Penna Dexter

Historic Christianity celebrates May 31^st as The Feast of the Visitation, which has also been described as the first meeting of Jesus and John the Baptist. Mary, early in her pregnancy, travels to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is much further along in her pregnancy with John the Baptist.

The verse is Luke 1:44 where Elizabeth exclaims: “Behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

Such an important moment revealing John’s recognition that Mary carries in her womb the coming messiah. And, though not yet physically fully formed, the Christ child is also a human baby. The Anglican Compass describes this as “yet one more reason Anglicans are pro-life.”

 Well — not every Anglican.

For me, statements by Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar and one of the most influential theologians of our day, take him out of the pro-life category. Recently on a U-Tube podcast — Premier Unbelievable — Bishop Wright was asked about whether Christians should defend life from the moment of conception. He posed exceptions for rape and incest, saying “with sorrow and a bit of shame, the best thing to do is, as soon as possible, to terminate this pregnancy.” Meaning ‘kill this baby.”

N.T. Wright gave a couple of examples, one being that when there is possibility or fear of the child’s “severe deformity,” the correctness of a decision to abort the child is  “absolutely clear for the mental health” of the mother.

He also voiced his concern about the “optics” of “unmarried men from the Catholic hierarchy” telling a woman what she “can and cannot do.” He called this “male bullying which we should avoid like the plague.”

Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire features a segment he calls “The Daily Cancellation.” One day a couple of weeks ago, he chose to cancel N.T. Wright.

Abortion kills a human being. On abortion, Bishop Wright is wrong.