Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Methodist Pastor Says Caring About Unborn Babies Who Die in Abortions is “Idolatry”
life news ^ | Steven Ertelt | May 18, 2015

Posted on 05/18/2015 2:16:18 PM PDT by Morgana

The United Methodist Church has been a subject of controversy for years as it supports legalized abortion within the context of supposedly being a Christian denomination. Now, one pro-life advocate has uncovered a quote from a Methodist pastor who says that caring about unborn babies who die in abortions is “idolatry.”

Sarah Terzo, who has a knack for documenting the history of the abortion debate and the abortion advocacy movement by posting quotes from pro-abortion activists through the years, posted a new quote today that features Minister John M Swomley.

Swomley is an ordained United Methodist minister, Terzo explains and, from 1960 to 1984 he was professor of Christian Ethics at St. Paul’s school of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. At the time he was active in ministry, he was president of Americans for Religious Liberty and a longtime board member and sometimes vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union and chair of its Church – State committee. So here is a Christian pastor serving on the board of a prominent pro-abortion group.

Here’s what he had to say about pro-life Americans in his 1999 book Compulsory Pregnancy: the War against American Women:

“Opponents of abortion in America have attributed to fetal life a sacredness that is actually idolatry… Fetal idolatry denies a woman’s right to control her body, her life, her destiny, all of which must be sacrificed to an embryo or fetus once she is pregnant…

Fetal idolatry shows no mercy. … One of the major critiques of idolatry about unborn life is its lack of concern for the abundant or purposeful life to which all of us should be called. No one of us should be an unwanted child or have to experience emotional abandonment or lack of compassion and love in childhood.”

Granted, the quote is from 1999, but has much changed in the United Methodist Church since then? Unfortunately, no.

In January, Bill Mefford, director of civil and human rights at the UMC’s Washington office, used the March for Life to mock the event with a sign and picture he posted on Twitter, saying, “I march for sandwiches.” Many are upset that a church leader used a solemn event to liken an unborn baby to a sandwich.

Click here to sign up for daily pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com

Last year, Methodist Health Care Ministries, whose logo claims they are serving humanity to honor God, gave almost half a million to the nation’s top abortion provider Planned Parenthood. In 2013, a pro-abortion article was posted on the General Board of Church and Society website and the United Methodist Church opposed the bill to ban late-term abortions.

This is why pro-life Methodists have left the denomination over the last couple of decades and continue to leave the church in droves, causing historic low membership rolls for the church.


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS: abortion; methodist; pastor; prolife; religiousleft; sin; umc
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last

1 posted on 05/18/2015 2:16:18 PM PDT by Morgana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Morgana

This type of garbage is why my husband left the Methodist Church many years ago.


2 posted on 05/18/2015 2:18:04 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

It sounds like a good part of the Methodist Church has become the church of Satan.


3 posted on 05/18/2015 2:18:07 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

The Methodist church has been taken over by Satan.


4 posted on 05/18/2015 2:18:16 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (A free society canÂ’t let the parameters of its speech be set by murderous extremists.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Ugh.


5 posted on 05/18/2015 2:23:22 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: "I should like to drive away not only the Turks (moslims) but all my foes.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Sicko. Satanic.


6 posted on 05/18/2015 2:23:30 PM PDT by Ray76 (Obama says, "Unlike my mum, Ruth has all the documents needed to prove who Mark's father was.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Revrunt Swomley. has a list of rather stupid books to his credit.

the “message” he’s sending about fetal idolatry...shows what little he knows ABOUT authentic Idolatry...or much of anything else.


7 posted on 05/18/2015 2:23:30 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana
I am going to hazard a guess that Mr. Swomley believes differently now.
Unfortunately you don't get do-overs.
8 posted on 05/18/2015 2:27:28 PM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Jude 1:4 - For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.


9 posted on 05/18/2015 2:27:36 PM PDT by Mechanicos (Nothing's so small it can't be blown out of proportion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Not to stir anyone up, but my understanding is that Hillary is a Methodist, among other things.


10 posted on 05/18/2015 2:27:43 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

If wanting to protect Life is Idolatry then does that mean they belive that life is non-living, because the definition of Idolatry is worshiping a non-living item.....

Defiition of Idolatry:

Idolatry is the worship of an idol or a physical object as a representation of a god.

So they have gone to the “dark side” of thinking that life is not “life” as THEY see it.....

Sick, sick twisting of the rule of God by this Methodist idiot...


11 posted on 05/18/2015 2:28:19 PM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana
Swomley is was an ordained United Methodist minister....
12 posted on 05/18/2015 2:28:25 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservativejoy

ditto


13 posted on 05/18/2015 2:30:08 PM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MeshugeMikey

The United Methodist church is dominated by the homosexual agenda.


14 posted on 05/18/2015 2:30:22 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (This is a wake up call. Join the Sultan Knish ping list.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Morgana
Make no mistake, we WILL win this argument eventually.

We may lose many other arguments, but we WILL win the abortion argument, and it will be sooner than many might think.

15 posted on 05/18/2015 2:34:32 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (You can't spell Hillary without using the letters L, I, A, & R)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

To paraphrase a quote from Mr. T, I pity these fools when they stand before God at the Great White Throne judgement. There is a special place in hell for apostates to pervert or ignore God’s word.


16 posted on 05/18/2015 2:36:27 PM PDT by TMA62 (Al Sharpton - The North Korea of race relations)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Unbelievable!


17 posted on 05/18/2015 2:36:46 PM PDT by expat2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

It seems the Methodists have added a third sacrament; human sacrifice.


18 posted on 05/18/2015 2:37:35 PM PDT by xkaydet65
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

I will never under the mental hoops these people have to jump through to convince themselves of this crap.


19 posted on 05/18/2015 2:38:38 PM PDT by GeronL (NEW ARRIVALS -> 99 cents buy here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/541331)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xkaydet65

Molech requires human sacrifice. May God NOT have mercy on their bloodthirsty souls.


20 posted on 05/18/2015 2:47:13 PM PDT by BipolarBob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson