From the WaPo comments section

[The Blue Flower]

"The unborn" are a convenient group of people to advocate for.

They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn.

It's almost as if, by being born, they have died to you.

You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone.

They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.

--Methodist Pastor David Barnhart

[Rorey]

1. Pastor Barnhart nailed it

I wish I could rec this a thousand times.

[Frustratedlady]

2. Ouch! All Repukes listen up.

The pastor is speaking the truth, unfortunately. These people live among us and he has explained their MO about as closely as one can.

Republicans deserve every bit of criticism they are getting from the general public. Their antics have been used for longer than one can believe and they are just about as effective. Once an election is over, you never hear a whisper from them about abortion. Abortions and guns are their "go to" for a win. Time to rub their faces in their motives.

[JohnSJ]

3. Their lack of concern for the disadvantaged living is duly noted

[Karma13612]

4. That is so profound yet so obvious. Thanks for sharing this....eom

[The Magistrate]

5. Damn, Ma'am, But That Is A Thing Of Beauty

I don't think I ever seen it so well expressed.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Good find. He's absolutely correct.

[MiHale]

7. Nailed it!...KnR

[CurtEastPoint]

8. The ending to the quote...

Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.”

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/20481488.Methodist_Pastor_David_Barnhart

[FakeNoose]

12. Thanks for posting the entire quote

I don't know what David Barnhart's story is. He doesn't appear to be political. But wouldn't it be nice if he - or someone like him - ran for Governor of Texas?

[CurtEastPoint]

18. yes, but he lives in Alabama.

[CurtEastPoint]

9. And his post from 2018, from Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/dave.barnhart/posts/10156549406811031

[demmiblue]

16. Screenshot of his post:

Link to tweet

[LeftInTX]

35. Shared on Facebook!

I was gonna cut and paste his WaPo comments, but saw this...
Thanks!

[Ilsa]

10. There are plenty of smart, good Christian Methodists

around who don't mind stirring the pot and agitating against fascism, racism, homophobia, etc. It's great to see one calling out the fraud of the "pro-life" hypocrites.

[BlueMTexpat]

21. I have many cousins who

are Methodists exactly like this pastor.

My mother was raised as a Methodist. She married my father, a Catholic, and raised all five of us children as Catholic.

The Catholic nuns who would come from Minnesota for two weeks each summer to teach us about Catholicism - we were considered to be in "mission" territory because there were no private Catholic schools within a 100-mile radius - would tell us all that our mother was going to Hell because she wasn't a Catholic.

Of course, my numerous non-Catholic cousins - some also Lutheran because their mothers had married Scandinavians - would tell us that WE were the ones going to Hell.

My first husband was Muslim. We divorced amicably enough after 13 years together. My second husband was raised as a Baptist (along the lines of Jimmy Carter and Bill Moyers) and we have been together for 40 years.

Because ALL of us are/were good people and, aside from religious differences, essentially believed in treating all others as we ourselves would like to be treated, I could NEVER believe that ANY of us were going to Hell.

My siblings and I have not been practicing Catholics since we were in our 20s. There are many good things from that religion that we retain, but we are essentially agnostic.

Evangelical "Christianity" as it is practiced in too much of the US is no different from radical religious ideologies anywhere else on the planet and should be regarded as no less than terrorism.

[wnylib]

38. Especially unusual, though, since

the United Methodist church body rejects abortion on demand and approves it only in select situations regarding the health and life of the pregnant woman, or in cases where the fetus is so seriously deformed that it puts the viability of the fetus in question if carried full term.

But his statement does hit on the total hypocrisy of the anti abortion fanatics. The rejection of programs to improve and uplift the lives of the poor, disadvantaged, people needing health care, single mothers, working women, etc. actually increases the numbers of women who seek abortions.

[Moebym]

46. A particularly famous Methodist

Is Secretary Hillary Clinton.

[ShazzieB]

50. Like Hillary Rodham Clinton, for example! 😁

Edited to add: Oops, I see Moebym beat me to it!

Good job, Moebym.

[niyad]

11. KNR

[dlk]

13. It's a false moral high ground

n/t

[PatSeg]

14. Very powerful

Loving the "unborn" while hating actual people.

[Lonestarblue]

31. They just hate actual women--not the men who impregnate them.

[PatSeg]

32. So it would seem

I never hear the impregnator mentioned in any of this. Just innocent bystanders I guess.

