Source: https://albertmohler.com/2018/01/22/briefing-1-22-18/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 12:53:19+00:00

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It’s Monday, January 22, 2018. I’m Albert Mohler and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.
Today we’ll see that the political game is at a fever pitch with a limited government shutdown, we’ll see women march in cities across the United States and a record number indicate they're going to run for office, on the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade we’ll look anew at the challenge we face, we’ll also see why the pro-life movement is now very much on the defensive, we’ll see science give a boost to the pro-life movement and the president of the United States address the March for Life.
Well it's been an interesting weekend. At 12:00 AM on Saturday morning, the United States government entered into what is politically described as a limited government shutdown. Now as oxymoronic as all of that might sound, it's very limited and it is the government and it is to some degree a shut down. But it also is an inherently political process, and that's really what we're watching here, we are watching a manufactured crisis, a crisis manufactured in part by both parties, a crisis that is set in advance by deadlines adopted by Congress that require further authorization for federal spending. There's an additional tripwire that Congress had set up in terms of the debt limit, or the debt ceiling as it is called. But as we’re thinking about this particular limited government shutdown and the failure of the United States Congress to come to a resolution and an agreement with the president of the United States, we’re looking at a high-stakes political game, or at least it should be a high-stakes political game. Both parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, are counting on the other party getting the blame, and they are also counting on the fact that if they do get the blame, their own party, the voters will have forgotten this particular crisis by the time the midterm elections come around later this year in November. It's a moment of political risk for all parties involved, and that includes the president of the United States, and this is the first time that the government has experienced this kind of partial shutdown when one party is in control of both the White House and both houses of Congress. But this is where we need to look a little more closely because the Republican majority in the House of Representatives has been unusually unified; the house has adopted the measure that would have extended government funding and avoided the shut down. The political shut down in this sense took place in the United States Senate. It's a very different game there. In the House of Representatives, all that is needed in the end is a majority, but in the Senate 60 votes are required for what's defined as cloture, a sufficient super majority to move the matter to the floor, which is 51 Republican senators, that's a very thin majority and not nearly enough for Republicans to move forward alone, some kind of bipartisan solution will eventually have to be found and it may be that as many as 10 to 12 Democratic senators will have to vote with the Republican majority or with the majority of the Republican majority in order to achieve a way beyond the impasse. But in the last 48 hours, we have seen some very interesting legislative leadership in the United States Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell presented to the Democrats a House bill that involves nothing, in general terms, that Democrats have not both historically and even recently supported. Most importantly this included continuing funding for CHIP, that's the Children's Health Insurance Program, about a six year extension. That's tantalizing for Democrats and yet they have thus far voted it down. Why? It is because the majority of Democrats, and now the Democratic leadership in the Senate under a good deal of pressure from the left-wing of its party and also from younger activists, has decided that the line in the sand is not the Children's Health Insurance Program nor the federal government and a limited government shutdown but rather DACA, the dreamers and immigration.
Now as I have stated repeatedly on The Briefing, I believe it is the responsibility of both parties and of both chambers in Congress and of the president of the United States to achieve a legislative solution for the dreamers, as they are known; young immigrants who came to this country illegally, not by their own choice but by their parents, and who, by their very participation in the DACA program, they qualify for the kind of immigration we would want in this country. But that is the responsibility of Congress and the president, and I do not believe that it is most effectively going to be achieved by tying it to something like continued federal funding. In the give-and-take of politics, which is likely in this case to create yet another form of instability rather than stability. In any event, as of the last reckoning, we’re looking at another Senate vote at noon or as the Senate convenes at 10 o'clock more maneuvering that could lead to a vote even later or no vote at all. So the government of the United States is right now shut down or parts of it are shut down, the parts that are not shut down are those defined as essential government services, a phrase that in this context can only be expressed somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Next, January 20 marked the one year anniversary of the inauguration of Donald J Trump as president of the United States, and you'll recall that in response to the president’s inauguration hundreds of thousands of women in the United States marched, first of all in what was known as the Women's March on Washington but also in women's marches in other American cities. It spread into something of an international movement, we are told that on the one year anniversary women's marches occurred in cities including not only Washington, New York, and Chicago with many other American cities, but also world cities such as Osaka and Rome. I think it's rather risky and politically pernicious to enter into the game that appeals to so many to argue exactly how many participated in demonstration A or March B. The point is there's a general recognition that the numbers this year were significantly reduced from the numbers in 2017. I was a bit frustrated by the media coverage, which didn't seem to give adequate attention to the fact that there are now rival marches and rival organizations that in some form begin to mirror the fissures within American and international feminism. That fissure between an older vision of feminism rooted in a very strong understanding of womanhood and a younger, at this point, apparently ascendant version of feminism, which is more deeply rooted in something like the now very popular #MeToo movement. A movement that is not really about projecting strength but is about lamenting a society of female victimhood.
in the midterm elections. Now let's just think about that, that's 390, remember there are only 435 seats; that's an unprecedented number of women candidates. You should also note that some of those women are likely to be running against each other. The numbers tallied by Walsh also indicate that of the 390 women, 314 are Democrats and 184 those Democrats are running, they say, for seats currently held by Republicans.
