Something bothers me about this whole "you can't be pro-choice and Christian" argument.

A thread. F https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1336679437602054150

First of all, it fails the most obvious and perhaps important hurdle of the fact that there are literally millions of pro-choice Christians in the US alone https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/

In fact it should be noted that the ONLY group of Christians that are majority anti-choice are white Evangelicals.

Take note of the Catholic numbers, because I'll be coming back to that soon.

The problem I have is a theological one. Like all religions, there is no strict doctrinal disqualifier about who IS and ISN'T a Christian. "Christians", as a group, are wildly heterodox and you can find "a Christian" who believes in just about anything if you look hard enough.

Comparatively to other religions, you can broadly say that belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the sole literal incarnation of a literal monotheistic deity is the only thing that you MUST believe in order to qualify as "a Christian". Even then there are tons of exceptions.

There is no straight line you can draw from "Jesus is the son of Yahweh" that necessarily takes you to "women should not be allowed to terminate pregnancy". You have to make a BUNCH of extra-Biblical stops along the way to get there.

But there is one Christian faith tradition that technically DOES have a set of required dogma - things you MUST believe in to qualify.

It's those rascal Catholics. Told you I was coming back to them.

There is literally a big book of things that Catholics are required to believe in order to be "real Catholics", though obviously most Catholics don't bother with it.

Being anti-choice IS in that book. That is a canonical belief of the Roman Catholic church.

But when you poll American Catholics on abortion, a clear majority are on Team Fuck The Pope. And good for them.

There is no pope of the white Evangelical church. Just a bunch of self-styled liturgical leaders who have followings of varying size.

There is no Canon Law in the Evangelical tradition either. Just the opinions of the self-appointed leadership, which every Christian is free to accept or ignore based on their own interpretation of their religious beliefs.

So the idea that you MUST believe that abortion gives Yahweh sadragefeels is nonsense. It's literally just an opinion that is shared by a bunch of dudes who get paid to pretend that they are privy to the preferences of a powerful supernatural being.

The attempt to brand a distinctly American and distinctly white interpretation of Christianity as the "real" face of Christianity is obviously a play for cultural hegemony. It falls apart as profoundly false under even casual scrutiny.

Don't buy it.