Frank! As A Former Pro-Life Leader How Dare You Support Pro-Choice Obama?

Dear Republican and Pro-Life Friends,
Thanks for the spittle-flecked emails as well as for the polite queries. Yes, I am aware Obama is pro-choice. Yes, I'm still pro-life. I also believe that with Obama in the White House that there will be less abortions in America than with the Republicans in power.

As you know I was a lifelong Republican until I reregistered as an Independent in 2006, after I just couldn't take the Rove brigade's dirty tricks, lies and slime any longer. When I worked to get John McCain nominated in 2000 I went on many conservative and religious radio shows to plead his cause. I started edging away from the party after seeing the filth the Bush crew got away with.

I know rather a lot about the politics of the "life issues." And I know you know that is true because you are calling me a traitor for supporting Senator Obama because of my leadership in the early stages of the pro-life movement.

You also know that without my late Evangelical leader father Francis Schaeffer's and my work (teamed up with C. Everett Koop) there would have been no Evangelical/Republican pro-life movement as it emerged in the mid 1970s. And on a personal note, having gotten my girlfriend pregnant when we were teens, I also know a little about the heartache that goes along with a very unplanned pregnancy. Fortunately we received the sort of support that made keeping our daughter Jessica possible. It could have gone another way.

That said...I know (as you pro-lifers do if you're honest) that the Republicans have milked the abortion issue, as have the Evangelical and Roman Catholic leadership, for every dime it's worth for fundraising, votes, power and empire-building, without changing much if anything. As I said, I also am fully aware that Senator Obama is pro-choice. I think his pro-choice views are out of character with his otherwise generous and enlightened world view.

The pro-life cause poisoned many of us who were part of it. Me included. It led to self-righteous hubris that extended to a general attitude of hate toward the "other." For instance power hungry strivers such as James Dobson and Pat Robertson took the passion generated by the pro-life cause and fueled their wholly illegitimate war against gay Americans with it, not to mention their multi million dollar empires. Our cause became all about power over other people, money and the muscle to win elections, not about the good of unborn babies and women.

I describe this corruption in my book, CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. I explore what happened to us as we were lured by politics and money. So lots of folks who are in the Evangelical/Republican/Roman Catholic establishment and who are still earning a good living through the culture wars hate my book (and me) for spilling the beans.

Just for the record: my annual income was a lot bigger and more secure within the Evangelical fold than without. The big bucks in America are all about selling God, as Rick Warren, James Dobson or Joel Osteen can tell you, not earned blogging for lefty sites such as Huffington Post or writing novels as I do now.

That said... First, a nod to reality: even if Roe were reversed (it won't be no matter who is president) the abortion pill and the acceptance of at least some types of legal abortion by most Americans guarantees there will be access to abortion. Besides, on a state-by-state basis abortion would remain legal in most states no matter what the court does. And as we have seen the Republicans haven't really changed anything in thirty years.

So what do we who find abortion abhorrent do if we want to deal in reality rather than fantasies and slogans of winner-take-all propaganda? The reality is that we need to foster a climate in which we can reduce the number of abortions and also keep the moral -- rather than legal -- debate alive.

We can't do this by concentrating on politics, or silver bullets such as trying for that one magic court appointment. It's the "holistic" approach that is really what's important if our goal is to reduce the number of abortions rather than just "win" political games.

The effort to reduce abortions will be more possible in the Obama era than in a continuation of the hardhearted Bush presidency with McCain. This is all about tone and moral leadership, not law.

At heart of the abortion reality is this: we are a consumerist society with a heart of stone when it comes to the poor, who account for four times the national average of people having abortions, mostly because of economic needs that Republicans don't lift a finger to address. And we still denigrate women and female sexuality.

Meanwhile we face global catastrophe if we keep on the path we are on that the Republicans have put us on. And Obama promises real change on the environment, education, the economy, the military and foreign affairs, all of which need to change, not as a luxury or choice or option, but as a matter of national survival.

I guess that having had my Marine son John go to war for George W. Bush concentrated my mind on the seriousness of this election. McCain won't do more than provide another four-to-eight years of Bush. Our planet and country can't endure that. And our military is disintegrating under the Bush doctrine, which is: "You all go shopping while we ask a few Americans to go to war again and again and again and again..."

