Commentary: The real story behind why I was fired from Ohio Right to Life

Congressman Max Miller (R-Ohio) shocked the world last Tuesday when he replied to my relatively innocuous tweet about Jesus, calling it “bigoted” and demanding that I delete it. Two days later, my employer, Ohio Right to Life, fired me.

Why did Rep. Miller respond to me so harshly? And did our exchange contribute to my firing? TL;DR version: I refused to be muzzled and bend the knee to political correctness, which my employer saw as a threat to the organization's ability to remain influential with those in political power and with moderate voters.

From Matt Walsh getting criticized by right-wingers for being “mean” to Dylan Mulvaney to Christians declaring we should “love our neighbors” by taking an experimental vaccine and staying home, the last few years have been a non-stop battle between traditional conservatives afraid to appear offensive and the new brazen brand of conservatism that welcomes a struggle for our future.

In a nutshell, this same internal battle among conservatives is why I was fired from Ohio Right to Life: I wanted to fight against abortion more boldly, and the organization was uncomfortable with ruffling feathers to do so.

Ohio Right to Life has long been known as the “establishment” pro-life organization. Its president, Mike Gonidakis, infamously opposed and lobbied against Ohio's heartbeat bill in the name of “strategy” for nearly a decade before finally supporting it in 2019. However, when I accepted a position with Ohio Right to Life, I was assured that this was no longer the case and that my newer brand of conservatism would be welcome.

Spoiler alert: it was not welcome.

The organization often told me not to use terms like “murder” or “evil” when describing abortion and to frame messaging more positively instead. I pleaded for us not to prioritize politics over ending abortion during board meetings, which upset some. Most frustratingly for them, I post very openly on my personal X (formerly Twitter) account about God and the evil of abortion, while also condemning weak-kneed Republicans who proved themselves useless.

For months, the board came to the CEO, Peter Range, about things I posted, asking him to try to get me to tone things down. Additionally, there were times when he even believed my posts were unacceptable. For the record, Peter has been a great advocate for me. While he and I disagreed over many things, I do not question his sincerity or character.

When we started the campaign against the abortion lobby’s ballot initiative, our differences came to a boiling point. The initiative will be on the ballot this November and will determine whether or not it is a constitutional “right” to get an abortion through all nine months of pregnancy with zero restrictions. Given the seriousness of what was at stake, everyone became concerned with messaging. However, I believe the desire to utilize effective messaging in order to win quickly morphed into a fear of speaking the truth at all. Cowardice had begun to masquerade as strategy and wisdom. This is evidenced even by the name of the coalition created for the campaign, “Protect Women Ohio.”

Again, having previously worked on numerous campaigns in Ohio and seeing firsthand what gets voters out to the polls in an off-year election, I felt that this situation demanded strong messaging to convey the urgency of what is on the line and get our people out to vote.

On August 10, I made a post on my personal X account in which I called an abortion activist a “murderous liar.” My superior confronted me about this post, stating that it was the wrong tone. After days of going back and forth over the appropriateness of this specific post, Peter and I explored the idea of us potentially parting ways due to our differences. Tuesday, August 15, we spoke for the last time on this topic, and we discussed the possibility of me switching roles. We left the conversation without a final decision and said we would “pray about it.”

Later that evening, Rep. Max Miller responded to a different post of mine, calling it “bigoted” and “too far” and demanding that I delete it. Two days later, on Thursday afternoon, my superior called me, letting me know that the Miller situation had become a distraction, my social media as a whole was just too much, and we had to part ways. So while I believe that our separation would have happened regardless of the viral exchange with Max Miller and that the exchange with Rep. Miller was not the cause of my firing, I think that it played a role in the timing in which it happened.

I hope and pray that this situation emboldens Christians and conservatives to take a stand, not just against the left but also against our own leaders who refuse to recognize the urgency of what we are up against. The time for old-school conservatism is gone. We are no longer in a place where we can afford to prioritize politeness and compromise.

If we want to have any hope of saving our country from the outright assault we are facing from the left, then there must be a complete disruption and overhaul within the GOP, and it starts from the bottom up. Every person commanded to remain silent to avoid looking “radical” or “rebellious” must resist. Our marching orders from today onward must be, as the great reformer, Martin Luther, said, “Peace if possible, truth at all costs.”