Tag: women’s rights

Questionable Influences on Pete Hegseth

Note: I had already prepared today’s blog post when President Trump announced yesterday his federal takeover of Washington, DC Metropolitan Police, in spite of the fact that crime is at a 30-year low there. Suffice it to say, this is a dangerous, unprecedented move by a U.S. President, and his threat to do the same in other cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago bears watching. His level of glee in yesterday’s press conference signal a much larger threat to our democracy than the substance of the event which lasted more than an hour.

Now, let’s move on to what I had planned for today’s post.

Beware of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his social media posts. He continues to associate himself with Christian Nationalist preacher Doug Wilson of Moscow, Idaho. Wilson cofounded the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).

As a member of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation, I find everything about this cringe-worthy. If you go to https://crechurches.org/story/, it will bring up a photograph of 12 white men. Other photographs on the website seem to celebrate families with at least four children.

I gather from the website that the CREC doesn’t like a modification to the Westminster Confession early in the 20th century by Presbyterians, but the website is vague about the group’s conflict with those changes. Several changes were made to the Westminster Confession in 1903.

The CREC website states, “The CREC emerged in the late 20th century seeking to recover a Reformed Catholic vision, emphasizing the importance of creeds, confessions, and liturgies.” I’ve never seen the term “Reformed Catholic” before, so I don’t know what they are saying.

I get the idea from the website that women are to keep silent and just do what men tell them or let them do. No thanks!

Back to Doug Wilson, the CREC Founder

Doug Wilson does not think women should have the right to vote. That’s pretty much all I need to know about him.

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

My thoughts on that: Why should ignorant, misogynistic white men have the right to vote?

Wilson advocates for a “classical Christian education” for everyone (or maybe just for boyss – I’m not clear on that.) He urges parents to remove their children from the public school system. He advocates for education based on the medieval trivium philosophy of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Back to Pete Hegseth

I’ve seen talk online that Pete Hegseth aspires to be the Governor of Tennessee, so pay attention, America. After he removes all the transgender (and will females be next?) from the U.S. Armed Forces, perhaps he can move on to the State of Tennessee. And who know where he’ll go from there?

Just remember this: The women of Iran used to have an education and careers and freedom to move about as they wished. They don’t any more. It could happen in the United States of America. Don’t kid yourself into thinking it can’t.

Want to dive deeper?

Here are a couple of links, if you want to know more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5444330-hegseth-church-women-voting/; and Pamela Brown’s CNN interview with Doug Wilson: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/07/politics/pastor-doug-wilson-christian-domination-trump.

Janet

#OnThisDay: U.S. Supreme Court on Abortion, 1973

Before I address today’s topic, I need to apologize for an error I made in my January 15, 2024 blog post. I stated that Dr. Gregory Davis was the first African-American president of Central Piedmont Community College. That, of course, is not true! What I meant to write and thought I wrote was that he was the first African-American student body president at Central Piedmont Community College. My eagle-eyed sister, Marie, found the mistake and brought it to my attention. I have corrected that post, but I wanted to make sure those of you who read the original post knew about the error.

Points of View

Before I launch into Roe v. Wade, I will share two quotes I happened upon last night while reading a blog post about how to write a novel with multiple points of view. I had already written today’s post and scheduled it. It was worth opening it up to add these quotes. Although they were intended to help me be a better writer of fiction, they dovetailed nicely with the true theme of today’s post — which isn’t abortion. Abortion is just an example of the issues over which U.S. citizens are deeply divided.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” ~ attributed to Harper Lee.

“If there is one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view.” ~ attributed to Henry Ford.

Fasten your seatbelts. I’m getting ready to step on some toes.

Roe v. Wade

It was on this date in 1973 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Roe v. Wade. It was believed by the Court then that a woman had a constitutional right to obtain an abortion as a protected right of privacy.

In summary, the lengthy Roe v. Wade written decision ruled that in the first trimester a woman had the right to get an abortion and the right to seek advice from her doctor. In the second trimester, the law could impose reasonable restrictions related to the woman’s health. In the third trimester, when the fetus is recognizable as a human being and not completely dependent upon the mother for life, the law had considerable authority to regulate abortion.

Overturning the Roe v. Wade decision became a goal of the Republican Party in 1980. That goal was achieved on June 24, 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court published their six to three decision to reverse the 1973 ruling.

That reversal left each of the 50 states to adopt laws regarding abortion and left women in many of those states once again being relegated to the pre-1973 back- alley abortions in unsanitary conditions that put their future fertility and very lives at risk.

Sadly, some of the new state laws have forced women to continue to carry a dead fetus because the medical procedure necessary to deliver the dead fetus is now illegal. Whether that was a conscious decision made by legislators or due to their ignorance probably varies from state-to-state. There was a case of that in my own family in the 1950s, and the trauma of that experience is still talked about.

It baffles me that “the party of family values” / “the party of ‘Let’s get the government out of the bedroom’” thinks treating American citizens like this in 2024 is just fine and dandy.

A hijacked segment of Christians and a hijacked political party?

It has always baffled me that people who most-adamantly say they are pro-life because they are Christians are against all government programs designed to make sure those babies have sufficient food and basic healthcare once they are born. I think they should more accurately say they are anti-abortion instead of saying they are pro-life.

The Jesus I follow is all about His followers taking care of the poor and downtrodden. The Jesus I follow is all about forgiveness and compassion. The Jesus I follow is all about loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

I don’t see any of that in the people who wear the MAGA caps, so maybe it’s time for the Christians who support the hatred spewed by that segment of today’s Republican Party to be honest with us and with themselves. It appears from the outside that they have lost sight of Jesus in their zeal to crush anyone who gets in their idol’s way.

I don’t understand why they think it is acceptable to be a racist, misogynist, or a xenophobe and would support a politician who proudly falls into all three of those categories. Jesus is certainly none of those things.

There is something very wrong today if Democrats don’t think Republicans can be Christians and Republicans don’t think Democrats can be Christians.

I miss the America of my younger days when most people did not know and did not care about another person’s political affiliation because most people understood that our democracy thrives when we have choices and two imperfect but relatively healthy political parties.

I miss the America of my younger days when in polite society in the United States you did not talk about religion or politics to a stranger, much less threaten to kill another person if they dared to hold opinions that differed from yours.

I miss the America of my younger days when you could have a civil conversation with a friend or relative with whom you disagreed about politics.

I miss the America of my younger days when I did not realize how very fragile democracy is.

My intentions for my blog

I did not set out to use my blog as a political platform; however, I have been blogging for more than a decade and I think God expects me to use my blog and my freedom of speech — which I will have at least until noon on January 20, 2025, when I just might lose all my rights.

Since my last blog post

I have struggled more than ever before with the writing of a blog post because I know some of the toes I’m stepping on are the toes of some close friends and relatives.

The topic of today’s blog post is complex. There are no easy answers, so I pray that both sides on the issue will try to keep their minds open to differing views and scientific facts as they wrestle with the matter.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade is, no doubt, not the last word on this issue. If we are a democracy after January 20, 2025, this matter will continue to be debated in the United States. I just hope it is debated with more compassion and open-mindedness than it was over the last 51 years. I hope people will stop hating the people whose beliefs on this subject and anything else do not match theirs.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have access to the medical attention you need.

I hope you have a good book to read.

I hope you pay close attention to politics on all levels and practice your responsibility to vote, if you have that right.

I hope you and I will continue to be friends, and in the Presbyterian way, “Agree to disagree agreeably.”

Remember the people of Ukraine during their miserable winter and how cherished freedoms can disappear in the blink of an eye.

Janet