Living things don’t stay still. They grow and ramify. Virtue becomes more itself. Evil becomes more complex and tangled. And heresy has the weird tendency to mutate into its own opposite over time.
Take, for instance, that portion of the prolife movement (alas, the majority of it) that is now the MAGA “prolife” heresy.
You see, there are two kinds of prolife people. The minority in the US are those who endorse and live by a Consistent Life Ethic and who defend the dignity of all human life from conception to natural death. They try to live out the teachings of the gospel, not only when it comes to not killing people, but with respect to such things as consequentialism (that is, the ancient gospel teaching that “You shall not do evil that good may come of it.”)
For this reason, such people in the prolife movement have been critical of the Liars for Jesus approach to things like Live Action sting videos, and James O’Keefe’s consistently dishonest “guerrilla journalism”.
Now about 12 years ago, that stuff became all the rage with the larval MAGA types who, in contrast to the Consistent Life Ethic types, dominate the subculture that identifies as “prolife”. That majority, preferring what they imagined would be the quick and dirty route to “victory”, would go on to sell their souls to Donald Trump when he led them to an exceeding high mountain, promised them all the kingdoms of the Earth, and they bowed down and worshipped him.
And so, the air was increasingly filled with cries of denunciation from the great majority of the “prolife” movement, who rejected with more and more force the Consistent Life Ethic minority and the proposition that you shall not do evil that good may come of it.
Lying for Jesus, according to them, made them the exact moral equivalents of the Dutch who hid Jews in their attics. They were freaking heroes for adopting a lifestyle of lying and deception that good might come of it. To oppose them was not only to be a “babykiller”, but a friend of the Gestapo rounding up Jews (according to them). Nothing, including the gospel itself, was more important than attainment of the goal owning the libs and winning GOP power by any means necessary because only then could abortion be magicked away. So the Noble Lie was enshrined as part of the ethos of the MAGA “prolife” subculture.
And so, the MAGA “prolife” movement chose to make its obsession with winning at any cost an idol. They lied that a self-confessed sex predator was exactly like King David (thereby denying the dignity of victims of sexual assault). They cheered for torture to keep their skins safe at any cost because the GOP told them to. (“Waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists,” said Sarah Palin in her bizarre Christian code to fellow right wingers. And Raymond Arroyo famously invited guests on to his show to tell Good White Catholics the lie that the grave intrinsic sin of torture was peachy.)
When their orange messiah mocked the disabled, the “prolife” MAGA cult defended him from the hurt and outrage of the disabled community, thereby telling the disabled that the sanctity of life did not extend to them and that we had to keep our Eyes on the Prize of Power even if it meant selling the disabled down the river that good may come of it.
When refugees were rejected as “illegals” the MAGA “prolife” movement made clear that it no longer believed that human rights come from the hand of God, but from the generosity of the state. Take that JFK! Another liberal owned!
When slaughter after slaughter of children in schools occurred, the MAGA “prolife” movement committed itself body and soul to the spectacularly transparent sleight of hand whereby they lied that “we have to keep the focus on abortion, which is non-negotiable and not get distracted by lesser issues” while in fact devoting their time and energy to defending the arms industry and the Gun Cult (thereby ensuring that gun violence would be the #1 cause of childhood death in the US). And so, increasingly, the unborn became, in actual fact, human shields for the acquisition and defense of nihilist GOP power.
When the Church called for the abolition of the death penalty, MAGA “prolife” propagandists lied that we were free as Catholics to fight the Church and labor to make sure that four innocents on death row should be offered as human sacrifices so that 96 people on death row could be unnecessarily put to death. Because unit cohesion with the GOP must be maintained even if it meant defying the Church.
When a man was murdered in cold blood by the cops, MAGA “prolife” leader Austin Ruse earned his six figure pieces of silver by pointing and laughing at the victim, making clear that All Lives Matter But Some Lives Matter More Than Others:
When Consistent Ethic of Life folk pointed out that the actual prolife ethos says that both mother and child’s lives are to be cherished, MAGA “prolife” leader and Insurrectionist Abby Johnson made clear she had never even heard of the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant by leaping in to call for the execution of all post-abortive women not named “Abby Johnson”:
When Nazis marched under the banner of the swastika at Charlottesville and Trump called them “very fine people” the MAGA “prolife” movement told Consistent Life Ethic people that he was the Most Prolife President Ever and we have to support him anyway (thereby excluding the victims of the Shoah from the dignity of the human person). Indeed, the excuse-making for MAGA “prolife” fascination with Nazi flirtations has only grown and grown, so that the Cult has kind words to say for anybody who rubs their Precious Feet pin, even if they are literally Nazis. So MAGA “prolife” Catholic Paul Gosar can both promote Catholic Nazi Nick Fuentes and hire his disciples and still have the respect of “prolife” organizations.
And now, with the shameful help of
…the evolution of the “prolife” MAGA heresy into its own opposite grows exponentially as each and every one of these “prolife” heretics willingly gave their name and reputations to help platform and normalize E. Michael Jones at Coffin’s recent Hope is Fuel conference. To be extremely clear, they platformed and normalized this lie:
American writer E. Michael Jones said in an interview that was aired on Channel 4 (Iran) on January 21-22, 2023 that the narrative that the Jews were gassed in the Holocaust is a “conflation” of facts. He explained that in reality, the typhus-infested Jews who emigrated from “unhygienic” shtetls in Eastern Europe to America through Germany “had no idea what a shower was” and were made to take a shower and had their clothes deloused with Zyklon-B. He elaborated that as a consequence, Zyklon-B has been conflated with showers by the Jews. He said that Auschwitz had amenities such as a swimming pool, and that Hollywood is the “regime that rules America” and sustains the Holocaust “narrative”. He also said that saying the word “Jew” is taboo in America, but that this taboo is now being broken, and that the overturning of Roe vs. Wade is the beginning of the end of Jewish “hegemony” over American culture. He also said that the “fundamental problem” with American politics is that the Jews control both political parties.
