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Follow those Bishops!

The American Prospect reports that American Evangelicals are creeping toward adopting the Catholic Church's position on birth control. The writer, Amelia Thomson-Deveaux, speculate that should the Evangelical leaders go that route, that they may be able to herd their flocks more effectively than have the Bishops:

Given its pervasive use, it will be much more difficult to convince evangelicals that contraception carries as much of a moral stain as abortion. But if more evangelical leaders begin to conclude that birth control does, indeed, violate the “culture of life,” they may have a more receptive audience than their Catholic counterparts. American Catholics routinely ignore doctrinal commands; majorities favor abortion and gay marriage. But right-leaning evangelicals are primed, after years of anti-abortion activism, to reconsider the uncertain boundaries about where life begins. A small but vocal minority of evangelicals could turn contraception from a foregone conclusion into a potent political force.

via The American Prospect

Well, it's quite true that Catholics have a long and (I would say) proud history of ignoring the absurd dictates of the (alleged) celibates that lay down the law. But I would argue that in the end, evangelicals will be no different. Believe it or not, and it's often hard to believe, at bottom they are people too. It's easy enough to condemn abortion, because for the most part it's not your ox being gored, and, if push comes to shove you can put aside your scruples when it suits your purpose, have an abortion, and then return to the fold. After all, it's not like you have an abortion every day.

But you do take the pill every day. The same financial and social pressures that cause Catholics to ignore the Bishops will, eventually and fairly quickly, lead to the same result among the Evangelicals. I'd argue that the Evangelicals are playing with fire by even thinking about coming out against the pill. Catholics are perfectly comfortable ignoring the Bishops about birth control, but they don't stop there. They ignore them (probably were before birth control was legal) about divorce and about sundry other issues. Most importantly, they care not a whit how the Bishops want them to vote. The end result has been a loss of moral authority so far as the Bishops are concerned. If the Evangelical Bishop-equivalents make demands upon their flock that the flock resists, they too will lose the moral authority they currently, and inexplicably, exercise over their flocks, including their current ability to get them to consistently vote against their own interests. (And here, I must pause to beg pardon of the four legged sheep for comparing them to Evangelicals. ) This will be especially true among the lambs, as they enter their child bearing years. Like all the other young people in this country, they are facing incredible odds trying to make it financially, and having families of eight or nine children (or sexless lives) imposed upon them by the people who live comfortably off their tithes will not sit well for long. They will drift away, and we'll all be better off. So, here's hoping the Evangelicals will follow the Bishops down the path to irrelevance.

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