JEFFERSON CITY – Since being elected for the first time to office in 2018, Pastor Doug Richey of Pisgah Baptist Church, Excelsior Springs, has served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. Last month, I spoke with Richey about the importance of Christian involvement in the public sphere, as well as about ongoing efforts to keep Missouri a pro-life state. The following transcription of our conversation has been edited because of space limitations:
BENJAMIN HAWKINS: Why should Missouri Baptists get involved?
DOUG RICHEY: “Because truth matters. When you look at the issues of the day, the truth of God is under attack in the public arena. Christians have … a unique blessing to directly participate in our constitutional republic. But that blessing brings with it a more expanded responsibility of stewarding that blessing, right? So God has blessed us with tremendous influence in the way that our government functions. And we have to engage. It’s not an option. If we don’t stand up and get involved, then we are allowing the enemy of God to continue to work aggressively to rob humanity of the blessings God intended us to enjoy.”
HAWKINS: You also say “truth matters,” but not only in a theoretical or abstract way. It matters in very practical ways, right?
RICHEY: “Yes, absolutely. Everything from tax policy; to the way that we look at those who are the most vulnerable among us, and how we are supposed to take care of them; to our understanding of parental authority and criminal rights; to the way that we even see discussions currently taking place about human sexuality and gender. All of this is touching the truth of God. …
“Sometimes we think that, as Christians, we don’t want to get involved in the public arena, we don’t want to get involved in politics, for fear that we might end up losing the opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus, right? And I understand that impulse. I understand and appreciate that concern. The problem is, in that moment, we’re giving into the subtle move of the devil to devalue the significance and blessing of all God’s truth.
“Quite frankly, the world around us already knows what we believe on a host of issues, and for us to go silent on those issues because we think that our neighbor might not give us an opportunity to talk to them about Jesus is a problem. We need to have confidence that the truth of God actually is important in every aspect of life. And as His image bearers, as ambassadors, we are to live out that truth and to speak that truth up to and including the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
HAWKINS: Tell me about how and why, as a pastor, you decided to get involved in politics.
RICHEY: “I honestly never thought that I would be directly involved in politics. I never shied away in my preaching from addressing issues of the day because, where the Word of God speaks, we should speak without apology. But … I began to recognize that there was a disconnect within the broader evangelical family with respect to our role in government, and the growing prevalence of a mindset that politics equals corruption. I mean, when you listen to people generally discuss politics, when they generally discuss politicians, there’s this … (assumption) … that politicians are corrupt, you can’t trust them. Well, if that’s true, then we’re all in a really, really bad place. So that began to really disturb me, because God established government, and he raises up individuals to serve in governing authority. And if God-fearing men and women who love the Lord, who believe the Word, choose to not get engaged for fear of being corrupted, then you end up with us becoming a Christian ghetto, and we’re not actually being salt and light.
“So people ask that the question, ‘Why did you initially run?’ Well, that’s the answer. It was to try, by God’s grace, to establish an example of why that ‘politicians are corrupt’ maxim is not true. You can get involved. You can serve without being corrupted. Politics can corrupt. Politicians can be corrupt. But they aren’t necessarily corrupt, right? There are a lot of people that don’t get corrupted by it. And we have to have people who love the Lord, who believe the Word and who love their neighbors enough to subject themselves to the harsh treatment that comes at politicians who serve – and who, indeed, serve without being corrupted. We need that example in a very prevalent way. And again, to the extent that it’s possible by God’s grace, I was willing to jump in the fray to say this is important, and we need to be involved. And we need to be involved in a way that shows integrity, and a commitment to the truth.”
HAWKINS: Roe v Wade was overturned a few years ago, but the fight for life is still key in Missouri. What do Missouri Baptists need to know about the ongoing efforts to keep Missouri pro-life?
RICHEY: “The good news is that we were able to put the trigger language (that would immediately ban abortion at the reversal of Roe v Wade) into House Bill 126 in 2019, which was my very first session. That was a very meaningful moment when we were able to get that passed. We were mocked by the left for putting in the trigger language because they honestly believed it would never be possible for Roe v Wade to be overturned. And it obviously was, so the good news is, right now, Missouri does not have elective abortion. Now, that doesn’t mean Missouri residents can’t leave the state to pursue abortions. But we saw a tremendous victory following Roe v Wade, specific to Missouri. And I’m grateful for that.
