By Dave Andrusko
Some of our faithful NRL News Today readers may recall the name Rev. Debra McKnight. We wrote about her last September. It was in the context of an unctuous, can’t be nice enough story written by Erin Bamer of the Omaha World-Herald , the thesis of which was not all pastors are pro-life. With an impending vote on Nebraska’s Heartbeat Law, time to roll out Rev. McKnight.
Rev. McKnight was especially helpful. She checked off two boxes: pro-abortion and a woman.
Of course, Bamer knew/knows what the public knows: Rev. McKnight is so vastly outnumbered even pro-abortionists think she must be kidding:
“McKnight is a reverend in Omaha with United Methodist Church, and she firmly supports abortion access. Her views, she said, run counter to the common assumptions people often make about her: That, as a religious leader, she is staunchly anti-abortion.
Such assumptions are not uncommon, and they’re not entirely without merit. Public polling has shown a correlation between views on abortion and faith, particularly among Christian faiths. And some faiths, such as Catholicism, are explicit in their moral objections to abortion.
Writing for the Nebraska News Connection, Deborah Van Fleet begins “Identifying as a person of faith is not synonymous with supporting Legislative Bill 626, the six-week abortion ban bill in the Nebraska legislature.”
In February, “120 Nebraska clergy from five different faiths signed on to a full-page ad opposing the measure, which ran in Nebraska’s three largest newspapers” Van Fleet continues. “It was paid for by the Nebraska Religious Council for Reproductive Freedom, and two Omaha churches, including Omaha’s Urban Abbey Methodist Church” which Rev. McKnight founded.
Of course, Rev. McKnight attributes the most unfeeling, uncaring sentiments to the Nebraska legislators supporting Legislative Bill 626. Pro-lifers are merely “pro-birth.” Nothing original there.
As for people of faith, McKnight contends, “I would want to be clear that Christianity has a diversity of voices, and you don’t have to understand this “pro-birth” narrative as the only appropriate Christian response.”
Warming to her assault, she “maintained on the subject of abortion, the Christian voice, including of evangelicals, has been ‘corrupted’ by conservative political efforts.”
One wonders what Rev. McKnight’s position is on the current law which allows unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to 20 weeks. Actually, we probably know: abortion on demand throughout pregnancy would be her stance.
According to the state health department, in 2021, 2,360 unborn babies were aborted and nearly two thirds were later than six weeks of pregnancy.
What do Nebraskans think about the bill? A January poll by WPA Intelligence found 58 percent of Nebraskans support protecting an unborn baby with a beating heart from abortion “whether they are pro-life or pro-choice, including half of Independents.”