But of course there was another very important march over the weekend, this also took place in Washington DC, and if you're looking at a clash of worldviews over the last several days that clash has been very graphically demonstrated in the clash and contrast of marches and marchers. I'm talking about the March for Life, which took place once again in Washington DC, very close to the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand in the United States. January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down that decision, and that means 45 years ago today. Today marks 45 years of legal abortion in all 50 states in the United States by edict of the United States Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court on a 7-2 vote. That appears to be overwhelming, but one of the most significant developments and realization that comes on the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is that the decision that abortion activists were certain would bring the debate to a conclusion did no such thing. Looking back at the Roe v. Wade decision later in his life, Justice Harry Blackmun, who wrote the majority opinion in the Roe decision, made clear that he thought the decision and his opinion had been constructed in such a way that it would convince Americans to settle the issue of abortion on the terms of the Roe decision and to move on. But America didn't move on. In one of the most remarkable political developments of the last century, the Roe v. Wade decision actually ignited a very powerful pro-life movement in America. A pro-life movement that is far more powerful in 2018, 45 years after Roe, than it was when Roe was handed down or when the process that brought about the Roe decision began in the late 1960s. Even in the late 1970s it looked like the abortion rights movement in America was on to the ascent, but as we now know in retrospect that was not the case.
The mobilization of pro-life conviction in the United States had a great deal to do with the election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States in the 1980 election, and it has since become the most reliable issue separating the two parties, to the extent now that when you look at the 2016 platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties you're looking at positions on abortion that are so contrasted and distinct it almost appears that they could not represent the same country. The Republican Party is now consistently pro-life in its platform and abortion is a central issue of Republican identity. The pro-life movement is so influential in the Republican Party, and it is unlikely that any candidate who would not be fully supportive of the pro-life cause could gain the nomination, a national nomination, in the Republican Party. On the other side of the equation, the Democratic Party has adopted a platform that not only support abortion under almost any conceivable circumstance but has gone so far recently as to demand an end to the Hyde Amendment and the resumption of federal taxpayer funding for abortion.
That 2013 article indicated that there have been several developments that have fueled the pro-life conviction and its growing influence in American life, especially at the state level in many of our states. The reasons come down to this: First of all, there has been a political mobilization, but secondly, there has been a discernible movement amongst the American people on the question of abortion, and at various times a bare majority of Americans have seemed to support abortion on demand or abortion on demand under certain circumstances or a vaguely defined pro-abortion or pro-choice position, as it might be styled, at other times the majority of Americans have indicated some form of a majority pro-life sentiment. That really points to the fact that Americans have a troubled conscience on abortion and an unsettled mind. One of the ways I might describe this is to say that in a culture that worships rights, what's styled as a right to an abortion starts out with a certain momentum, but pro-abortion activists have had to face the fact that when particulars are added to the equation, when the question is asked of Americans in such a way that they can limit abortion, a vast majority of Americans indicate a willingness to do just that. Make no mistake, a consistently pro-life position requires opposition not only to some abortions but to all abortions and beyond that a consistent pro-life ethic across other issues including euthanasia. But we also have to recognize that after Roe v. Wade it has been the pro-life movement, which has been able to chip away at existing abortion legislation in such a way as to argue for and at times achieve limitations and restrictions on abortion that have become increasingly plausible in subsequent Supreme Court decisions and in so doing have put the pro-abortion position very much on the defensive. And as this Time magazine article from 2013 indicated, this is a political vulnerability for the pro-abortion side because they are really forcing themselves into a position where they argue a consistently absolutist position, an absolutist position that is clearly not shared by a majority of Americans.
Now, the Green article goes on to say there's a split in the pro-life movement as to whether or not these scientific arguments should be used, but my responses to that is of course they should be used. The most fundamental opposition to abortion doesn't rest upon a scientific argument, but changing the moral intuition of Americans will be greatly aided by and for that matter fueled by what we now know, what we now know about the fetus, what we know and see in the developing fetus.
Well, Ms. Weddington, we are talking about it 45 years later, and we’re going to keep talking about it until we change the minds of a sufficient number of Americans that Americans will develop the moral intuition to protect life in the womb rather than to destroy it.
But Sarah Weddington is not the only American speaking to the issue of abortion near the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the president of the United States also spoke to the issue of abortion in an historic appearance by satellite transmission to the March for Life becoming the first president of the United States to do so.
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush had addressed to the group by telephone in previous years, but President Trump became the very first president to appear by live satellite transmission or webcast, and in so doing he put his administration even more publicly in support of the pro-life cause. This came a day after the Trump administration had handed down very important new guidelines preserving religious liberty in conscience in policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, we’ll look more closely at those developments tomorrow. In the meantime what's really important is to recognize that we’re living in one of the most fascinating times of human history. We’re living in a time when a president of the United States has appeared to the March for Life and given a very unequivocal voice of support for the pro-life cause nearly 45 years after the Supreme Court of the United States believed that the issue had by that very court been settled.
And as we’re thinking about a change in the American heart, mind, and intuition on abortion, President Donald Trump, just a matter of years ago, had described himself as very pro-choice, but now he can only be described in terms of his actions and statements as very pro-life. There is still much work to be done, especially the kind of work that can only be accomplished legislatively in support of human life, there is still much ground to be gained. Donald Trump is a very complex figure. I cannot dream of understanding exactly how he came from a pro-choice position to a pro-life position, but I do know this, he put himself very much on the line Friday in that webcast of the March for Life. He has also put himself and his administration on the line for the pro-life position in numerous executive orders and in developments just even the day before. I do know this, whatever happened in the thinking and in the heart and in the policies of Donald Trump over the last several years, is exactly what needs to happen amongst millions and millions of our fellow Americans. On the 45th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, let's acknowledge that's what we strive for, that’s what we hope for, that’s what we pray for, that's what we work for.

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