Jimmy Carter’s pro-life rhetoric ‘a political decision,’ Baptist leaders say

LifeSiteNews: “I never have believed that Jesus Christ would approve of abortions,” Carter told talk show host Laura Ingraham, while promoting his new study Bible. “I’ve signed a public letter calling for the Democratic Party at the next convention to espouse my position on abortion which is to minimize the need…and limit it only to women whose life are in danger or who are pregnant as a result of rape or incest. I think if the Democratic Party would adopt that policy that would be acceptable to a lot of people who are now estranged from our party because of the abortion issue.”

The political context, and the shift in Carter’s views since leaving the presidency, have made Southern Baptist leaders question his sincerity. “What he’s doing is making a political calculation,” Dr. Richard Land, who has served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988, said the issue “is killing the Democrats in the South” and that “Jimmy understands this. He understands the reason they lost the South is not the civil rights movement; it’s the abortion movement. It isn’t a moral decision about abortion. This is a political decision.”