Posted on 07/27/2013 2:57:48 PM PDT by Kaslin
Pastor Tim led a small but wealthy United Methodist Church for almost twenty years. He used to tell his congregation the following story every few months: “When pro-lifers stand in front of abortion clinics and shout at women who go to have abortions, they aren’t showing the love of Christ. Until you’ve walked a mile in someone else’s shoes, you have no right judge. That’s not what God wants.”
I’ve been involved in the pro-life movement for about a decade. I’ve never seen pro-lifers standing outside an abortion clinic shouting at women who are either going in to have an abortion or leaving the clinic after having one. But let’s assume that Pastor Tim is correct in suggesting that this kind of thing actually happens. Some obvious questions follow:
1. There are several thousand abortions performed per day in America. Are there also several thousand women getting shouted down (specifically for having an abortion) per day in America?
2. Is it worse to a) dismember a baby or b) shout at a woman who just paid to have her baby dismembered? (Feel free to assume that both are wrong but, please, answer the question anyway).
3. Given that Pastor Tim talks about civil rights from time to time, shouldn’t he also mention the disproportionate impact of abortion on the black community?
4. Blacks are 12% of the population but 37% of all abortions. Isn’t that a bigger problem than isolated instances of shouting outside of abortion clinics?
5. Do pro choicers ever shout at pro-lifers peaceably assembling outside of abortion clinics? Do they ever try to throw urine, fecal matter, and used tampons on their political opponents?
6. Which is worse: a) getting yelled at for having an abortion, or b) getting hit with a bloody tampon simply for opposing abortion?
The list of questions could go on and on. But I think it would be productive (no pun intended) to stop and ask why Pastor Tim’s rare comments on abortion are always directed toward criticizing pro-life activism instead of abortion itself. Two possibilities follow:
1. Pastor Tim feels uncomfortable as a registered Republican leading a liberal congregation. Telling stories about screaming pro-lifers lets people know he is not “that kind of Republican.” Letting liberal parishioners know he’s not judging them if they have had (or pressured a girlfriend or daughter into having) an abortion is his way of asking not to be judged for his nominally pro-life beliefs. Knowing he’s not being judged is good for Pastor Tim’s self-esteem.
2. Pastor Tim’s congregation provided him with a beautiful and spacious waterfront home for the duration of his tenure as their pastor. Their generous giving also kept the church running smoothly with a budget that remained constantly in the black. Tim had to tread lightly on the abortion issue in order to keep the wealthy liberals in the congregation happy and to keep the offering plates full so he wouldn’t have to live like a Democrat on public assistance.
One Sunday, shortly after Pastor Tim decried the screaming pro-lifers, his associate pastor, an older and wiser man, delivered a stirring message. It was about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. As Pastor Tim listened to the sermon, he must have been wondering what he would have done had he been a preacher during the Nazi Holocaust.
But unashamed pro-lifers already know what Pastor Tim would have done. He would have smiled and told the opposing party exactly what they wanted to hear.
Of course, we’re now in the midst of a Holocaust that has taken the lives of 55 million innocent human beings. If your congregation is led by a pastor like Tim then, please, send him this column. And tell him you’re bypassing the offering plate until he finds the courage to defend the unborn. The more we reward cowardice and hypocrisy, the more viable it becomes outside of the pulpit.
I predict within 5 years the Methodist Church is marrying homosexuals. They r pretty much already pro abortion.
bump
I wouldn’t bet on it. Ever since the liberals failed in their attempt to deny black people (African Conferences) the right to vote in the UMC, they have been losing. Still, several conferences are very liberal, and there’s not a lot the UMC can or will do about them. It’s a loosely bound denomination, and the bishops are far more liberal than the laity. The official position of the church will remain in line with Biblical principles, but the nutcases will continue to ignore it.
This isn’t the Methodist Church that I was raised in and I would rather be unchurched than to be associated with them. How do abortionists and those that support them stand before GOD and begin to justify their actions?
If Pastor Tim was in the same UMC church for almost 20 years, he must have been under a very unusual bishop; most UMC pastors are moved to new churches by their bishops every 3-5 years.
Excellent point. There will probably be a split at some point in the church as the issues come to a head. As I am sure there are those who wondering what is happening to their church.
Heresy leads to decadence.
I think it is about the time for the real churches to go hyper-local. Don’t even apply for tax exempt status - be unregistered, just don’t do anything taxable. House churches are going to make a big comeback with the repression that is coming.
I agree completely.
That may work in the short run, but in the long run it will make no difference.
A couple of years ago, the Methodist pastor in my former church came back from conference, stood up and announced that from henceforth he would be marrying gays. Thankfully, I had already left; however, a friend and her husband stood up and walked right out of the church, never to return! Many more have left since then. It is definitely no longer the church where I was baptized and confirmed, had my children baptized, etc.
For America's large liberal majority, there is a two-word explanation: "sexual freedom". Like the late Admiral Stockwell, who was a Vietnam War POW and ran with Henry Ross Perot said, "it's not a political issue," and he laughted that his four daughters-in-law would be furious with him if he were pro-life.
I now remember that his name was Stockdale, and he said Gore and Quayle were conducting a ping pong match as he stood there unprepared.
Most won’t leave though because wives have “lady friends” in the church, and the husbands won’t buck the wives. Besides, there are not many conservative churches left in easy driving distance.
I am thankful to the United Methodist church, where I grew up. I learned to love Jesus in a United Methodist Church. I have such great memories of happy people, and beautiful Sunday mornings, and joy, and faith- and a fun youth group and a remarkable Pastor, who passed when I was a teen.
I am so sad at what they have become. I tried a few times, over the past 10 years to attend a FUMC service and I felt like running out each time.
:(
The split might occur at some point, I agree. I’m sure the liberals aren’t leaving. They never do. They just feed off of the host until it’s dead.
I know what you mean. I am so thankful for my Sunday School lessons, weekday religious education, Bible studies, singing in the choir, playing the chimes, MYF, summer camp, etc. It was THE BEST church to grow up in over 60 years ago. Not anymore.
You are SOOOO right on! The Lord will replace those monies earned in taxes hundreds of times over.
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