been tried and found wanting in every conceivable nation? Is it pro-life to support a candidate whose VP is considered one of the most pro-abortion and LGBTQ supporters in the Senate? is it pro-life to embrace a candidate who will undoubtedly seek to infringe upon religious rights and who will re-consider the tax-exempt status of churches? Who admittedly will impose a COVID lock-down which has already led to more suicides, addiction, and spiritual damage than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime?
Joel is mistaken and anyone else who falls for this is mistaken. I plead with you to not allow your animosity for Trump’s style to keep you from considering his actual policies. And of course, we should never forget that the infant in the womb never had a chance to experience life, because the taking of life was decided on his behalf. Evangelicals for Biden is a fallacious pursuit for nobility in a fallen world; an attempt to mix the good with evil in a profoundly eschewed way.