For all you sanctimonious Evangelicals out there, also note: when it comes to squeaky clean family values, Senator Obama -- not Senator McCain -- should be your role model. The Republican right wants us to draw back in horror from Obama because he is pro-choice, but this is the same group working to get a philanderer who abandoned his wife because she had a disfiguring accident, elected.

It isn't just a matter of voting for Obama. Americans who want there to be a country left in which to argue our issues must vote against McCain. As his support for the Bush lies about Iraq shows McCain is hung up on his own version of post-Vietnam traumatic stress disorder. This is a man who would take our civilian culture down in flames and sacrifice it to his sense of death-or-glory military "honor." How do you "win" a wrong war? McCain will make the world more dangerous. You think Bush was a cowboy? Just try McCain.

I say this as the proud father of United States Marine. I say this as someone who believes that we should be in Afghanistan where my son served, fought and risked his life for us all. I also say this as someone who believes that when it comes to pro-life issues in the most comprehensive sense, that President Bush, Dick Cheney and the neoconservative/Republican establishment have needlessly killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and over 4000 American servicemen and women.

I use the words "needlessly killed" advisedly. When you send men and women into an unnecessary and unprovoked war-of-choice for spurious reasons that then turn into outright lies, you've murdered them. And George W. Bush has sanctioned torture, contravened the Geneva conventions, and has lied to the American people about all of it.

Bush has destabilized the world. The latest evidence of this is the fact that Russia attacked Georgia. In the climate of Bush's aggression, where is our moral standing to criticize Russia? McCain offers no alternative. These too are life issues.

There's no point arguing about abortion, capital punishment, women's rights, gender equality or any other issue -- no matter how important -- while the ship of state is being torpedoed by the Commander-in-Chief. We can't afford more of this. Our honorable military can't endure more of this. Our economy can't endure more of this. Our Earth will not survive more of this. Bush and his look alike shill McCain have to go.

When it comes to the issue of abortion there is another side besides legality/illegality: the nature of our country.

What kind of care do we provide to mothers and children? What is our educational system like? Is healthcare available to all? Do our preschool programs and everything from paternal and maternal leave to the economic well-being of our country come first? Or do we argue about abortion rights while we live lives of such supreme selfish decadence that the nature of our country means that no matter what we do with the laws about abortion life will not be valued?

The Republican leadership is not pro-life. They are simply against abortion for reasons of political expediency. They are also for torture and military aggression. And they chose a literal executioner for president; a former governor who has more blood on his hands than any other modern American governor; Mr. Texas-sized, Capital Punishment-with-no-mercy-no-pardons hang em' high himself.

The Republicans have contributed to climate change by coddling oil companies and car companies and ducking the hard environmental and energy policy questions for thirty years. They have literally sold our country to the highest polluting bidders from the Saudis to the Chinese. Therefore the Republicans have literally risked the ability of our planet to sustain all human life born and unborn. So much for human life values.

Who will help us to become a nation that values life -- abortion rhetoric aside? Obama.

The contrast could not have been more clear than on August 16 in the interview between pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church and Obama and McCain. Obama gave real and thoughtful answers, often trying to explore a moral question deeply. McCain offered nothing more than canned applause lines and anecdotes from his tired simplistic stump speech.

McCain fed pre-programed red meat to the Evangelical faithful who were packing the auditorium, but not much more. He parroted all the "right" lines about abortion, the same empty phrases Bush, parrots, Bush's father parroted and Reagan and Ford parroted.

"When does life begin?" asked Warren. "At conception!" shot back McCain.

The Evangelical crowd goes wild! See?! That's our guy!

And where do the tired canned pro-life "correct answers" get us? Nowhere.

I will be voting for the presidential candidate who seems most authentically exercised about our devastating problems and who is ready to not only address them but to provide the inspiring leadership that will move my fellow citizens and I to do something about our terminal situation. I'll be voting for the man that has also inspired the world more than any national leader in my lifetime.

There are worse things than America being liked and therefore safer. Would you rather have non-Americans waving our flag or burning it?

In the best of all worlds we would be living in a country in which no one had an abortion. We would be living in a country in which there was never capital punishment. We would be living in a country that would have addressed the legacy of our racist past and racist present so that we would not have a disproportionate number of black men and women locked in our prisons. We would be living in a country where people calling themselves Christians would not hate gay people. We would be living in a country that never went to war except as last resort for self defense. We would be living in a country where education and opportunity was every American's birthright. But we are not.

The question is: Who can best help us to the realization of the real American Dream?

