‘The atrocities that can be justified … are nearly limitless’

Last updated on: January 25, 2021 at 7:41 pm by Fred Clark

‘The atrocities that can be justified … are nearly limitless’ 2021-01-25T19:41:49-05:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jonathan Dudley writes about “How the Pro-Life Movement Gave Us Donald Trump — And Why It Could Bring Worse.”

That headline doesn’t capture the essence of Dudley’s piece, which is an honest, accurate, and empathetic effort to describe what the pro-life ideology requires of its adherents:

Pro-life organizations have spent decades declaiming that abortion is the mass killing of children and insisting that single-issue support for politicians who identify as pro-life can end or dramatically reduce it. If one believes these things, it’s unthinkable to not support the pro-life candidate in any political race.

… Many have asked how evangelicals could brush aside lying, bullying, adultery, and racism to support Trump. But when you consider how most evangelicals think about abortion, it’s not hard to understand. When you believe the other candidate supports the gruesome killing of hundreds of thousands of children per year, every other concern pales in comparison.

… If one wonders, Just how much could the movement tolerate in the name of advancing the pro-life cause? just ask, What is the moral equivalent to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands children per year? Ignoring a pandemic? Putting children in cages? Overturning an election? Violence against political opponents? Even these actions can be excused as paling in comparison to what the pro-life movement believes its opponents support.

Dudley recognizes that this is internally consistent — a conclusion that necessarily flows from the stated premises of the ideology. It is the logical conclusion of those premises. But also, he notes, “The atrocities that can be justified by the movement’s rigid logic are nearly limitless. Many politicians are keenly aware of this.”

This is the function of pro-life ideology: the nearly limitless justification of atrocities in pursuit of the superior moral claim and greater urgency of ending the murder of millions of innocent babies. Given its premises, this is what it must do.

That alone ought to give adherents of this ideology pause, not because their moral calculus — “saving babies from murder > atrocities X, Y, and Z” — is incorrect, but because this calculus needs to be applied so constantly and consistently. At some point, one would think, they would begin to wonder why it is that supporting the Good Side of that calculus always seems to require them to overlook, accept, and ingest a litany of atrocities that, while Not As Bad As the Holocaust of Satanic baby-killing, still seem like something an actual Good Side shouldn’t constantly be requiring them to endorse.

Of course, that all presumes something that Dudley is too circumspect to challenge: That the “saving babies from murder” premise of this ideology is an actual, good-faith belief. And it obviously is not that.

Yes, “obviously.” Because single-issue voting is not the only conclusion that logically or necessarily would have to flow from this premise if it were in good faith, yet none of the other necessary and logical conclusions ever do. This is evidence. And there’s a lot of it.

There’s a sense in which the dazzling nonsense of Q-Anon is more credible than the mainstream Satanic baby-killerism that it imitates. It bears the same false witness against its neighbors in support of the same political aims, but at least it also affords those neighbors the dignity of attempting to imagine some possible motives for their devotion to superlative evil. Yes, that leads Q-Anoners into all manner of baseless absurdities — “adenochrome,” witchcraft, “lizard people” — but it’s impossible to avoid such outlandish absurdities if one is to try to make sense of the initial claim.

• Speaking of a claim of moral superiority as license to justify a nearly limitless list of atrocities … “9,000 children died in Irish mother-and-baby homes, report finds.”

Some 9,000 children died in Ireland’s church-run homes for unwed mothers, a government report published on Tuesday found. This is equivalent to 15 percent of all children who were born or lived in the 18 institutions investigated over nearly 80 years.

The nearly 3,000-page report describes the emotional and even physical abuse some of the 56,000 unmarried mothers — from farmhands to domestic servants — were subjected to in the so-called mother-and-baby homes.

“It appears that there was little kindness shown to them and this was particularly the case when they were giving birth,” the report said.

… The report also noted the “appalling” rate of infant mortality in the homes, calling it “probably the most disquieting feature of these institutions.”

In the years before 1960, it said, mother-and-baby homes did not save the lives of “illegitimate” children — instead, they significantly reduced prospects of their survival.

… The mother-and-baby homes took in women, some as young as 12, who had become pregnant outside marriage — taboo in the conservative country — and were viewed as an attempt to preserve the country’s devout Catholic image. Now, the homes are a byword for a dark chapter in the nation’s history, say Irish politicians and survivors.

An amateur local historian, Catherine Corless, first shed light on the issue of maltreatment at the homes.

She discovered an unmarked mass graveyard at Tuam, in the western county of Galway, which prompted an investigation that uncovered the remains of at least 700 children buried from 1925 to 1961, a report found in 2017.

A lot of evidence.

Previous Post

January 23, 2021

Smart people saying smart things (1.23.21)

Next Post

January 26, 2021 Half of pastors say their congregations bear false witness against their neighbors

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who brought to Jesus the woman taken in adultery?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Apostles The Pharisees The Publicans The Disciples