MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said on Friday while he may be a "backsliding Baptist," he knows enough to say Jesus Christ never talked about abortion and American Christians are committing heresy by using Christianity to oppose abortion.
Scarborough and the "Morning Joe" panel was discussing how some state Republicans are opposing total abortion bans because they do not provide exceptions for cases like rape.
"I come from a pro-life area. Most people I grew up with consider themselves pro-life and so many of them have checked out on the radicalism," he said. "The radicalism in Michigan, when you have someone running for governor saying a 14-year-old girl being raped is a perfect example of why she needs to carry the rapist’s baby and have the state compel her to have a forced birth, why 10-year-old girls are fleeing the state of Michigan."
MSNBC then played a clip of South Carolina state Senator Katrina Shealy, who is Republican, voicing her opposition to a strict pro-life bill.
"And let me just say, as a Southern Baptist, I grew up reading the Bible, maybe a backsliding Baptist, but I still know the Bible. Jesus never once talked about abortion, never once, and it was happening back in ancient times. It was happening during his time. Never once mentioned it. And for people perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ down to one issue, it’s heresy," Scarborough said after the clip.
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"If you don’t believe me, if that makes you angry, why don’t you do something you haven’t done in a long time? Open the Bible, open the New Testament, read the red letters, you won’t see it there...They’ve also conveniently overlooked the parts of the New Testament when Jesus talks about taking care of the needy, taking care of those who are helpless, who live a hopeless life, because they believe, these state legislators believe that life begins at fertilization and ends at child birth," he added.
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