Looking Back at "Get 'em Born, Then Get 'em Armed"

What's changed in the 6 1/2 years since I wrote this piece for Huff Post?

Six and half years ago seems like an eternity these days.  So much has changed, but sadly, so much has not.  This week I revisited some of the pieces I wrote for Huff Post when they had this terrific contributors page for writers like me.  While Huff Post lives on, the contributor page was shut down. The good news is that Substack offers a great vehicle to post content and I hope you’ve enjoyed my work thus far.

With that, I’d like to revisit my last piece before they pulled the plug.  It’s as relevant today as it was then.  Entitled “The Evangelical Credo: Get ‘Em Born, then Get ‘em Armed” perfectly describes the Evangelical Christian mindset when it comes to abortion and guns.

After you read the piece, let’s take trip down memory lane and look at what has changed and what hasn’t since December 2017.

In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama took serious flak about remarks he made during a campaign stop. He described the bitterness of some small-town folks who "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them.”

The only thing that’s changed here is that we now call them Christian Nationalists.

Republican support of Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama is a model for a philosophy that has gone sideways. These are people who evoke the name of Jesus and "love thy neighbor" while advocating for loosening gun regulations, spewing hate and generally dismissing those in need.

It’s only gotten worse.

Most evangelicals describe themselves as pro-life. I suggest that no, they are not pro-life, they are pro-birth. They reject a woman's right to choose and believe unwanted pregnancies should be carried out to the finish so they can get that kid born, and as soon as he can hold it, put a gun in one hand and a bible in the other. Just make sure that, God forbid, the kid doesn't turn out to have homosexual thoughts since 60% of evangelicals are against same sex marriage.

Let’s all give a big shout out to a Supreme Court that has made possible what most thinking people thought could never happen.

They cheer Roy Moore's pistol-waving Yosemite Sam impersonation and calls for what amounts to a Christian caliphate. In their hypocrisy, they ignore or vilify his sex abuse accusers. In order to advance their twisted agenda, they'll look past any tragedy or reprobate.

That sure sounds familiar…

Meanwhile, Trump wraps himself in the evangelical cloak as the defender of the faith, while at the same time violating virtually every commandment short of killing. But then he also once boasted he could "shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and no one would care.” For his flock, he's about right.

If you haven’t already, check out one of my previous posts, The Mind of a Cultist.

Flying under the radar is the true believer, Mike Pence. He's not insane like Trump, but turning the U.S. into the theocratic Gilead from "The Handmaid's Tale" would suit him just fine.

Check.

In 2011, a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that only 30% of white evangelicals believed "an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional life." By 2016, that number had risen to 72%.  Clearly the majority of evangelicals have moved to a Machiavellian ends-justifies-the-means approach to politics that seem to violate their own core beliefs.

…and it’s only gotten worse.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress sacrificed Al Franken who apologized for his indiscretions but is required to fall on his sword in the name of moral purity that doesn't remotely exist on the other side.

There is a false equivalence out there and the evangelical right is winning in the name of a Jesus that they alone create.

And there you have it.  What’s changed with these folks?  Not much, oh and throw in January 6.

The good news for our side anyway, is that we have women who are outraged at the SCOTUS repeal of Roe and a new generation of Gen Z voters, raised amid uncertainty and insecurity, that have already shown they are pissed and are going to show up at the polls.

That dynamic and the certainty that the cult is not going to suddenly find the real Jesus, so to speak, gives me hope that reason and sanity will prevail in 2024.