The Republicans only offer consumerism as a debased sort of "freedom." This is the freedom of "me" and "I." This is the freedom of pigs rooting at a trough.

As a born-again Christ-centered believer Obama offers a spiritual vision of life founded on the Sermon On the Mount. It is the freedom of "we." It is the same view of freedom that my Marine son learned in boot camp: that the person standing next to you is more important than you are. That concept of freedom is more in keeping with valuing all human life. It will create a climate more friendly to mothers and children.

As I listen to Senator Obama speak, as I see the selfless altruistic energy he has generated in a whole new generation of young people, as I think about the ethical, caring culture he would like to foster with healthcare for all, a revamped and reenergized educational system that includes the arts, history, poetry and all those things that make life worthwhile, as I think about the wars my son's brothers-in-arms are still mired and dying in because of the hubris of the Republicans, as I think about the crying need to restore our standing in the world, as I think about the scandalous way in which the Republicans have manipulated people, including the most sincere Evangelicals, Orthodox and Roman Catholics, to get their votes, while not actually doing anything about the issues they care most about, yes, I am ready to for a change.

In Obama's America arguments for compassion for the unborn and all the other "least of these" will resonate regardless of Obama's stance on the legality of abortion. Roe is not the point. Our hearts are the point. The unborn like everyone else will do better in a country that puts people, the earth, and our future ahead of greed, oil company profits and jingoistic rule by fear.

I will be voting for Senator Obama and am fighting for his election because I am pro-life.

Frank Schaeffer is coauthor of HOW FREE PEOPLE MOVE MOUNTAINS-A Male Christian Conservative and a Female Jewish Liberal On A Quest For Common Purpose and Meaning. He is also author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back

Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer

Comments

[joyfulone]

I was very involved with the pro life movement and the move to over-take the Kansas Republican party in the 1990's. (Read What's the Matter with Kansas? for an outsider's view of this movement.) By 1996 I had become so disgusted with the arrogance and unethical and even illegal actions of the right to life group and the individuals involved that I walked away from the party of which I had been a member for twenty years.

Not only were these people becoming power hungry, but they were blinded by that need and were so obviously being used by local politicians yet would never listen to the truth when plainly put before them. I saw them aligning themselves with unethical candidates and drive themselves beyond reason to get these people elected. What has it gained the pro life movement? Have the pro life organizations or the politicians they have supported delivered the babies? NO they have not!

The ugly truth of the pro life movement is that it also uses the tragedy of abortion as a "fund-rais­er." How many years have we had national and state-level pro life organizations protesting abortion and growing their organizations? Twenty years? Thirty years? Forty years? Have they delivered the babies? NO they have not! But they have raised millions of dollars and created life-time careers for those at the head of these organizations.

Twelve years later, I remain a Democrat and pro life.

[ephrem]

OK, Frank - I read your Father's books, and one of yours, too; I'm also a former Protestant Evangelical who has been an Orthodox Christian 8 years now. I too see through the Moral Majority; I see the ugly consumer society with no heart around me; I know what you're talking about there. I just read "The Dark Side" about the process in the administration to justify torture. I'm sick at heart.
But what about the slippery slope- abortion, infanticide, euthanasia? Are we going to go the way of the Netherlands or worse when we try to fix health care with a strongly pro-choice President and Congress? Why won't this happen? Today I've discovered what the Washington D.C. Democratic environment has done to Bob Casey Jr. 65% Naral approval ratings. Very disheartening.
You tell me this country has the moral backbone to avoid a Euthanasia horror show under Democratic Party governance, and explain it to me- I'm listening; I want to believe.

[caterpol]

Thank you Frank. Reading your article gave me goosebumps. Perhaps there's some hope for Evangelicals afterall.

Personally, I don't know why the anti-abortion Christian crowd doesn't implode from cognitive dissonance. They're not pro-life. They don't give a rat's behind about the "post-born", they're too busy protecting the "pre-born", even if the "pre-born" is a barely-acquainted sperm and egg courting in a petri dish or frozen beyond hope in a clinic. In the meantime, this is the same rabid pro-gun, pro-death penalty, pro-nation building, pro-torture, anti-every­thing-not-­American, small gov't, pro-corporate, pro-deregulation, pro-individual rights crowd, that sees human death as collateral damage. The crowd that created a white/male/God in their own image, A God that, surprise, surprise, agrees with every one of their prejudices and supports wholeheartedly the white/male­/mysoginis­t/American claim of superiority.