[mopinko]

15. just shared on fb. they know they should give a shit about someone.

but their fellow humans are too complicated for their religion addled brains.

and please edit your post to pick up the last line. posted in one of the replies above.

[jaxexpat]

17. Methodist preachers can have a surprising voice when roused.

No bible thumping, hell and brimstone with these guys. They simply eviscerate sin by citing truths about it.

Absolute RADICALS!

[sarchasm]

19. KnR!!

[demmiblue]

20. Just followed him on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/davebarnhart

[ananda]

22. Excellent. I went to Barnhart's twitter page ...

and copied it to my FB page.

[Escurumbele]

23. Besides describing the falseness of the anti-abortion politicians, it is beautifully written.

And THAT...is the perfect description of the hypocrisy of the republicans who constantly advocate against abortion. You see, abortion is just a very convenient topic to lure the so called religious people who hardly understand the real object of the republican party constant push against abortion. republicans know very well that those who cheer for wars, who now rally against vaccines that actually save lives, who also push for people to ingest horse medicine and Clorox, who praise an immoral and very corrupt man, those who never bother to find the truth on anything, they just follow, they will believe the fantasy that "republicans value life", they don't seem to realize that the majority of wars which are done in far away places with the excuse of "defending the country" when there really is no threat from people thousands of miles away, republicans sending kids to war for profit, who receive money from the NRA and refuse to pass laws to control guns that kill a lot of people like in the massacres in Orlando, in High Schools around the country, etc., republicans who want you to think the people who committed the insurrection against the Capitol and Democracy were just "tourists" and are now "political victims", those same republicans who have actually had abortions done for their families and mistresses, those are the ones who want you to think they really believe that life is precious. Nope...they could not care less for other people's lives, that is why they tell you lies about the vaccines, why they continue to call COVID-19 a hoax, why they fight against masks at schools when they know it will kill kids and adults, that is why trump denied to do anything to prevent the deaths from COVID and kept telling lies about it (there is a tape from an interview of trump by Bob Woodward where you can hear trump say that he knows how terrible COVID is, but that he wants to keep it quiet), so stop believing republicans with their anti-abortion chants, its just a show done just for you, the religious believer. I mean, if you believe that all you need is faith without proof, they know you will believe anything.

I sent the above to friends who still believe in republicans. Some of them are beginning to doubt, I will hopefully open the eyes of a couple of them.

[calimary]

27. Good work, my friend. And a very good essay!

[Wounded Bear]

24. K & R...well stated...nt

[calimary]

25. Daaaaaaaaaaayum. Boy-oh-boy does THAT ever nail it.

Just Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayum!!!

[Martin Eden]

26. THIS x 1,000,000,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely perfect and SPOT-ON

[marmar]

28. .......

[dixiechiken1]

29. Perfection. Absolute perfection.

[PatrickforB]

30. Very good! Thank you for

posting this.

[3catwoman3]

33. Very well said. This advocacy requires nothing more...

...than a bumper sticker or window decal.

[jovibennett]

34. like my mom always said about the GOP

they love the fetus- hate the child

[moondust]

36. Facade.

Everybody look at how holy and righteous we are (while we screw you to death)!!!!

K/R

[hlthe2b]

37. Where is this Methodist Pastor, David Barnhart from? I'd attend a service to thank him if I could.

[pnwmom]

39. Plus, if you are a man, you never have to worry about the great sin of having had an abortion.

So it must be the biggest sin of all, right?

[pandr32]

40. Perfect!

[The Unmitigated Gall]

41. "It's almost as if, having been born, they are dead to you."

So apropos of the death-worshipping cult we call the republican party.

[orangecrush]

42. KICK

And rec.

[Hekate]

43. I read it before once, & it states the case perfectly

Thank you, Pastor Barnhart

[cayugafalls]

44. I never thought I would be proud to say I grew up Methodist...

Being an Atheist now, this makes me think there is some good out there in the religious world.

The good Pastor nailed it.

[Moebym]

45. This pastor gets it. n/t

[Wingus Dingus]

47. Expressed perfectly.

[Maine Abu El Banat]

48. Wow!

[Skittles]

49. CORRECT!

yes indeed

[Blue Owl]

51. K&R

Well said indeed

[ZZenith]

52. Ooo-wee, that's well written.

Right on the nose, good pastor.