Prominent figures on the Christian right in the US ranging from religious magazines to authors to elected politicians have said that the fight over abortion rights could lead to a new civil war.
Although such dire predictions are not necessarily new on the extreme right wing in the US, the passing of a wave of hardline anti-abortion laws in numerous states this year appears to have amped up the conspiracy-minded predictions that depict abortion squarely as a root cause of a coming conflict.
Republican lawmakers, such as Ohio Representative Candice Keller, have openly speculated that the divide over abortion rights might lead to civil war.
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Last month, Keller drew explicit comparisons with the antebellum situation over slavery, telling the Guardian: “Whether this ever leads to a tragedy, like it did before with our Civil War, I can’t say.”
Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that Republican Washington Representative Matt Shea had also speculated about civil war and the “Balkanization” of the US, predicting that Christians would retreat to “zones of freedom,” such as the inland Pacific Northwest, where Shea is campaigning for a new state to break away from Washington.
Asked on a podcast if the two halves of the country could remain together, Shea said: “I don’t think we can, again, because you have half that want to follow the Lord and righteousness, and half that don’t, and I don’t know how that can stand.”
Along with lawmakers, the notion of a civil war over abortion has been finding traction in the media organs of the Christian right.
In the past year, Charisma magazine, the leading media voice of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, has run at least half a dozen articles contemplating the possibility of an imminent civil war in the US.
One recent article profiles pastor, broadcaster and author Michael Brown, who blames a “coming civil war” on “militant abortionists.”
Brown told Charisma that “a civil war is coming to America, only this time, it will be abortion, rather than slavery, that divides the nation.”
An upcoming book from Brown also warns that abortion is among the signs that “the demonic spirit of Jezebel is powerful in America.”
This year, the Christian televangelist Rick Joyner has, on his ministry’s Web site and other Christian right outlets, been offering detailed descriptions of a civil war he believes to be coming on the basis of his own prophetic dream.
Andre Gagne is an associate professor of religious studies at Concordia University in Montreal, who researches the religious right.
He said that while Charisma magazine might be unfamiliar to secular and liberal Americans, it is “absolutely representative” of charismatic and Pentecostal Christians on abortion, and as such speaks for “millions of people.”
He said that the idea that abortion might lead to civil war has percolated for some time on the Christian right.
“The Christian right believes that if they don’t engage politically, and try to influence social issues, God will judge America and he will judge them,” he said.
Journalist Robert Evans hosts the breakout podcast It Could Happen Here, which canvases scenarios for a new US civil war.
He said that the Christian right “generate a lot of the extremist language in mainstream politics,” but that “there’s more talk about violent insurrection from the white nationalist right than the Christian right, because there’s less faith in politics.”
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