Methodist Pastor is Chaplain/PR Flack for Planned Parenthood

Concerned Women for America ^ | 10/14/05 | Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse

[wagglebee]

According to the Wesley Blog, Planned Parenthood has hired a chaplain, Dr. Ignacio Castuera. This chaplain, though, doesn’t serve the spiritual needs of people. Instead, he serves the public relations needs of Planned Parenthood (PP). Here’s the description of his responsibilities, from a PP press release:

As chaplain, Dr. Castuera will act as a public spokesperson to promote Planned Parenthood's mission and vision. He will play a pivotal role in communicating the theological justification for choice, sexuality, and contraception to the Planned Parenthood community and the general public. He will also be available to provide advice to volunteer and staff leadership on moral and ethical issues around our mission. In addition, Dr. Castuera will work with affiliates to expand their relationships with religious leaders and organizations in their communities.

In other words, the “chaplain” is nothing more than a PR flack for the organization and his special focus is to provide “theological justification for choice, sexuality and contraception.” In addition, he is supposed to build relationships with religious leaders and the public so that he can sell them on the morality of PP’s mission and vision.

As noted in Wesley Blog, Dr. Castuera is a full-time pastor at a United Methodist Church. That means: His new Planned Parenthood job conflicts with his day job. He is not only personally and professionally providing a cover of credibility for abortion, his position in the church gives the imprimatur of the denomination for his activities.

Of course, the United Methodist denomination is already in trouble in this area. The Women’s Division is actively involved in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice –– which demonstrates for abortion and other issues related to sexual “freedom” in the most crude and objectionable manner possible.

The ideology underlying the demonstrations, however, is based on quite sophisticated (if convoluted) logic –– liberals, who are “more mature and devout” are obviously pro-choice because of their religious faith, rather than despite their beliefs. After all, they declare, abortion-on-demand protects women from “back-alley” abortions and heals their distress at an unplanned pregnancy. Besides, if (heaven forbid!) Biblical principles were used as a guide for personal behavior or the ultimate authority for what is considered “moral,” the wall separating church and state would completely break down. Further, we must keep the “government out of our bedrooms!”

The ultimate argument, though, is that abortion is an issue of “religious rights” as well as “women’s rights,” because it protects a woman’s “right to choose” based on her personal beliefs.

These are the ideas that Dr. Castuera has been hired to promote. Planned Parenthood is blatantly trying to capitalize on its relationship with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in positioning its services in a religious context. They will use rhetoric and symbolism to turn the issue into a question of religious freedom and human rights.

As the nation turns more conservative –– more and more teens are embracing abstinence, more girls and women are discovering the humanity, via high-definition sonograms, of babies in the womb, teen pregnancies and teen abortions are down –– Planned Parenthood is getting desperate and obviously is reaching out to broaden its base among church-goers.

Dr. Castuera is just the latest pawn in Planned Parenthood’s crass efforts, but he should be forced to choose between his church and his pro-abortion cause.

[wagglebee]

These are the ideas that Dr. Castuera has been hired to promote. Planned Parenthood is blatantly trying to capitalize on its relationship with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice in positioning its services in a religious context. They will use rhetoric and symbolism to turn the issue into a question of religious freedom and human rights.

However, what these baby butchers will never admit, is that their "choice" ALWAYS leads to the murder of an innocent child.

[wagglebee]

Ping.

[TigersEye]

Abortion is not about saving women’s lives!

Total Abortions since 1973

45,951,133

------------------------------------------------------------

Why the drop after 1960? (in deaths of women from illegal abortions)

The reasons were new and better antibiotics, better surgery and the establishment of intensive care units in hospitals. This was in the face of a rising population. Between 1967 and 1970 sixteen states legalized abortion. In most it was limited, only for rape, incest and severe fetal handicap (life of mother was legal in all states). There were two big exceptions — California in 1967, and New York in 1970 allowed abortion on demand. Now look at the chart carefully.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Abortion Statistics - Decision to Have an Abortion (U.S.)

· 25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing

· 21.3% of women cannot afford a baby

· 14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner does not want a child

· 12.2% of women are too young (their parents or others object to the pregnancy)

· 10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education or career

· 7.9% of women want no (more) children

· 3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health

2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So how many women’s lives have been saved by abortion?

Only about 3% of abortions since 1972 were reported to be “due to a risk to maternal health.” A reasonable person would recognize that not all of those cases represent a lethal risk. But let’s say they did. That means that nearly 45 million fetuses were butchered to save the lives of about 1.3 million women. Or put another way; 35 babies are killed to save each woman.

Abortion was legal in all 50 states prior to Roe v. Wade in cases of danger to the life of the woman.

[Jaded]

There is no theological justification for murder of the unborn.

On a side note....The Life Chain for our Parish is October 30th. So if you're in the area of Deer Park, Texas come join us.

[APFel]

Not in the article:

Dr. Ignacio Castuera is the pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church Watts in Los Angeles, CA.

APf

[gpapa]

"God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being." [Donum vitae, intro.5]

"man cannot be separated from God, nor politics from morality" [St. Thomas More]

Catholic Californian

[zzen01]

United Methodist Church.. !?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Look on the bright side--one more abortion, one less Democrat. There's a great e-mail making the rounds of the internet that says Republicans should encourage women to marry women, men to marry men and also abortions, eventually, we'll have far fewer Democrats.

Of course, I don't mean that.

[AMHN]

"...Dr. Castuera is a full-time pastor at a United Methodist Church. That means: His new Planned Parenthood job conflicts with his day job."

"How does what he teaches conflict with his day job? Western theology (from the earliest seeds of Augustine’s’ writings), taken to its logical conclusion is the source of atheism and humanism (albeit only one with a truly humble mind can/will accept this statement and search/read further [URL provided]). We are witnessing this transition in most of the western Christian denominations (even though to run from these transitions, and temporarily escape this end conclusion, new and increasingly fundamentalist denominations are created which in turn last even shorter periods of time then did their predecessors [sometimes decades, sometimes a century or more])

An excerpt from the book 'The River of Fire' by Dr. Alexandre Kalomiros, http://www.orthodoxpress.org/parish/river_of_fire.htm, precisely points out the basis for the ultimate degeneration of western theology into atheism and humanism. It has no where else to go.

[therut]

I saw this guy on c-span last year. He introduced the President of Planned Parenthood and gave her a rave review of the book she was selling. He gave me the creeps.