How Baptist state conventions are engaging abortion ballot initiatives

On this episode of the ERLC Podcast, we’re continuing the conversation about state abortion ballot initiatives in the upcoming 2024 November election. Southern Baptist state conventions working in each state to engage these important discussions and promote a culture of life.

Politics matter because they are the means by which the laws of our country, states, and communities are shaped. And those laws communicate what we value as a society. This November, the issue of life is on the ballot as an initiative in many states where voters will decide on laws related to abortion access. These specific states include:

• New York
• Maryland
• Florida
• Missouri
• South Dakota
• Nebraska
• Colorado
• Montana
• Arizona
• Nevada

Joining us today to help us better understand what these initiatives look like at a grassroots level and how they could impact the pro-life movement are Willie Isaacson and Joel Gilbert. Both Willie and Joel come highly recommended within their Southern Baptist state conventions and come with years of experience in local and state policy advocacy.

Willie Isaacson is senior pastor of First Baptist, Richmond, Missouri where he has served for over 11 years. He currently serves as the chair of the Missouri Baptist Christian Life Commission and president of the Ministerial Alliance in Richmond, Missouri.

Joel Gilbert has served in Baptist churches in the D.C. area for over 25 years and currently serves as pastor at Poolesville Baptist Church in Poolesville, Maryland. He also serves on the Christian Life and Public Affairs Committee of the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware.

Episode Transcript

How Baptist state conventions are engaging abortion ballot initiatives

Narration:

Welcome to the ERLC podcast, where our goal is to help you think biblically about today’s cultural issues. I’m Lindsay Nicolet, and today we’re continuing the conversation about state abortion ballot initiatives.

Politics matter because they are the means by which the laws of our country, states, and communities are shaped, and those laws communicate what we value as a society. This November, the issue of life is on the ballot as an initiative in many states where voters will decide on laws related to abortion access. These specific states include New York, Maryland, Florida, Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, and Nevada. Joining us today to help us better understand what these initiatives look like at a grassroots level and how they could impact the pro-life movement are Willie Isaacson and Joel Gilbert. Both Willie and Joel come highly recommended within their state conventions and come with years of experience in local and state policy advocacy. 

Willie Isaacson is senior pastor of First Baptist Richmond, Missouri, where he served for over 11 years. He currently serves as the chair of the Missouri Baptist Christian Life Commission and President of the Ministerial Alliance in Richmond, Missouri. Joel Gilbert has served in Baptist churches in the DC area for over 25 years and currently serves as pastor at Poolesville Baptist Church in Poolesville, Maryland. He also serves on the Christian Life and Public Affairs Committee of the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware.

Politics and public policy can be confusing, leading people to opt out of the process. This is especially the case when confusing and ambiguous language is used in the crafting of laws we are asked to vote upon. These abortion ballot measures are no different. Willie Isaacson helps us discern the language found in Missouri’s amendment so that we can be better equipped to understand the language used by other states.

Willie Isaacson:

As far as the language of this goes, to me, it’s a little humorous. There is a very focused craftiness in the language, which we’ve seen time and time again when issues like this come up. The title of this amendment is the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative. And so that in itself, okay, do we have a right for reproductive freedom? Well, you would think yes, but that’s not what this measure is about. This measure is about abortion directly. And so the title has very little to do with what the law would be in the wording and in the language. They include phrases like fetal viability to make it sound good, and yet that’s overridden in the language as well. It overrides any protection of the baby and gives the final decision to the good faith of the healthcare professional, whatever the definition of a healthcare professional ends up being.

But it is left to their good faith, even with fetal viability. And so it opens the door for abortion up to the day of delivery here in the state of Missouri. And it also includes an implication that this amendment is needed. The way they have it worded is needed to protect parental care, prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, miscarriage care, respecting birthing conditions, which all sound good, but right in the middle of that, they also include abortion care, which is what the whole focus is. Most people are unaware that the language would provide taxpayer funded abortions in Missouri. It would also remove all accountability for any adverse action that results from these procedures. So whoever the healthcare professional is, it takes away any malpractice, any actions that they do that cause problems with the mother or the baby, and there are no repercussions that are left there.

