Religious right leaders reckon with GOP pivot on abortion

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Since July, when the Republican National Committee dropped a federal abortion ban from its national platform, several traditional religious right leaders have suggested that they have been betrayed.

The Republican Party pivot has raised questions about whether evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics would support former President Donald Trump’s current campaign for the White House with the same vigor as in 2016 and 2020.

At the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, the religious right’s annual confab held in the first week of October, some speakers took the occasion to denounce the decision.

Robert P. George, a Princeton University legal scholar, called the disappearance of the anti-abortion plank in the party platform “tragic and disgraceful.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who founded the event as the Value Voter Summit in 2006 and is still its principal organizer, chided the RNC’s political expediency: “If (Democrats) are making this one of their top issues and the Republican response to it is crickets, well, it’s not going to motivate the base.”

But if they were upset by the RNC’s pivot this summer, by the time the summit was in session, many already had moved on to denial. Speaker after speaker invoked Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, as a triumph that resulted in effectively banning most or all abortions in more than 20 states.

Others simply dismissed the notion that Trump planned to soften on abortion if he returns to office. Janet Durig, executive director of the anti-abortion Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, asserted during a panel titled “Kamala Harris’s Attack on Life and the Family” that a new Trump administration “would be pro-life.”

“We are making progress,” said Ben Carson, pleading with anti-abortion voters to stop fighting amongst themselves.

California pastor and radio host Jack Hibbs stated plainly: “I want someone in the White House who will save more babies’ lives than Kamala Harris. There’s no doubt about that. I’m voting for Donald Trump.”

Transgender identity eclipses abortion at  event

The conference organizers also showcased other issues that would rally evangelical Christians to Trump. Particularly salient was the issue of transgender identity, which at Pray Vote Stand eclipsed even abortion as the next big front in the culture wars.

Panels at the conference included “What’s Really Behind the Transgender Movement,” “Protecting America’s Daughters: Title IX and the Fight for Fairness” and “How the Biden-Harris Administration Is Eliminating Parental Consent for Children’s Health Care.”

Outlawed in more than 25 states, transgender medical interventions for minors remain extremely rare, but at Pray Vote Stand, the issue was a springboard for outrage. Nearly every speaker hit on the theme, often casting the practice as a specifically anti-Christian conspiracy.

“The trans movement is about erasing a family union, which is meant to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” declared Jennifer Bauwens, director of the Center for Family Studies, in one panel.

The issue was often framed as a new front in the fight against abortion. Cissie Graham Lynch, daughter of the evangelist Franklin Graham, said, “The Biden-Harris government oppresses and destroys life,” and the Democratic Party “encourages children to question their God-given gender … has a zeal for abortion.”

The Christian nationalist idea of religious liberty was another prominent cause. And the good news for several of its champions was that, regardless of the upcoming election’s outcome, their agenda is sure to advance due to the current makeup of the Supreme Court.

Texas lawyer touts David Barton’s brand of history

Matt Krause, a former Texas state representative and now an attorney with the Christian legal nonprofit First Liberty Institute, said, “I think we have a great story to tell about restoring faith in America.”

That story, as Krause tells it, begins with what he called the big lie of separation of church and state. He regaled his audience at Pray Vote Stand with a version of history familiar to anyone who knows the work of the Christian nationalist historian David Barton.

From Thomas Jefferson to the present day, the establishment clause of the Constitution has been misinterpreted,  Krause insisted, and judicial decisions from the 1940s to the 1960s bolstering it were “erroneous rulings.”

Krause related a string of successes First Liberty Institute and its fellow travelers in the right-wing legal ecosphere have had in getting their cases before the Supreme Court.

“We’ve had four cases at the Supreme Court in the past 20 months,” he said. “Our religious liberty rights are being restored at an incredible pace.”

The goal, Krause said, is to impose Christian religious symbols and ideas wherever possible in the public sphere.

“Restoring faith in America could mean restoring the Ten Commandments and cross displays. Where they have been taken down they can go back up,” he said.

Krause advocated for direct religious involvement in public schools and sectarian invocations for city councils, school boards and state legislatures.

“What is the new test at the Supreme Court? History and tradition, right?” he asked, referring to a key phrase in the Dobbs decision. “And there’s nothing more historical or traditional than the Ten Commandments.”

Call for political engagement

At a breakout session on “Running for Office and Engaging Your Community,” Aamon Ross, founder of a video podcast called “Kingdom in Politics,” said, “We should think of government as the next big mission field.”

The 2020 election, according to the speakers, validated these schemes. They also maintained Trump won the 2020 election and had it stolen out from under him.

“I believe 2020 awoke a sleeping giant. People like me got involved in election litigation. Get into the fight,” said Mike Berry, executive director of the Center for Litigation at the America First Policy Institute, in a panel on “The 2024 Election: What You Should Know and How To Engage.”

Berry explained how he worked with pro-Trump election board members in Georgia to require recount procedures involving hand recounts prior to certification of the results.

His proposed rules are regarded by many experts as an attempt to disrupt the election procedures, and a Georgia judge ruled they are “unconstitutional, illegal and void.”

“The other side made it a crime to engage in intimidating or harassing behavior,” he scoffed. “We need to be able to fully exercise our First Amendment rights on November 5.”

Conspiracy theory promoted

The menace of a “One World Government”—which purportedly will be imposed on God-fearing Americans by means of a conspiracy between the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization—was the subject of a panel titled “A Conversation About Global Governance and the WHO.”

Perkins asked, “Was COVID-19 a test of global governance?”

Travis Weber, vice-president for policy and government affairs for the Family Research Council, responded,: “Yes!”

He continued by saying, “The forces that humankind has created, Tower of Babel-like, are leading us to an ability to create a system of even tighter control and quicker response.”

Gabe Lyons, founder and President of THINKQ, emphasized the importance of resisting global control in areas such as digital currency, expressing his belief that “this nation is the one nation to resist this.” He stressed that engagement with local leaders, including congressmen and county sheriffs, can both build trust and impact resistance at higher levels of government.

The remedy for many of the ills identified at Pray Vote Stand was to get out the conservative Christian vote. A particularly telling exchange toward the end of Krause’s seminar on First Amendment jurisprudence concerned the use of churches to mobilize the base.

“I’m confused. Is the Johnson Amendment gone?” a woman asked Krause, referring to the IRS rule that prohibits charities from promoting political candidates.

Krause answered, “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” The audience laughed knowingly. “It’s supposed to be there, but nobody is ever prosecuted for it. Not one church has been prosecuted,” he said.

But if it were, he made clear, he’d be ready to take the case.

“So, if you want to be one of those pastors, call us,” he said. “That’d be a great test case, as well.”