So Obama's views on abortion are UN-enlightened? How this crept into your thought process is beyond me. Obama, regardless of his personal morality, is being, God forbid, practical. Abortion is not going away, whether it's legal or illegal. Minimizing the occurance is the best we're EVER going to do. But unlike the anti-abortion crowd, progressives like Obama understand that infrastructure changes are neccessary if we're going to lower the numbers----all of which you admit. Throwing a bone to your ex-believers are you?

[schatsie]

Frank, I hope you are being vetted for the Faith Based Initiative Coordinator position..­. (Along with Danny Glover.) The sooner we get the wingnuts out of there the better..

[bdaved]

On election night in 2000 I went to sleep not knowing who had won the election and thinking I'd find out in the morning. When I asked somebody who had won she said "They don't know." I thought to myself, well, this is a great country and nobody's going to mess things up too bad in just four years. I didn't know how wrong I could be, or how much more damage someone could do in eight years. I just couldn't grasp the depth of corruption we are capable of. We desperately need a reversal in the direction of our government, to protect us from what Theodore Roosevelt called "predatory wealth" and the "criminal rich". I can only hope Senator Obama will lead us in that direction.

[whmeyers]

Thanks for a very thoughtful analysis. You make lots of good points but you missed an opportunity to elaborate on why abortions are likely to be fewer under an Obama Presidency. You hinted at it in discussing the improved health care and support systems for unplanned pregnancies and improved sex education, but Obama elaborated a bit more on these measures in the chat with Pastor Rick and you might have put more emphasis on that way of reducing abortions. As you say, that is more pro-life than what we have seen under Bush and company or would see under McCain. I agree with you that Obama was more effective than McCain in the Pastor Rick appearance, though even mainstream media seem to have missed that reality in their eagerness to see sound bites. McCain had he sound bites, but I think the long run will show that Obama will change more minds with his thoughtful reasoning than McCain does with his bluster. McCain only spoke to his core not to the greater population that he would need to woo to win.

[5280]

Well said, thank you Frank!!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if people would read this with an open mind.

[Scoutsmom]

This is refreshingly balanced. I disagree on some points, but I am interesting in reading more of Frank.

[MisterBeee]

Frank, you are way off the mark! Obama is not pro choice. He's pro-abortion. If he is pro-choice as he thinks he is, why hasn't he EVER voted on the side of life for any issue he has voted on? One would reasonably think that there would be a percentage (large or small) in which a representative would cast a vote for life if he were pro-choice. As it stands, Barack Obama is a disgrace when it comes to life issues (or for many other critical moral issues for that fact). As most people already know, in the Illinois state legislature Obama voted against a law that would protect the life of a baby that survived an abortion attempt; in effect just letting the baby die on some counter in the abortion clinic. And where was his vote for life on the partial-birth abortion ban; the most heinous procedure ever invented to kill a baby?

When it comes to choosing between innocent babies being literally torn apart limb from limb, to that of the persuading men who are sworn enemies of the United States, who would love nothing better than to blow up as many Americans as possible . . . hmmm . . . I choose protecting innocent, defenseless lives first. And as far as the liberal approach to “so called” reducing abortions; it is a façade, a lie. It’s only election time rhetoric. Making abortions illegal WILL reduce abortions significantly as it has in other countries where abortion

[BusGreg]

"Making abortions illegal WILL reduce abortions significantly as it has in other countries where abortion".­.. NOT!
Those with the money and time will travel to countries where a woman's health care is run by doctors, rather than religious zealots and corrupt politicians, those without the funds to travel abroad will go back to dirty kitchen tables and coat hangers, a few will commit suicide and the rst will either adopt out or give their unwanted offspring a childhood without the love and care otherwised afforded children.
If you want to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies support sex ed in schools that focus on scientific facts, rather than pious drivel and abstinence pledges that do not work!
As far as "life" is concerned, a fertlized egg is not life, it is a fertilized egg!

[billwetzel]

When Republicans run things, there are more abortions, when Democrats do there are less. End of story.

[laocoon]

I always wonder at the prolife's lack of any pressure on the issue of all the artificially fertilized eggs in fertility clinics. Are you really pretending that all those unborn "people" will be given life and a home some day. You know 99% will be destroyed eventually. this represents a far greater genocide of the unborn than all the abortions combined. Why isnt stopping this practice on the top of the pro-life priority list. All these unborn people being irresponsibly created only to be killed down the road. It makes me think the pro-life crowd is just not sincere. shouldnt this be the first priority? Why do you turn a blind eye to this wholesale slaughter?

