“Persuasion is often more effectual than force.” – Aesop
“The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.” – Mark Skousen
“I'm not sure that the abortion problem can be solved by legislation. I think it can only be solved through moral persuasion.” – Tony Campolo
With apologies to readers who see abortion as a solution rather than a problem, I heartily agree with Tony Campolo. For those of us who see abortion as a problem, trying to legislate it away has been a futile and counterproductive strategy.
A Shortsighted Strategy
The recent Supreme Court ruling sending abortion legislation back to the states was heralded as a miraculous breakthrough by conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family, where, decades ago, I worked within the public policy division for five years. Their celebration—as well as their tactics—was shortsighted. The damage from the receding of the conservative tsunami will far exceed any perceived benefit gained through the inbound wave of those forceful processes.
It won’t take long for abortion proponents—a significant majority—to wash away the imposition of the minority’s morals. And by the time those imposed conservative morals are purged, the damage will be done; the nation will have added another layer of separation between acrimonious family members, terminated friendships, and fractured communities.
Both sides deserve some blame for the escalating divisions: Liberals can’t seem to understand that their constant push for—what appears to religious conservatives as—anything-goes morality deeply offends their fundamentalist rivals. Conservatives tend to be oblivious to the fact that their attempts to impose their version of morality on the entire nation deeply offends their progressive rivals.
Challenging Christian Nationalism
But while both sides deserve some blame, my primary objection is aimed at conservatives—specifically Christian conservatives who have wedded their Christianity to their conservative politics and birthed a new version of white Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism is simply another name for what used to be referred to as theonomy or Dominionism. It’s the calamitous notion that Christians—more specifically, now, evangelical Christians—should rule over their communities and their nations. And, according to many of today’s MAGA nationalists, if Christians can’t achieve that rulership through elections, then they must revert to any means available—including violence, as evidenced during the January 6th riots at the nation’s Capitol Building, where Christian flags were waved alongside Confederate flags, and where cross-bearing rioters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!”
Trump and the Abortion Litmus Test
The concern that drove most of the evangelicals I know into the MAGA camp is abortion. It has become a fundamental evangelical doctrine that one must oppose abortion to be a true Christian. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party proudly supports the pro-choice movement. So, when Donald Trump declared his opposition to abortion—not out of any true conviction, but strictly to gain evangelical votes—naive evangelicals enthusiastically boarded the Trump train.
Then, when Trump and his cronies saw that white evangelicals were deifying the new Orange Messiah and that they were his most loyal supporters, they—disingenuously—embraced the Christian Nationalist movement. (Trump cares not a whit for evangelicals and Christian Nationalism; he’s using the movement as a parasite uses its host. But most white evangelicals are too smitten with their new messiah and too animated by their newly gained political power to see that truth.)
So now, despite Trump’s 2020 loss, those animated Christian Nationalists are flexing their political muscles and doing what theonomists do—seeking to gain control over the nation’s policy-making establishments and processes. And for many of the evangelicals within the movement, the number-one goal is to end all abortions.
A Counterproductive Approach
As I wrote earlier, I too oppose abortion. But I’m observant—and practical. And my practical observations reveal that I’m in the minority. In a nation with a democracy-based policy-making process, the majority rules. There are just two ways for the minority to get its way. They can try to defeat the majority through forceful means (which means the end of democracy), or they can use persuasion to try to win over enough of the majority members to their side to tip the balance.
Once the minority alliance begins down the road of force, the road of persuasion closes. One cannot expect to persuade his opponent to join his side after punching him in the face. And that is exactly what the MAGA Christian Nationalists have done. So, with the road of peaceful persuasion closed, MAGA evangelicals have no choice; it’s full speed ahead down the road that leads to force—and, likely, to violence.
Eighty-Five Percent Possibility?
According to The Big Truth, a new book by journalist Major Garrett and election-law expert David Becker, the USA is 85 percent of the way toward a violent second civil war. If that civil war does break out, it will largely be because Christian Nationalists have emboldened the more violent members within its ranks. Who would win such a war? No one. The nation would be irreparably damaged. But one side would emerge less damaged than the other. If the less-damaged side is that of the Christian Nationalists, then expect to see the nation slide toward something akin to The Handmaid’s Tale. If the democracy proponents prevail, then expect to see—at least for a while—severe restrictions on religious organizations, particularly evangelical. And, not surprisingly, full abortion rights will be restored.
And, finally—and most importantly—under either scenario, be certain that any chance for meaningful discussions and attempts at peaceful persuasion will be finished. Evangelicals will either be un-Christlike domineering rulers or an insignificant, despised tiny minority. Either way, Christian evangelism will be little more than a point of historical curiosity.