Former New England Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson gave Democratic Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams a lesson on faith and abortion.
Watson played for New England at both the start and end of his NFL career, playing for the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens as well.
Watson is also zealous about his faith and pushed back after an August tweet from Abrams that said support for abortion was a manifestation of her faith.
“In college, a friend who shared my faith challenged me to think and changed my perspective on abortion. Abortion care is health care. As a person of faith and as the next governor, it’s my responsibility to protect a woman’s right to choose,” Abrams tweeted.
“Respectfully if you identify as a Christian your authority is the Word of God not the opinion of a friend who shares your faith,” Watson tweeted in response.
Respectfully if you identify as a Christian your authority is the Word of God not the opinion of a friend who shares your faith. This ad conveys empathy but it also conveys baseless compromise. If your holy scripture sanctions abortion as it does love/justice/charity explain how https://t.co/B6kw1BjFh5
— Benjamin Watson (@BenjaminSWatson) August 9, 2022
“This ad conveys empathy but it also conveys baseless compromise. If your holy scripture sanctions abortion as it does love/justice/charity explain how.”
Abrams has been at pains in her campaign to say that support for abortion is not a contradiction to her faith.
Can you be pro-abortion and pro-God?
Yes: 2% (13 Votes)
No: 98% (646 Votes)
“While your faith tradition may tell you that you personally do not want to make that choice, it is not my right as a Christian to impose that value system on someone else,” she said, according to Yahoo.
“Because the value that should overhang everything is the right to make our own decisions, the free will that the God I believe in gave us,” she said.
Watson sees life differently.
Watson spoke about life in a 2021 interview with Baptist Press printed by Kentucky Today.
“We know that human life is different … and that it should be honored and respected. There is something very special about life, and it is a lie from Satan that we can discard our children without consequence,” he said.
“And not just the outward consequence. I’m talking about the inward, just dealing with that life,” he said.
Watson said abortion is not a political issue as much as one about faith.
“I look at this issue as one of justice, and the Bible speaks very clearly about justice and our righteousness over and over and over again throughout Scripture,” he said. “You see God’s heart for justice for the oppressed, for the fatherless, for the widow. And so justice is simply about protecting the vulnerable, giving people their just due.
“There are plenty of verses in Scripture that talk about speaking up for the vulnerable and acting justly. When I think about the preborn child in the womb, there is no other human being that is as vulnerable as a person is in the state. I’m advocating for the preborn child, but I’m also advocating for mothers that are bearing these children,” he said.
