Smashmouth Rising,

Rising, September 16, 2024.

Introduction.

Last week I participated in a debate over abolitionism and abortion with

T Russell Hunter, sponsored by Bible Dingers. I thought the exchange was fruitful, courteous,

and well worth considering. In case you missed it that exchange is embedded below.

I thank Bible Dingers for hosting it and I thank Russell for the charitable nature of the

exchange. What I would like to do here in this space, weather permitting,

is assemble a rag tag collection

of observations about the debate and the topic after the fact. These observations will be about

things said in the debate itself, as well as the underlying conditions that obviously create the debate.

Emphasize that word ragtag.

The points I want to make here might hop about a bit.

Please note at the front end that my concerns about the radical wing of the abolitionist movement

are concerns that would apply to the people it applies to.

I'm not attributing any of that to Russell.

Challenging rhetoric.

One of the things that I said in the debate that seemed to have traction in the comments

afterwards was the fact that I did not believe that Russell's forceful disagreement with my position

was mean-spirited in any way. I thought he comported himself as a Christian gentleman throughout.

This is an issue that really needs to be worked out down to the ground and giving way to

sinful attitudes just gets in the way of that.

...