“The problem right now we’re facing is that the very thing we’ve been fighting for 50 years is now a reality, and it caught many people by surprise – even evangelical Christians who have been fighting to end abortion for decades upon decades. I don’t know that we were prepared for that day to actually arrive. We’ve been arguing that Roe v Wade needs to be overturned and that the issue … needs to be settled at the state level. Well, that means that this whole debate now has been brought home. For 50 years, the focus of the battle was in D.C. … Now it has come home. It’s now in our backyard. Now we are having to deal with the reality of fighting against initiative petition efforts, where our neighbors are going to have yard signs promoting abortion.
“So now’s not the time for us to grow weak. We need to continue to lean into the very same arguments we’ve been making against abortion for the last 50 years. Science is on our side, the truth is on our side, the stories of abortion survivors – I mean, there’s so much going for us, even in the public messaging on this issue. Now’s not the time for us to grow skittish and back off, we need to continue to lean into this fight because we love people and we believe in the value, the dignity and sanctity of human life. Our compassion should drive us to fight vigorously against abortion.
“And it looks like we may have that opportunity here in Missouri, if the left is able to secure enough signatures to get (the pro-abortion initiative on the ballot in November).”
HAWKINS: What is this initiative petition, and why is it so important?
RICHEY: “The initiative petition will amend the Missouri Constitution, to put into the Constitution a right to abortion. And if that happens, that comes with significant implications. … That means your tax dollars now would be forced by the Constitution to have to be used for those services.”
HAWKINS: It’s going to do a lot more than that, right? It strips back all the statutes that have been passed into law not only to limit abortions, but also to protect women, correct?
RICHEY: “Yes, so everything from parental notification, to abortion clinics having to meet health standards and medical standards – all of the laws that have been put on the books over these many years to try to protect women and children will be stripped back. And that is a significant problem.
“This is the other thing, too, that our Missouri Baptist family needs to understand. What this language does, is it creates the Constitutional right to an abortion from conception to the full nine months of gestation.”
HAWKINS: The proposed Constitutional amendment expressly says that abortions are allowed in order ‘to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.’ Why is this language important?
RICHEY: “Right now, in our statute, elective abortion is illegal. … But let’s say a woman is in a car accident, and they’re going lose both the mother and the baby, but they can save one. That’s not an elective abortion. That is a life-saving effort to try to save everyone possible. And if they lose a life in that process, that’s not an elective abortion.
“Well, when you expand that (as in the proposed Constitutional amendment), from only the physical life of the mother, you then end up with the claim being made that because of financial duress, stress, anxiety, suicidal ideation – all of these other types of mental or emotional elements of a pregnant woman’s experience can be used at any point in that pregnancy.
“There is one other detail that Missouri Baptists need to be aware of in terms of the language that is going to be in this Constitutional amendment. So, in the amendment, … it references ‘reproductive health care’ and ‘freedom.’ So, what people need to be aware of, is that language matters. And the left is very good, unfortunately, at doing what they do – and, that is, they exploit terminology to open the door to additional moves in the ‘chess matches’ of politics. So when you when you see ‘reproductive freedom’ and ‘reproductive healthcare,’: Number one, it’s a way for them to not have to actually speak about this creating a constitutional right to abortion. They’re doing what they can to make abortion equivalent to healthcare, which it’s not. In every abortion, a patient dies. That’s not healthcare.
“But in addition to that, when you look at the transgender movement, right now, they are using the very same language, ‘reproductive freedom,’ ‘reproductive healthcare,’ and they’re tying their interest in ‘gender affirming care’, ‘gender affirming surgical procedures’ … to the very same terms. … If this passes in the state’s Constitution, then the transgender community (will make) an appeal to the Constitution (and argue) by extension that they have a Constitutional right to reproductive healthcare. So now you’re talking about the ability for them to tap into public tax dollars, your tax dollars, paying for gender reassignment surgeries and removing genitalia. So this is the type of stuff that you have to watch closely. Missouri Baptists have got to be discerning, read the language, understand what that language means not only in the current context, but what’s coming around the corner. Because this happens all the time.”