The Abortion Debate, Heritage of Vietnam, and Journalistic Ignorance of Religion

Daniel Pulliam at GetReligion just nails it.

As the Economist wrote so eloquently this week (no link, sorry folks, I read this one while at the dentist and it’s blocked on their Web site), abortion in the United States remains a hot button issue precisely because there is no true debate on the issue. The issue of abortion is largely settled throughout most of the world (in favor with some restrictions), but in the U.S., the debate rages onward and has started to negatively impact our judicial system and take time away from other much more pressing issues that must be debated such as terrorism and a flu pandemic. And all because a few judges believed that the right to an abortion was akin to the right to vote. Clearly, the issue is not that simple.

In my opinion – and not mine alone – The Supreme Court started the Culture Wars by arrogating to itself the power to decide the constitutionality of abortion. This, along with LBJ’s arrogation of the power to start a war, account’s for most of the bitterness in our current political climate. The remainder is due to the fact that The mainstream press “just doesn’t get religion”.