Veteran reporter and cultural-cum-political commentator Tucker Carlson is declaring that the fight against abortion is in fact a matter of spiritual warfare.
Speaking at a recent gala hosted by the Center for Christian Virtue in Cleveland, Carlson stated that abortion is not a “political debate” but a “spiritual battle.”
The former Fox News host said that for most of his life and career, “the debates that we had in the political sphere were over competing visions for how to improve people’s lives.”
Referring to debates over issues such as the minimum wage, Carlson said: “I was on one side of it, but I could also sort of see the other side. Both sides were at least pretending to try to improve the lives of the people who voted for them.”
The prevalence of abortion as a political issue, Carlson argued at the Sept. 21 event, is a departure from the sort of debate he and much of America long has been accustomed to.
Carlson pointed to two Ohio ballot initiatives—one enshrining abortion in the state Constitution and the other decriminalizing recreational drug use—that he found especially distressing and disturbing.
He asked: “When you wind up in an election where the two top ballot initiatives are 1) encouraging people to kill their own kids and 2) encourage their kids to do drugs, who’s benefiting here?”
Carlson then extolled the joys of being a parent and raising a family.
“I’m serious,” he said. “The one unalloyed source of joy in your life is your children, the point of life is to have children and to watch them have grandchildren. Nothing will bring you joy like that will—nothing comes close, nothing comes close.”
Carlson continued:
So anyone telling you, ‘Don’t have children, kill your children,’ is not your friend. It’s your enemy. And by the way, it’s a very recognizable promise that they’re making to you, because it’s as old as time and it’s chronicled in great detail throughout the Hebrew Bible—it’s human sacrifice, which rears its head about every four chapters, and which is singled out for approbation every time. Of all the sins the ancient committed, that sin, every single time it’s described, is called detestable. … Detestable. God singled that out.
“Why were people doing that?” Carlson asked. “Because, of course, they believed that they were getting power and contentment and happiness in return.”
Carlson explained that child sacrifice was not a practice relegated to the Mayans or Aztecs, but was practiced by practically every major civilization or peoples from antiquity.
“Human sacrifice, the sacrifice of children, the killing of children is the one constant in human civilization,” he said.
Carlson continued to note that these various ancient civilizations, spread across regions and continents across the globe, all reached the same conclusion: Child sacrifice might provide happiness or safety.
Carlson said that conclusion couldn’t be reached “organically,” pointing out that it contradicts evolutionary biology and the instinct to preserve and continue not just the species but the family.
So where did human sacrifice come from?
“That’s an idea, an impulse that was introduced,” Carlson explained. “Outside forces are acting on people at all times throughout history in every culture on the planet to convince people that if they sacrifice their children they will be happy and safe.”
“And that’s exactly what this is,” he continued. “This is a religious rite. This is not a policy debate, they’re not telling you that some girl got raped at 13 and she needs to go to college and therefore, unfortunately, we need to abort the child. No. That was 20 years ago. Now they’re saying, ‘Abortion is itself a pathway to joy.’ Really? So this is not a political debate, this is a spiritual battle. There is no other conclusion.”
Addressing another ballot initiative promoting recreational drug use, Carlson quipped, “Take more drugs and be happy? Right, OK.”
The results of that initiative would essentially zombify the population, he expounded.
“Less conscious, less aware, give your soul over, dull yourself, become a robot. Really?” he asked. “Those are the promises they’re making?”
The bulk of Carlson’s speech was reminiscent of a speech he delivered earlier this year at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala, just before his firing by Fox News.
In that Heritage speech, Carlson said that the American debate used to center on differing policy plans for achieving what was generally an agreed-upon good outcome.
But now, he said, “people … decide that the goal is to destroy things—destruction for its own sake. ‘Hey, let’s tear it down.’ What you’re watching is not a political movement, it’s evil.”
Referring to abortion, he reiterated that abortion advocates have gone from claiming that abortion is “sometimes necessary” to foaming at the mouth for abortion on demand anywhere, any time, for any reason.
“If you’re telling me that abortion is a positive good … you’re arguing for child sacrifice. … That’s like an Aztec principle, actually,” Carlson said..
He argued that the era of policy paper debates is over and America is now in a period of “theological” war.
Days after delivering that speech at the Heritage’s 50th anniversary gala, Carlson was removed from Fox News, reportedly because then-Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch thought the speech was too Christian and was unsettled by its theological overtones.
In his Sept. 16 speech,, though, Carlson did more than just highlight the reality of America’s present spiritual war. He asked, “So how do you respond to this?”
The answer, he suggested, is to remain courageous.
Citing St. Paul as a hero of his, Carlson said:
This is like the bravest guy ever. There’s not a letter he wrote where he didn’t have a sword hanging over his neck, he expected at any moment to be murdered, and I think the consensus among historians is, in the end he was. He was murdered. … But he lived with the certainty that he was going to be killed for his beliefs every day. And he was totally unbothered by it, completely. … He was never afraid.
“And by the way,” Carlson asked about Paul, “why would he be afraid? He believed his fate was sealed. He was going to join Jesus. He was going to heaven.”
Carlson proclaimed that courage is the “marker” of the Christian faith, saying that if a Christian is afraid, then “you’re kind of not doing it right, are you?”
“There’s no excuse for being afraid,” he added.
Whether facing the threat of a worldwide “pandemic” with a 99% survival rate or facing a firing squad for being a Christian, Carlson’s exhortation was clear: Be not afraid.
This report originally was published by The Washington Stand
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