Someone's pulling Curtis' string on abortion

When Steve Curtis, the head of American Right to Life Action, attacked US Senate candidate Bob Schaffer’s pro-life record, he revealed more about the sorry state of the anti-abortion movement in Colorado than he did any lack of support by Schaffer for pro-life policies.

And he unwittingly demonstrated why conservatives have lost control over the Republican Party, at least in Colorado.

“What Curtis did,” says one conservative from El Paso County, “was the moral equivalent of farting in an elevator.”

People in the GOP are getting tired of it, he stressed.  

For the past two years the pro-life movement has seen a schism develop between hard-core, Christian anti-constitutionalists who believe that you have to evangelize their type of Christianity first and then be pro-life; and the older, more mainstream pro-life activists, who, while overwhelmingly and proudly Christian, think that abortion can, in part, be solved through passing legislation in an incremental fashion.

The evangelistic side of the anti-abortion movement, which includes Curtis, has been taken over by devotees of Denver Bible Church, headed by controversial pastor Bob Enyart. While Curtis accuses Scahffer campiagn manager Dick Wadhams of pulling Schaffer’s strings, it’s really Enyart that pulls Curtis’.

Enyart, 49, is an ex-Catholic. He advocates that the US replace its current republican form of government with a constitutional monarchy. He would like to replace the current legal system with laws based on the Old Testament, kind of a Christian sharia law.  He teaches that women should not be able to vote and he sports slogans like “Homos make me sick.” He also runs a website shadowgov.com that advocates a new constitution “just in case,” says Enyart. There is very little doubt that Enyart thinks he should be king under this new constitution. The sad thing is that his followers most likely think that too.    

Sources have estimated that over 75 percent of Colorado Right to Life’s board of directors is made up of attendees of Enyart’s church. That, more than the critical comments about James Dobson that Colorado Right to Life made last year, was the reason why National Right to Life kicked out the Colorado chapter.

“Before the national organization kicked them out,” says one 20-year pro-lifer, “you saw a large scale exodus from Colorado Right to Life. They just won’t sign up for the religious nonsense spouted by Enyart.”

Although some sources say that the Colorado Right to Life ceases to have any influence now in the Republican Party, others are not so sure.  

“Part of the problem is inside the Republican Party,” said a pro-life activist from Douglas County. “Curtis is the son-in-law of Lilly Nunez,” he continued referring to the Republican National Committeewoman of Colorado. “And Lilly encourages them in these attacks. At the very least she does not discourage them. And that gives them at least a modicum of credibility. If she can’t do her RNC job and defend GOP candidates she ought to quit that post. She’s an embarrassment to the Party.”

Meanwhile a new pro-life chapter of the National Right to Life organization, called Colorado Citizens for Life has taken over here in Colorado.

“It’s slow work though,” says one person familiar with them. “They have to fight the pro-abortionists and Enyart’s crowd too.”