Contraception and Christian Women are “Complicated”?

Over the weekend, a back-and-forth Twitter debate erupted between our friends Jonathan Merritt with Religion News Service, Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) Greg Scott, and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Matthew Hawkins.  What were these gentlemen in the Twitterverse arguing over? Birth control.

The debate began soon after Jonathan Merritt published his latest (and curiously slanted) report, “Hobby Lobby, Christian Women, and Contraception: More Complicated than You Might Think.”

Genuine points were raised and good intentions abounded in his article. It’s just too bad that there are several contraception issues Merritt refused to acknowledge, including and beyond threats to American’s religious liberty. It’s not complicated, but the Christian Left refuses to talk about the real issues plaguing contraception, Christian women, and social justice

In his piece, Merritt reported that of 1,009 Americans polled by the Public Religion Research Institute, “60 percent of Christian women agree ‘all employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception or birth control at no cost.”  Based on this poll, Merritt deduces that the majority of America’s Christian women do not support Hobby Lobby’s legal struggle for religious exemption under the President’s mandated healthcare law.

On its face the poll appears straightforward.  However, Greg Scott pointed out that it is actually from 2012 and irrelevant in its application to Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby because it does not address the federal government forcing faithful employers to denounce their convictions over controversial contraception and abortifacients.

Merritt insisted that he was merely, “presenting others’ opinions in this article, not mine.” True. But as Matthew Hawkins noted, Merritt presented only “one side” and questioned whether or not Merritt intends to present opinions from the other side.

You see, Merritt did include the perspective of two women (an outlook a few of my more conservative colleagues tend to overlook when confronting the contraception debate).  Unfortunately, Merritt opted to highlight only the opinions of notably rogue liberal Catholic Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of the liberal lobby group NETWORK, and admittedly left-leaning Amy Butler, pastor of Washington D.C.’s Calvary Baptist Church.

Hardly offering the perspectives of devout evangelical and Catholic women, the two ladies offered over the typical liberal talking points.  Butler’s distorted social justice theology glowed clearly in her statement, “Women have been on the losing side of this issue for most of the 20^th century. Restricting contraception hurts women, and it hurts poor women.”  Butler continued with an exaggerated accusation, “Many Christians, and evangelicals in particular, are pre-occupied with issues related to sex and not concerned enough with issues of justice and poverty and loving our neighbors and other issues Jesus asked us to care about.”

Also out of touch with the federal religious freedom issue at hand, Sister Campbell offered, “If an employee needs to worry about the conscience of their employer, that creates marketplace chaos.”

The Christian Left consistently refuses to acknowledge their fellow brothers and sisters’ concerns over threats to religious freedom.  Instead, they shine the spotlight on distorted social justice for the sake of free birth control, as if this is the only issue Christian women – or any woman – are concerned.

Butler, Campbell and seemingly Merritt, may thwart the religious freedom point.  But praise God that more Christian women, prompted by the Hobby Lobby case, are starting to recognize that the so-called “benefits” of birth control do not outweigh the enormous harms involved – including spiritual, physical and social risks which I outlined in my former Christian Post op-ed, “An Evangelical Woman’s Response to the ‘Unease Over Contraception.’” (Click here to read it.)

Christian women are concerned about government mandates that force employers to betray their religious beliefs.  But if the Christian Left doesn’t want to face the contraception issue dead on and consistently skips around the issues of hampered religious liberty, then let us engage in their dance around faith, culture and Christian women.

It’s not complicated when it comes to Christian women, contraception, and social justice. Traditional Christian women (and men) care that contraception has serious, even deadly side effects for women.  We care that the birth control industry was put into motion by Margaret Sanger, a professing racist eugenicist bigot, if there ever was one.  We care that abortifacients and so-called emergency contraception like Plan B, a.k.a. the morning-after pill, destroy innocent unborn life.  We care that studies abroad consistently confirm that widely available tax-payer provided contraception does not facilitate a decrease in abortion.  Christian women care about social justice enough to reject easy access for pimps and johns dehumanizing and objectifying trafficked teenage girls who don’t know how to cry out for help.

Let’s start talking about contraception, Christian women, and social justice if too many refuse to talk about the federal threats to religious liberty.  We can call it “anti-contraception gender equality justice” if that will help rally the liberal troops.  Who’s up for that challenge?