I remember when I was in 5^th grade Jimmy Carter had won the election, famously describing himself as a “born again” Christian. He was a Democrat, as were many White Evangelicals. Abortion was a Catholic issue, part of their pro-life stance that opposed everything from contraception to right wing dictators in Latin America. In the aftermath of Roe v Wade, the Southern Baptists issued resolutions repeatedly thru 1979 affirming a nuanced view of abortion. “Be it further RESOLVED,” they wrote, “That we call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”

Then something happened. Jerry Falwell created the Moral Majority and a host of other White Evangelical leaders made a deal with the devil, the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan would be their savior, abortion would be THE ISSUE. The rationale was slim — abortion is not directly mentioned in the Bible. And the argument was based on compassion, not really a core component of the Republican Party platform. White Evangelicals would embrace the entire Republican Party platform – the white supremacy (which was a no-brainer for those in the South; they were already there), lower taxes, gun rights, support for US imperialism overseas, even support for the Contras to fight communism. It was obvious that abortion was just an opiate for the masses, a way to get poor white people to vote against their interests. Flags were wrapped around crosses on pulpits. White Evangelical churches, already racially segregated, became patriotic social clubs and nothing more.

I remember when I was in high school. I became “born again”. A nice man, a Bible study leader, bemoaned to me how, even though he was a lifelong Democrat, he had to vote for Ronald Reagan because of abortion. I remember, in my own White Evangelical church, a “study group” was created to “take back America”. There, in a multi-million-dollar home overlooking California suburbia, I was told that Martin Luther King was a Marxist-Leninist.

I remember when I was in my college Christian fellowship group. I was supporting Reagan. I was challenged that there was more than one issue at stake. The Contras were massacring villages. Bishop Tutu was calling for sanctions against his own country. I studied the life of Jesus, in depth, for four years. By the time I graduated, I was working for the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign.

I watched, decade after decade, as White Evangelicals joined ever more radical right wing causes to suppress immigrants, the poor, people of color, and any other marginalized people. These are the very people Jesus gave priority to, the very people that Christians should be advocates for. We all saw the hypocrisy; there are thousands of memes. You could tell they were Christians by their hate. But, in the absence of any real mission in life, White Evangelicals created targets. First it was communists, then gays, then Muslims. While real people needed real help, they were demonizing Michael Jackson, Magic Johnson, the Smurfs, Harry Potter, and Sponge-Bob.

I watched, no longer surprised, when they embraced Donald Trump, one of the most vile, repulsive and un-Christian men in the world, with the tortured logic that “God used Cyrus”. Never mind that Cyrus was oppressing thousands. I read that, when Hitler took power in Germany, church attendance increased 30%. They supported him so much that he grew concerned about their prominence and ordered them to remove swastikas from their pulpits.

Today I know the right to legal abortion is about a lot more than abortion. The Netherlands, with very progressive policies on sex education and contraception, has the lowest abortion rates in the world – lower than in other nations that totally outlaw abortion. Furthermore, abortion thru medication is more and more available every day. This is about – this has always been about – the control of women, and especially the control of their daughters, and a way to marry the White Evangelical church to patriotism, nationalism, and a host of otherwise un-Christlike causes. Their church has been bought.