This is in keeping with the increasing trend of MAGA “prolife” vice-signaling from Catholics such as this fine Ash Wednesday-flaunting specimen from Ohio who bids welcoming apologists for genocide iof Jews into the big happy family of American discourse.
And so in contrast to the Consistent Life Ethic, which continues to defend all human life from conception to natural death, it has only taken 12 years for the “prolife” heresy to mutate into its own opposite and go from “Let us lie our heads off to save the unborn because that makes us just like the Dutch saving Jews” to “Let us defend the lies of Holocaust Deniers like E. Michael Jones and treat defenses of the mass murder of Jews as acceptable.”
With the honorable exception of Consistent Life Ethic people, the “prolife” movement is a heresy that has mutated into its own opposite with shocking speed. It is a Cult of Lies and Death now, and needs to repent and be reconciled with God.
Advertisement
20 Responses
I wish there were more Consistent Life Ethic ppl in the Democratic party so important issues could be better addressed.
Agree
Fallacies galore. Claiming they want ‘A’ in order to get ‘B’, doesn’t address the possibility that they may want ‘A’ and ‘B’ because they both happen to be true.
Sprinkle in some ‘MAGA’ fear porn for good measure.
I’m jiggered if I can understand what A is in your mind, unless you think cruelty, Holocaust Denial, lies, and abuse are just as legit as respect for human life.
More fallacies: the ‘if-you-don’t-agree-with-me-you’re-a-Holocaust-denier’ fallacy.
Using examples from the article:
To say that in order to be pro-life, one must believe nations can’t have borders, or gun ownership is morally wrong, or the power of the state to use capital punishment is morally wrong.
No, you dishonest liar. If you deny the Holocaust, you are a Holocaust Denier. And if you are silent about Holocaust denial or, like you, brazenly lie about an obvious Holocaust denier while brandishing the unborn as human shields to pretend he is not a Holocaust denier, you are doing exactly what I describe. Now get off my blog.
Still jiggered?
@TN: What are ‘A’ and ‘B’ in your post above?
Two posts above. ^
Don’t forget the mad dash to execute as many people as possible in the waning days of the Trump administration, by a DOJ led by Catholic Bill Barr.
I think you have to add, I’m sorry to say, Catholic Answers. Jimmy Akin and Trent Horn say the Pope’s teaching on the death penalty is not binding on Catholics.
@TN – well, you didn’t say what A and B are in any posts above. You only said that both A an B might be true – but so far your A and B have no content.
Well said, Mark!
You rightly call out extreme elements in the American pro-life movement (for example, antisemitism and Holocaust denial are atrocious lies that must be confronted and condemned). But I think you paint too broad a brush of the pro-life movement in the USA. Respectfully, you should be more accurate in your language. What you’re describing are extreme portions (I think the minority) of the American pro-life movement. You rightly highlight and condemn fringe extremists, but you ignore the many good people doing excellent and compassionate work. Moreover, the pro-life movement exists world wide and is very different than its US counterpart. For example, most pro-lifers I know support public healthcare and generous public programs to help those in need.
No. I do not. I clearly distinguish between Consistent Life Ethic people and the monstrous selfish freak show that has weaponized the unborn into human shields for their own sociopathic selfishness. Enough with the self-pity. Confront the problem.
I wrote to you politely. I don’t know why your response needs to be so aggressive. Perhaps you need to define your terms more clearly. There is no self pity here. As for “confronting the problem”. I agreed with you that such extreme views need to be confronted and condemned. Take care of yourself. I hope you find peace.
I respond as I do because I have heard this false claim a thousand times. I absolutely did not “paint with a broad brush”. Meanwhile, the MAGA “prolife” cult has, with a brush a three thousand miles wide, declared times without number that to so much as question them is to be a “babykiller”. Confront the real problem and stop parroting the falsehoods of a cult that is now the backbone of the gravest domestic terror threat–the GOP–since the Confederacy.
I didn’t parrot anything. I clearly agreed with you that extreme and hateful views should be condemned and confronted. The actions and attitudes described in your post are both unacceptable and wrong. There is no room for them anywhere (especially Catholic pro-life circles). And in most places those attitudes aren’t welcomed or accepted.
It should be noted though that the extreme parts of the American pro-life movement are just that…extreme and American. They don’t represent the whole (I know that’s hard for many Americans to grasp).
I’m not an American nor do I live in the USA nor would I like to. Your problems are YOURS to confront and solve my friend. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that what happens in the USA happens everywhere else.
You parrotted the “broad brush” claim prolifers always make when they seek to deflect from the problem of prolifers who constantly use the unborn as human shields for the evils the MAGA cult love to commit. Confront the problem instead of complaining that people see it.
The extreme parts of the prolife movement are *mainstream* and are the backbone of the GOP, providing continual aid and comfort to the gravest domestic terror organization since the Confederacy and *constantly* stigamatizing the minority of Consistent Life Ethic people. Face that fact.