Piper constructs elaborate, squirming abstracts to avoid saying anything negative about Trump by name.

Compare it to his full-throated condemnation of Obama over the course of earlier campaigns—because the clergy Obama associated with disagreed with Piper on culture-war topics. https://twitter.com/dukekwondc/status/1319288028171386882">https://twitter.com/dukekwond...

The point here isn& #39;t to point out hypocrisy, rather it& #39;s to note the depth to which the religious right& #39;s warping of Christian cultural engagement around reproduction and sexuality has debased the church& #39;s role and voice.

Piper can barely bring himself to *obliquely* criticize the *kind* of person lies continually, cheats workers of their wages, puts children in cages to deliberately terrorize families, abuses the vulnerable, and a host of other sins.

He can& #39;t bring himself to clearly articulate the uncomfortable truth beneath his rhetorical hedges: abortion rates have declined precipitously under pro-abortion, Democratic presidents. Restrictive anti-abortion laws have not changed that trajectory.

They have only made access to health care for people *without the money to travel* more difficult.

The story of abortion restrictions being the tip of the spear in a fight for a "pro-life" culture has always been an ugly lie, and Piper& #39;s deep discomfort in the piece is telling.

America& #39;s fusion of Christian fundamentalism and right-reactionary politics has produced a culture where extrajudicial police murders are celebrated, bloody wars are cheered, and the needless deaths of the old and infirm are shrugged off *by the self-appointed defenders of life*.

Piper& #39;s column is a welcome, if lukewarm, gesture to that conflict. But he still pulls punches. Still retreats to the safety of pious generalities his followers will find palatable. He helped build this world, and if he& #39;s lost the stomach for it, he needs to face what he& #39;s made.