Man Shuts Down Pro-Life Protester By Using The Bible
Our Founding Fathers were right about the separation of church and state.
@thegoodliars / TikTok Jason Selvig from The Good Liars comedy duo recently interviewed a pro-life protester and posted the resulting interview onto X (formerly known as Twitter), where the clip quickly went viral and caused a debate in the comments.
During the interview, the woman argues that God has a plan for all life before they are even in the womb, meaning that abortion is taking away from God’s plan. Selvig, however, uses another part of the Bible to argue the opposite.
Jason Selvig shut down a pro-life protestor by using the Bible.
The woman at the start of the interview says, “We need to abolish abortion, no exceptions.” Her sign reads and implies that this is the “#1 issue” we as a country are facing, as another sign reads, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,” a quote from Jeremiah 1.
She proposes her interpretation and uses it to inform her argument on why abortion is immoral, but Selvig does the same thing to argue the opposite about how God doesn’t seem to value life as much as the woman thinks.
“Didn’t he kill all the firstborn sons in Egypt?” Selvig responds, referring to the book of Exodus. Selvig implies that, because God punished the Egyptians by killing all of the firstborn sons in Egypt, the argument that God values every life that is formed isn't a strong one.
After his question, the woman says that she’s “done” with the interview since Selvig’s point directly contradicts hers, and this seems like a common theme for The Good Liars' videos.
They interview conservatives and try to “own” them, and although these videos are mean-spirited, this particular video raises a very good point that many people seem to miss about the debate regarding morality in politics.
The Bible is not a good argument for political reform or legislation.
The “separation of church and state” isn’t written in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, but instead is written in an 1802 letter by President Thomas Jefferson — one of the Founding Fathers. In this letter, he states that the First Amendment is a means for building “a wall of separation between church and state.”
The First Amendment, though widely understood as the freedom of speech, also states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This is known as the Establishment Clause.
While I could go on for days about how the Establishment Clause affects US politics, the important thing to note is that using religious beliefs and ideas to influence legislation is a bad idea to begin with.
The Bible is a religious text that could be interpreted in many different ways — Selvig’s conversation with this stranger exemplifies this perfectly.
Using the Bible, or any religious text for that matter, as a means to argue the morality of legislation is not a valid way to enact the change you want. There are dozens of arguments against people who use the Bible to spread hate toward LGBTQ+ groups found within the Bible itself.
Everyone is entitled to believe in what they want to believe in. Pro-choice and anti-abortion protesters will likely disagree with each other until the end of time, but they are both allowed the freedom of speech to speak out about what they believe in.
Proposing an argument for the legislation those people would like to see without using the Bible will provide them with stronger points that will better suit their beliefs.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.