Background Briefing: September 7, 2021
The Evangelical Movement’s Determination to End Abortion and It’s Strategists on the Supreme Court
We begin with the role of white Protestant evangelicals as the foot soldiers of the anti-abortion movement who are now celebrating their victory as the Texas law the Supreme Court refused to block empowers vigilantes to stop abortions in the state. But the brains behind the movement are the five ultra-conservative Catholic justices on the court who handed the Texas right-to-lifers that victory. They are the generals leading the movement and guiding its strategy. Joining us is Matthew Avery Sutton, the chair of the history department and the Berry distinguished professor of liberal arts at Washington State University as well as the author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism and, most recently, Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War. He joins us to discuss his article at The Guardian, “Evangelicals are one step closer to the ultimate prize: ending abortion in America” and explain how evangelicals believe that as long as there is abortion in America, God will punish the United States. However these same evangelicals are invested in the end of times and expect to be raptured up to heaven when Armageddon comes. So the theological consistency of the movement is not entirely clear except to say most of us will end up burning in the lake of fire.
Who the 9/11 Hijackers Were and How They Deviated From Bin Laden’s Orders
Then we speak with William Arkin, one of America’s premier military experts whose investigative work has appeared on the front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Until recently he was an NBC News analyst and a reporter for thirty years and he also served in Army intelligence during the Cold War. The bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including and The Generals Have No Clothes: The Untold Story of Our Endless Wars, his latest book is On That Day: The Definitive Timeline of 9/11, and he joins us to discuss his ongoing series for Newsweek, “The Road to 9/11.”