PBS's Bonnie Erbe Rehashes Crazy Conspiracy Theory About Churches

Nearly two months ago, atheist feminist and PBS "To the Contrary" host Bonnie Erbe insisted that the pro-life movement is essentially a church pew-packing conspiracy:

What is the religious right doing by campaigning against abortion? First and foremost, its efforts seem aimed at trying to keep church pews filled by bringing more and more poor people into the world.

She's still at it. In her June 4 Thomas Jefferson Street blog entry at USNews.com. Erbe lamented the results of a new survey about teens and sex:

Today's culture is certainly part of the reason why more teen girls think unwed motherhood is OK. But churches that lobby teens heavily not to have abortions are also giving the ones who do get pregnant no choice other than to bring those pregnancies to term. The churches benefit by increasing the number of followers. The teens do not. Their lives would have been much more rewarding if they postponed parenthood until after they were educated and married.

Of course, Erbe never bothered to explain just why churches would want to deluge their ranks with poor people who can't contribute much into the offering plate. Since Erbe thinks religion is a bunch of hooey, surely she can't think that churches are solely concerned with the spiritual state of those in its pews. Wouldn't that be an irrational business model?

Indeed, Erbe appears to not understand that biblically faithful churches will both show compassion towards teenage mothers while also remaining firmly committed to encouraging parishioners to see their sexuality as a gift to be shared only with their spouses and only in the bonds of marriage.

That balance of compassion and fidelity to biblical sexual ethics stands in stark contrast to Erbe's secular humanist sentiments which certainly sound harsher and more judgmental  than anything coming from pro-life religious circles.