Washington DC political paper The Hill goes back to the religion and politics status-quo 10 years ago in their recent piece on Sebelius and Abortion. Seems like they simply published a Christian Right oppo. research piece. I have sent this letter to Letters@TheHill.com and encourage you to do the same.
Mr. Wilson and The Hill editorial staff,
Your article entitled “Sebelius to face questions over abortion” contains a number of shortcomings I would like to address. Namely, it seems that you have published a hard Christian Right opposition research dump with only nominal balance countering those views.
Kathleen Sebelius has been one of the nation’s lead proponents of abortion reduction throughout her tenure as Governor. Her policies have dropped the abortion rate, dropped the teen pregnancy rate, and raised the number of adoptions in Kansas well beyond the national trends. Your piece amplifies the message of the Christian community’s most extreme Right leaders, while failing to recognize that Sebelius has the support of many of the more reasonable pro-life advocates. Your piece even seems to suggest, perhaps due to strange syntax, that Catholics United is a “pro-abortion rights” group — they are not. The fact that even the Senate’s number one trumpeter of a “pro-life” agenda, Sen. Sam Brownback, has come out in support of Sebelius shows how far on the extremes of the pro-life community her opposition is coming from.
Kansas Republicans are not commenting on her abortion record because they know the actual record. I don’t know how a piece that concentrates so much on the Dr. George Tiller story cannot mention the fact that Sebelius’ Attorney General prosecuted Dr. Tiller. Or, for that matter, fail to mention the hard facts surrounding her abortion reduction policies.
Tony Perkins, Patrick Mahoney, and Troy Newman speak for a small but vocal Christian minority. Simply look at last year’s exit polls as evidence for the dwindling of their political clout. They have lost much of their political voice in recent years by trumpeting mis-truths or half-truths, as is the case in this story. Christians, across denominational lines, are coming together – as Kathleen Sebelius has done in Kansas – to end these useless culture wars by reaching common, practical ground in facing our nation’s unwanted pregnancy issues. I hope The Hill will not simply rely on these outlying “leaders” in the future for your information or commentary.
Sincerely,
Grant Brooke
The Matthew 25 Network
Executive Director
www.Matthew25.org
M25 and our allies made a lot of progress last year in challenging the idea the the Christian Right should be the go-to commentators for faith and politics news. Examples like this are why we need to stay on the ball.
Update: The author of this piece in The Hill sent back a very pleasant note. And hopefully they include religious progressive voices in future pieces touching on faith and politics. I owe them props for a quick and reasoned response.
