Mike Pence and "The Book": A master class in disingenuous biblical interpretation

[Eugene]

Source: Salon

Mike Pence and "The Book": A master class in disingenuous biblical interpretation

Brandon R. Grafius
Sun, August 27, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT·7 min read

While it's tough to come back from a mob chanting about hanging you, Mike Pence reminded viewers at last Wednesday night's GOP presidential debate that he can still preach a good sermon. And one that, in a few short sentences, used some tried-and-true strategies to present his own viewpoint as the unassailable truth.

About half an hour into the debate, the topic turned to abortion and whether the assembled Republican candidates would support a federal ban, now that Roe v. Wade is no more. There was some hemming and hawing from Nikki Haley about the inarguable fact that Republicans are well short of the 60 votes required in the Senate to support a ban, and some bobbing and weaving from Ron DeSantis for unclear reasons. But when the question came to Pence, the former vice president turned solemn. He first reminded DeSantis, "I'm not new to this cause," and then pivoted to deeply religious conversion language.

"After I gave my life to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I opened up the Book," Pence began — you could hear the capitalization in the way he intoned these words — where he reported finding the foundational text for his staunch opposition to abortion. "And I read," he continued, "'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and see, I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.'" (Those last two words should probably be capitalized as well, lest viewers miss that they've seen this phrase on a bumper sticker.)

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But to get to this point, the former veep had to make some extremely dubious leaps in interpretation — leaps that probably aren't obvious to most observers. This short paragraph of Pence's offered a master class in evangelical biblical interpretation, with all the sloppy readings and false claims to authority that this practice entails.

The first thing to note is that Pence takes two Bible verses, from different books, ...

-snip-

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/mike-pence-book-master-class-160002765.html

[RedArkGuy]

1. Terrific piece

Makes me want to read more from this writer.

I'd only add that their are Biblical passages that at least imply an acceptance of abortion. Hard to reconcile those passages with the certainty of so many Republicans' anti-choice views.

[RSherman]

2. The history of abortion

From the book "When Women Stood"

Dating back to writings by Aristotle and Plato, the conventional thought was, until the birth of a child, it was not yet a member of society.

English Law 1557: "if one kills an infant in its mother's womb, this is not a felony."

The Roman Senate of Caesar Augustus's era was concerned about economic consequences of declining birth rates. As a result, they outlawed all birth control and abortion. NOT based on religion, morality, or any concerns about women.

During the Middle Ages, it was economics again that drove the Church to punish anyone who engaged in any form of abortion or birth control.

Historians have found abortion was accepted in ancient Greece and Rome.

The Old Testament has several legal passages that refer to abortion, but they deal with it in terms of loss of "property" and not sanctity of life.

The first known evidence of abortion comes from the Egyptian medical text Ebers Papyrus, 1550 BC.

In 1650 New England, abortion was legal and well documented. When the US Constitution was written, abortion was a legal medical practice.

[Major Nikon]

3. You have to engage in some serious pretzel logic to reconcile the bible and conservativism

Even if you completely disregard the abortion question. Dickheads like Pence have raised misinterpretation of the bible to a high art form, not that you really have to try all that much given the rock hard stupidity of their zealot constituents.

[edhopper]

4. Life begins at breath

it is right there in the beginning

Genesis 2 - And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.