For decades, the Republican Party has garnered significant support from evangelical Christians by positioning itself as the champion of pro-life values. This alignment stems from a shared commitment to opposing abortion and advocating for policies that uphold the sanctity of life, a core tenet of evangelical belief.  However, recent shifts in the Republican party have highlighted how the pro-life cause has been manipulated for partisan gain, often at the expense of its foundational principles, compromising the integrity of the movement and contributing to the broader divisiveness seen in American politics today. 

In this episode of the Good Faith Podcast, Curtis is joined again by Pete Wehner to examine how the intersection of the political pro-life movement with evangelical support has been distorted in recent years, especially in relation to the upcoming presidential election. Chang and Wehner critique the way pro-life values have been leveraged not only to influence policy, but to consolidate political power, diverting the pro-life movement from its original moral and ethical concerns into a more politically expedient position.

Viewing the issue through an Old Testament framework of the offices of “prophet, priest, and king,” this episode serves as a call to rethink how pro-life values can be lived out in a way that is faithful to their moral and ethical origins, rather than being subsumed into the often turbulent and divisive world of contemporary politics. For Christians grappling with these issues, it’s a reminder that integrating faith with social engagement requires both thoughtful reflection and a commitment to authenticity and justice.

This excerpt has been edited for length and clarity.

Pete Wehner: If you think that “if I vote for Donald Trump, I’m voting for fewer abortions. And if I’m voting for a Democrat for president, I’m voting for more abortions.” That’s just not empirically true. The number of abortions under Donald Trump went up 8%. The number of abortions during the two terms of Barack Obama declined by 28%.

What Donald Trump has done is he’s basically turned the Republican party into a pro -choice party, more or less. He certainly weakened its commitment to the pro -life cause. And that is something that no Democrat ever could have done.

Laws matter, and Christians have every right to try and leave their imprimatur on laws because Christianity in the end cares about justice. And that’s one of the ways that justice is achieved or justice is impeded. So that stuff matters. But you really do need discernment.

Christians are always being watched in these efforts. And I don’t think that there’s any question right now that the way in which an awful lot of people in the evangelical world, and Christians more broadly, have engaged in politics and culture has done a profound disservice to the Christian faith. It’s just turned off a lot of people. They see the harshness, they see the hypocrisy, they see the cynicism, they see the kind of will-to-power ethic that takes over when they feel like that they want to get their person, their candidate, or their cause into effect. And all of sudden the fruit of the spirit gets inverted, and that needs to stop.