President of National Action Network and MSNBC PoliticsNation host Al Sharpton joined Chris Jansing Reports on Thursday to discuss abortion and religion. Sharpton didn’t understand how one could be a good Christian and be pro-life because, according to him, “the Bible is about choice.”
Jansing led Sharpton with some polling data, “there was a Gallup poll back, I think it was the fall of 2020 showing the black committee has slowly become more accepting of abortion over the past couple of decades, but there are deeply held religious beliefs playing into this, especially with older black voters who are incredibly reliable and incredibly important to Democrats. So, how should Democrats be thinking about this? Because obviously they want and need to hold onto those voters.”
Sharpton urged Democrats to “message it in a way that it is about choice. It’s not about saying I’m voting that I support abortion or not.”
For Sharpton, the choice is not between abortion and no abortion, but “whether they’re going to have a safe abortion. We always had abortions, but we had these back alley, very risky abortions and we’re saying that rather than have people in those situations, they should be able to choose whether or not they want to do, even if it is something that I do not believe in.”
Turning to the religious question, Sharpton claimed, “The Bible, if you’re using this as a religious argument, the Bible is about choice. You can go to heaven or hell. There’s nowhere in the Bible that says you had to go to heaven.”
One hopes that when presenting the question of heaven and hell to his congregation, Sharpton does not go full relativist as he did here. The man who goes around portraying himself as a civil rights leader also failed to realize that owning slaves was also once considered a perfectly normal and legal choice.
Blind to that, Sharpton continued, “So, where do we get this theology of forcing something when the reality is you can’t even Biblically base that. It’s a question of choice. If you are a minister, as I am, you can preach to people to convert them, you do not make laws to compel them.”
The doctrine of free will means that God is not a puppet master. It does not mean that government is forced to embrace the hellish side of the question, especially when it means the rights of a second individual are being taken away.
This segment was sponsored by Google.
Here is a transcript for the August 4 show:
MSNBC Chris Jansing Reports
8/4/2022
1:46 PM ET
CHRIS JANSING: And in fact, much in the same way, Rev., there was a Gallup poll back, I think it was the fall of 2020 showing the black committee has slowly become more accepting of abortion over the past couple of decades, but there are deeply held religious beliefs playing into this, especially with older black voters who are incredibly reliable and incredibly important to Democrats. So, how should Democrats be thinking about this? Because obviously they want and need to hold onto those voters.
AL SHARPTON: I think that they must message it in a way that it is about choice. It’s not about saying I’m voting that I support abortion or not. It’s about I support people having the right to choose because we’re not talking particularly in the black committee, and I would say large portions of the Latino community, you’re not talking about whether or not people are going to have an abortion, you’re talking about whether they’re going to have a safe abortion. We always had abortions, but we had these back alley, very risky abortions and we’re saying that rather than have people in those situations, they should be able to choose whether or not they want to do, even if it is something that I do not believe in.
The Bible, if you’re using this as a religious argument, the Bible is about choice. You can go to heaven or hell. There’s nowhere in the Bible that says you had to go to heaven. So, where do we get this theology of forcing something when the reality is you can’t even Biblically base that. It’s a question of choice.
If you are a minister, as I am, you can preach to people to convert them, you do not make laws to compel them.