[preachergirl]

Thank you.

As a christian, I am grateful for your article. Thanks for being one voice that is crying out in the wilderness. I hear you. After watching the Rick Warren show, all I could think of was, "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears; lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them". Matthew 13: 14-15.

I was just sick by what I saw and heard and the only thing I could say was "WOW". What sad state this country is in.

[Changeizgood]

Thank you. I am Pro life Democrat, and lived in Poverty all my life, with three degrees. I am African American and the mother of nine,(three steps)

The Republicans don't consider the thought of a Woman, when she wants to bring forth life in the world. And what a world they have planned for our unborn.

In the seventies, a lot of women, (especially in the NOW) youth were pledging not to give birth until the world settled in peace, for their children.
Must We the Women of America, employ that measure again. We said this for Vietnam and Polution Revolution.

DE JE VU = Iraq, climate change due to fossil fuel burning, and massive debt, for generations to come.
If I, and my children and grandchildren, will be sacrificing our financial livelyhoods to correct this mess, of the Republican Party, then I will have my say as an African American, before I go to my final resting place. It is our duty to correct this mess, but We can't make it just for four or eight years. We the People must ensure to vote in every election, for our grandchildren, which really is the bigger picture.

Greedy selfish hell imps, of power, will not think about anyone's future, but their own.

Take it back America! The world is depending on the AMERICAN VOTER TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE!

GO AMERICA GO!

THE FUTURE IS IN RANGE, WHEN YOU VOTE FOR CHANGE!

BARACK OBAMA 08, LET'S MAKE AMERICA GREAT!!!!!

[JackLivigni]

It takes a true believer to really analyze the complexity of reality and find the path to true faithfulness. Frank's vision of these issues is rooted in faith that things can get better if people are helped to be better. It is a faith in the human spirit, denied by all those who want to force others to accept their values.

[eden4barack08]

You leave me speechless Frank. Bravo!

And thank you.

[twofish]

Sometimes a fertilized egg splits well after conception and you get identical twins. Do they only have one soul between them? When did that second soul enter the second blastosphere? Does God keep a few in his pocket and slip it in after the fact? And is it ok to eliminate one of a pair of identical twins (or two of 3 triplets, etc), since that unique gene combination you seem to be so enamored of is present in the remaining fetus?

Sometimes there are two zygotes and one absorbs the other. They can even be one male and one female. Then you get one person with some tissue that has the genes of the other gender, which can lead to some interesting medical problems. And where did that second soul go? Back into God's pocket?

Biology is subtle and strange. "Life begins at conception" doesn't begin to cover it.

[ejay579]

If the holy grail to the Christo-fascists is to overturn Roe v. Wade, they have not succeeded but they are close, possibly one Supreme away. In the meantime, they have packed the Supreme Court with enough ideologues that every other form of civil right is imperiled. I have no doubt that abortion is the first with contraception close behind. But it is hard to invision them being able to get rid of these without getting rid of the "right to privacy". These knuckle heads do not realize how many things hinge on this right. Among these are the right to have children in the first place and the right to educate your children as well. Yes, at one time a state had mandatory sterilization laws before the "activist" Supreme Court said states could not do this. For all Catholics out there, it took a Supreme Court decision to declare that you can send your children to a Catholic school. Yes, a state once passed a law requiring all children to go to public school and this was specifically aimed at Catholic schools. Funny, the constitution makes no mention of sterilization or Catholic schools.

[newpantaloons]

I just want to say that I am so inspired each time I read a column from this man! His humanity, compassion and thoughtful analysis of our country's problems and hoped-for solutions are soul-searchingly valid and come through loud and clear. This was a thorough analysis of the moral problems we face and we had better get deadly serious about solving them or we will face stiffer and stiffer opposition, lies, distortion and loss of liberty in this country. We are quickly becoming a nation of greedy people made up of mind-numbing apathy towards less fortunate fellow citizens of this country and the world.This applies to Republicans and Democrats, alike. But, I have to agree, the Republicans are out of ideas and seem to want to continue what is an abject failure; we need a change. It may not work, but we already know what we will get if we elect John McCain. John McCain, I am sure, is not a 'horrible' person, but we know what his policies are. He has told us. We must go in a different direction or stay the course at our peril.

[schatsie]

AMEN.