If fundamentalists had an ounce of integrity, they would have been forthright in explaining their beliefs and convictions and would have spelled out their implications before the convention voted to affirm the 2000 BF&M. They knew that few Southern Baptists are opposed to birth control and that most Southern Baptists who plan their parenthood use oral contraceptives. So, they have been unveiling the agenda that they hid within the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message in piecemeal fashion.

The latest piece to emerge is a statement by Dorothy Patterson, wife of takeover architect and Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson, that the "function of the pill is not contraceptive but abortive."

Patterson also said, "taking an oral contraceptive is certainly not equal to purposely getting an abortion." This statement is uncharacteristically timid and reserved. Fundamentalists like Dorothy Patterson and her husband pride themselves on speaking boldly and plainly. They do not hesistate in the least to declare that aborting a fertilized ovum is equivalent to murder.

Why is she afraid to use the same kind of incendiary rhetoric when describing the use of oral contraceptives? Could it be that Southern Baptists, like many Roman Catholics, would balk at equating the use of birth control pills with murder?

Southern Baptists like Dorothy Patterson know that if people realized that they want to bestow eight-cell blastocysts with a sanctity equal to that of fully developed infants, they might be more likely to reconsider opposing stem cell research and first trimester abortions.

You can't have it both ways Dorothy. Either taking an oral contraceptive is equal to purposely getting an abortion, or it is not. If all abortions are murder, all use of oral contraceptives is murder.

This blog is cross-posted from the Mainstream Baptist weblog.