In an open letter released Sunday, Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden urged him to "honor his commitment" and include the Hyde Amendment in the Democrat's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending package, writing: "We feel used and betrayed."
Are they really surprised? Did they really expect Biden to keep a promise that would conflict with Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Kamala Harris, and Biden's lifelong political party?
Deception.
Be informed, not misled.
In their letter the organization, "Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden," not only expressed disappointment in Biden's actions now that he's elected, but surprised...and of course, "disappointed."
The letter says in part:
"We were very disappointed about the COVID-19 relief package's exclusion of the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding bipartisan policy that prevents taxpayer funding for abortion. We're even more upset that the Biden administration is supporting this bill. As pro-life leaders in the evangelical community, we publicly supported President Biden's candidacy with the understanding there would be engagement [with] us on the issue of abortion and particularly the Hyde Amendment...We feel used and betrayed and have no intention of simply watching these kinds of efforts happen from the sidelines."
Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden: “We feel used and betrayed.” pic.twitter.com/63lWYu0IeU
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 7, 2021
What were these "evangelicals" thinking?
During an Atlanta Democratic National event in 2019, Biden announced that he no longer supported the Hyde Amendment---which has been included on a bipartisan basis in federal spending bills since 1976.
As noted, it restricts federal taxpayer dollars from funding most abortions.
At that time Joe Biden said, "If I believe healthcare is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's zip code."
An ACLU volunteer asked Biden whether he, as president, would lift the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal insurance coverage of abortion.
He responded, "Yes."
It's true, for many years Biden had supported the Hyde Amendment, including in his book, "Promises To Keep," where he claimed, "I've stuck to the middle of the road position on abortion for more than 30 years."
What is the "middle of the road" on abortion? Would it be 400,000 abortions rather than 800,000 abortions?
His most recent explanation is, "I still vote against partial-birth abortion."
If you kill an unwanted child in the womb, it's a "right," but if you kill the same child outside the womb, it's wrong---so goes the thinking of the radical so-called progressives.
So what were these 5000 self-proclaimed evangelicals, some with considerable influence, thinking as they fanned across the country using that influence to entice other evangelicals to join them in supporting Joe Biden?
Here's how they explained it: "We disagree with Vice President Biden and the Democratic platform on the issue of abortion," but claimed, "Joe Biden's policies are more consistent with the biblically shaped ethic of life than those of Donald Trump."
These explanations were being made while Jill Biden's former husband was explaining to the press how his then-wife Jill, some years earlier, was having an affair with Sen Joe Biden while the husband thought she was working on his Senate reelection campaign.
It's about the policies, not the personal behavior.
These disappointed and betrayed evangelicals, finally admit what their support for Biden was really about.
They explained:
"Knowing that the most common reason women give for abortion is the financial difficulty of another child, we appreciate a number of Democratic proposals that would significantly alleviate that financial burden."
And those proposals to a one involved expanding government under the guise of "alleviating poverty."
"For these reasons," they claimed, "we believe on balance, Joe Biden's policies are more consistent with the biblically shaped ethic of life than those of Donald Trump. Therefore we urge evangelicals to elect Joe Biden as president."
On the other hand, millions of evangelicals voted for Trump, in spite of his personal failures, because of his policy promises regarding judicial appointments, pro-life policies, pro-family policies, and religious freedom policies.
Flawed as he may be, he kept his word to evangelicals---by all accounts.
It's really about one's worldview.
John Nolte, a journalist for Breitbart News who to my knowledge has never claimed to be an evangelical Christian, noted in his article about this, that "these people believe a big part of being pro-life is backing the welfare state."
He's right. They do.
It's interesting that Nolte has a better grip on the realities of this than the professing "Christian left."
He says, "If you believe poverty is causing abortions, you should oppose the welfare state not call for it to expand."
And he says:
"It is the welfare state that is taking the place of the father, and therefore a stable family, that is directly responsible for the surge on unwed mothers since the failed Great Society was instituted. And it is the demonic welfare state that causes poverty in a fabulously rich country where the fastest way out of poverty is through marriage."
And he concludes with this: "Lunatics."
Takeaway.
It was not Shakespeare who is often credited, it was Sir Walter Scott who wrote, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive."
The quote is from Scott's poem "Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field." It's a historical romance in verse, published in 1808. It tells the tale of how one of Henry VIII's courtiers, Lord Marmion, pursues his lust for a rich woman, Clara Clare. He and his mistress, a delinquent nun, Constance De Beverley, devise a scheme to implicate Clara's fiance in treason. It becomes chaotic and although Marmion appears to have won by defeating Clara's fiance in a duel, Clara retires to a convent rather than endure his attentions.
The left---secular or religious---is caught in a web of ever-changing "truth," because they deny absolute or fixed truth.
The great dilemma then for the religious left is to attempt to reconcile Scripture to the ever-changing "truths" of the left.
The leaders of this Evangelicals for Biden group are also among those who have reconsidered marriage as only between one man and one woman---because "love wins," and now the issue of abortion has fallen on their shoulders.
Sir Walter Scott was telling his readers that when we lie and act dishonestly, we are initiating problems and a domino structure of complications.
The Bible puts it like this: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.