I think one of the other major ramifications from my point of view is if the life of a baby is devalued by the passing of this ballot measure, then the life of the elderly becomes devalued as well. Because if that baby has no value, then what’s next? Well, an elderly person who isn’t providing anything for the community and doesn’t have a hope of a full life and costs are too excessive, the value of their life is going to be degraded. And following that, it won’t stop there. It’ll continue on to what is your worth. Your life will be devalued because it’ll be based on your worth to society or your inconvenience to society.

Narration:

In Ephesians 5:11, Paul exhorts us to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. In this case, it’s not enough to simply know what is being endorsed with these ballot initiatives. We must go further and do the often harder work of taking action for the vulnerable among us, even when it isn’t popular or convenient. Here’s Willie to encourage us from scripture to stand boldly and confidently.

Willie Isaacson:

The first thing is we need to know the truth. We need to know what scripture says, what God says about life by God’s word. This is a life, and we need to know that first, but then we also have a responsibility, we need to speak up for life. Proverbs chapter 12, verses 17 through 19 says, he who speaks truth tells what is right, but a false witness deceit, there is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue will only last for a moment. And then Proverbs 14:25 says, A truthful witness saves lives, but he who utters lies is treacherous. We need to speak truth. We need to do more than just know the truth. We need to speak truth. God has equipped us and called us to do that.

We need to teach the truth. We need to do as 2 Timothy 2:2 says, to entrust what you have learned to other faithful individuals who will in turn teach others to do the same. We have got to take action. And then of course, we do have to take the responsibility that we have been given in this country to vote truth as well. And that means to stand up for what is right and true, no matter the cost. And that doesn’t mean just with these initiatives that may be put on the ballot. That also means when we select leaders, we need to consider what their stand is on the truth. So part of what we are focusing on in our church right now is understanding the truth, and we have a decision to make. We can either stand on God’s truth or we can pursue our own truth, which is the challenge and the sin that we’ve been dealing with since the garden. Adam and Eve stood at that tree and had to make a decision. Do they trust God for truth or do they pursue after it themselves? And so we’re calling the people of Missouri, especially, we’re calling our Missouri Baptists to stand on that truth, to know it, to stand on it, to make it heard, and to make our voices heard. And I’m hoping that along with several other states this November, Missouri will stand up, the Missouri Baptist will get out and make their voice heard.

Narration:

As Willie pointed out, our voice matters, specifically when it comes to these abortion ballot measures. Our collective voices as Christians matter, because the ramifications of these initiatives have far reaching consequences for vulnerable babies and mothers. Here are Joel Gilbert and Willie on how these amendments, if implemented, would impact the future of the pro-life movement.

Joel Gilbert:

I think because abortion would be so heavily enshrined throughout a pregnancy, there would be very little that we could do legally. So a lot of our work would be heart to heart, person to person advocacy, which on one hand may not be the worst place for us to be acting because we can be influencers in our communities. I do fear, however, because of the language of the amendment, that there may be some ramifications against churches, against individuals who try to prevent someone from having an abortion or from people who try to prevent people because of the language. That’s not limited to pregnancy, it’s not limited to abortion. But I think on a positive note, it really allows us as Christians in Maryland to focus on saving lives one life at a time, and really dealing with that personal evangelism role that we have.

Willie Isaacson:

If this vote passes in the state of Missouri, it’s gonna be very detrimental. One of the problems is it will overturn everything that has been done and all the work that we have done for the past several years. One of the quick things that I am very fearful that it will do is it could put us back to 1980 when over 21,600 babies lost their lives in Missouri. Right now, we have no locations in the state of Missouri for abortions to take place. It has been outlawed, and yet there are still some who leave the state for this. But if this initiative passes, the first thing that’s going to happen is we’re going to start moving backward in the number of deaths of children. Decisions are gonna be made in the future of the value of my life and of your life. I think we’re gonna have, as the pro-life movement, we’re going to have a very, very challenging and difficult fight ahead of us. It seems like every time that we make some headway, a court overturns something. Every time new votes are put before us, we wonder if it’s gonna make a difference and it makes it harder and harder to fight the good fight, but we’re gonna have to work even more diligently if this were to pass.

Narration:

The cause for life is an all in effort. It takes all of us making a conscious effort to push against the forces of darkness and advocate for the most vulnerable among us. Joel and Willie highlight some of the unique ways their states are seeking to champion and promote a culture of life at a state and local level, not only for the abortion ballot initiatives, but in other ways as well.

