A mid-west pastor criticized evangelical Christians on Sunday for making the abortion issue their top priority at the voting booth.
In a column at USA Today, Pastor Doug Pagitt claimed evangelicals are “trading their moral core” by voting for pro-life Republicans and supporting President Donald Trump.
“These conservative leaders are willing, at all costs, to make a moral trade — anti-abortion laws and court decisions in exchange for basic human dignity,” the Minneapolis pastor argued.
Pagitt claimed Republicans ignore the most vulnerable people in America today.
“The Republican Party has used the issue of abortion as a tool to manipulate religious leaders across the country,” Pagitt wrote. “These leaders’ highest concern is self-preservation. They fear God’s wrath and want impunity.
“But in their fear, they have become blinded and desensitized to all other injustices and inhumanities: children separated from parents, refugees refused safety, women denigrated and abused, and health care denied to the vulnerable,” he continued.
“These are not positions informed by the teachings of Jesus Christ — to the contrary, they are antithetical to what Jesus preached,” he added.
He attacked evangelical leader Franklin Graham, calling him “complicit in this administration’s war on the vulnerable.” Ironically, Graham, who is strongly pro-life, also runs an organization that provides Christmas presents and other material support to millions of impoverished children across the world.
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
Pagitt’s issue with Graham was his support of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault. The FBI did not find any evidence corroborating the allegations, and the Senate narrowly confirmed him as the fifth conservative justice earlier this month.
The pastor also claimed evangelicals make abortion a bigger priority than it should be.
“Many of us are taught from a young age that abortion is the issue on which our vote should always hinge. The hope among many evangelicals is to make abortion illegal,” he wrote. “Evidence, however, suggests that criminalization does not reduce abortions. In fact, studies show that criminalizing abortion does nothing to protect babies, but instead endangers mothers.”
But there are studies, government data, expert statements and other evidence that indicate the opposite: making abortion illegal would protect unborn babies and women.
Pagitt also is the executive director of Vote Common Good, an organization that is working to “flip Congress for the common good” to Democrats’ control. Interestingly, one of the group’s commitments is to uphold “the God-given dignity of all people, no exceptions.” But Pagitt makes a very big exception by advocating against those who protect unborn babies.
Every year, nearly 1 million unborn babies are legally killed in abortions across America. These babies already were living, growing human beings with their own unique DNA. Most of them likely already had heartbeats, and some were nearly full term. Some are discriminated against because of a disability or their gender. And there are very few protections for them. The United States is one of only seven countries that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks, a fact confirmed by the Washington Post fact checker.
The unborn are among the most vulnerable members of society today, but political “progressives” like Pagitt turn a blind eye to their plight.