Joel Gilbert:

One of the roles that I have right now is working with what we call the CLPA, the Christian Life and Public Affairs Committee for the Baptist Convention in Maryland, Delaware. And much like the ERLC, we look on the local level to see what is going on, to try to make sure as best we can, that Marylanders and those and people in Delaware are aware of what’s coming in front of them. And so periodically we’ll meet several times a year as a committee. We’ll write letters to be published by the BCMD to be sent out to all the churches. Occasionally we’ll advocate, we had a small group of folks go to the March for Life that happened in March in Annapolis. But one of the other things we’ve done, because as a committee, we all serve for a few years. We’re all volunteers. We have other jobs, you know, whether it’s in ministry or just serving.

And so we’ve tried to, especially over the last couple of months, forge partnerships with organizations like Maryland Family Institute. And they are very much, they have ears to the ground on what’s going on in Annapolis. There’s a sister organization in Delaware. We’re trying to forge a partnership with them to be able to allow them to say, hey, here’s what you need to be aware of. Maryland Rights to Life has many things like that. So we try to connect churches, try to get the word out through the BCMD communication channels. Just try to make sure folks are aware of what is happening. And this year they had something like 1700 bills that came before the legislature, even if only 70 of them have life oriented ramifications, that’s a ton of work for a bunch of volunteers who are doing many other things to be aware of.

So partnerships with people like Maryland Family Institute with Maryland Rights to Life with Delaware Family Policy Council are very helpful for us because they have information and they have knowledge. And I think one of the other neat things that specifically Maryland Family Institute has done is they have an attorney who is working with them, who is able to not only speak very well to the law, speak to the ramifications of the law, but also be able to provide some instruction to pastors and churches to help them know, hey, here’s what you’re allowed to do constitutionally. Here’s what you’re allowed to do legally, and you won’t run into any threat. So when they’re having training, when they’re having other things like that, we do try to get the word out as best we can.

Willie Isaacson:

As the Missouri Baptist Convention, I’m part of the Christian Life Commission. We do a lot of the same work that the ERLC does, but we do it on a local level. And we have been working for several years specifically on this issue. And there are numerous resolutions. We keep it before the people regularly. And our people are at the Missouri Baptist Convention as a whole, and our churches are very supportive of standing for life, but we need to continue to encourage them to educate them. One of the things that we have been focusing on heavily is encouraging our pastors to preach truth and equipping them and letting them know the limits that the government has tried to put on them are not there. No one can stop us from proclaiming what the scripture tells us, the truth of the scripture. Our pastors need to stand in the pulpits and be bold and speak truth to our people and quit worrying about offending someone because God is the one that’s being offended.

Through this, we have worked to equip and educate the Missouri Baptists on this issue so that they understand what is going on right now. Specifically, we have put together a tri fold that has gone out to all of our churches that gives the information of what this amendment will do if it passes and we’ve tried to step away from the talking points because people are tired of the talking points. If we don’t educate them on exactly what is happening here and show them the wording and realize that this will open the door to abortion, up to the day of delivery, this will open the door for taxpayer funded abortion. We have also spent a lot of time calling people to prayer, which is the most important thing we can do. And prayer not only reminds our Lord that we’re trying to be faithful to him, but it reminds us of the cost that we need to pay and the price that we need to pay for this.

We’ve also produced an insert for bulletins. We’ve also been producing videos. We’ve got three or four different videos that we have put out and given to our churches to use in the best way that they see trying to get the word out and encourage our people to get out and take action. God placed us here in this nation and in this state with the rights and abilities that we have. And part of that is we, the people are the government here, and we choose who leads us. We choose, and that’s our responsibility. And so we have a responsibility to choose well, to choose according to what God has directed us for what is right and true.

Narration:

The call to champion life is for all of us. And while it may seem like an impossible task to carry in our culture, God has not left us to carry it alone. He has given us his word, his spirit, and his church to help us persevere. As Paul reminds us in Galatians 6:9, we are to not grow weary of doing good for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up. As we strive to promote a culture of life that protects and upholds the dignity of every life, may our advocacy and persuasion be seasoned with the same mercy and grace we have received from God through Jesus. For in due season, our efforts of pushing back against Satan sin and death will be rewarded on that day when Christ returns. 

Thanks for listening to this episode of the ERLC Podcast. For more information about the state abortion ballot initiatives and how you can join in praying for and promoting a culture of life, please visit erlc.com/ballot. That’s erlc.com/ballot. 

Join us next time as we begin a new series on issues related to marriage and family.