Posted on 06/07/2009 2:56:42 PM PDT by lewisglad
News of Dr. George Tiller's death was only hours old last week when bloggers began asking the question: What kind of church accepts a doctor who performs abortions into its membership?
"I wonder what kind, if any, preaching against sin this church did since Tiller felt welcomed there," opined Blue Collar Todd, who declares on his blog that "liberalism, or sometimes called progressivism, is a false religion that stands in total antithesis to biblical Christianity."
Todd has already made up his mind, and so have others who called or e-mailed me this week to criticize a column I wrote describing the desperate circumstances that brought people to Wichita to obtain late-term abortions.
But I'll take a swing at the pitch anyway.
What kind of church would embrace George Tiller? A church that believes the creator endowed human beings with both conscience and intelligence, to enable us to wrestle with the complicated questions. A church that recognizes that one's relationship with that creator can't be dictated by a central authority, or proscribed by a narrow list of rules.
Tiller's church, Reformation Lutheran in Wichita, Kan., is one that trusts its members with the freedom to decide on matters of conscience. It holds that a choice made for good reasons and in good faith does not separate a human being from God.
Some call this "relativism," and blame it for a decline in morals and corruption of society.
I call it freedom. And, as with the right of a woman to decide on what terms to bring a child into the world, we should be vigilant against anyone or anything that would take it away.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.kansascity.com ...
Sincerity does NOT trump all.
There's nowhere in the Bible that God says that as long as one is sincere, that's OK, it'll get you into heaven.
While I'm not familiar with all the abortion laws in each state, I was under the impression that the late term abortions that Tiller was doing were illegal.
I pinged some others who might have an idea on that.
Murder is illegal and the doctors and women who participate in them are morally wrong, legal or not.
Abortion is the only kind of murder that is permitted in this country, so it's kind of a contradiction, declaring murder illegal and abortion legal
Tiller and the other partial-birth abortionists get around the partial-birth abortion ban by getting another doctor to agree that the woman’s life is at risk.
What? The Ten Commandments isn't good enough? Guess "Thou Shalt Not Shed Innocent Blood" is mighty inconvenient for the ECLA, huh Barb?
For a nice little kickback, no doubt.
A Church more concerned with looking good rather than being good. Lukewarm.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:16
In my church, the sacrament of confession is a private thing. In fact, if the man hearing the confession dared breath a word of it in public, even to the person who confessed the sin, that man would be immediately removed from the clergy.
A public confession of sins is not a requirement in my church. Nor should it be.
“More” does not imply “equivalence.” “More” does not mean “equal to.” “More” means “greater than.”
I never accused you of using the word “more” to mean “equally.” I think when you used the word “more” you meant “more.”
So now you’ve denied that you meant something that no one suggested you meant, with the possible exception of a kind freeper who offered you an alibi. But in the process, you have confirmed that you did indeed mean just what you said.
You are wrong. Dead wrong. Tiller was not greater than 60,000 babies.
I believe I belong to the same church........but then again so does Ted Kennedy.
And we pray for his conversion before he succumbs to his cancer.
Amen.
If that were true, it would be horrific enough, but it's worse.
There were various elements to Terri Schiavo's murder which were unique and brought her story to the forefront, but there was nothing unique about the fact that she was starved and dehydrated to death for the "crime" of having a severe brain injury.
People with brain injuries are routinely starved and dehydrated to death, in every one of these United States. See my profile page for more details.
Then how does the congregation know that you screwed up?
Concerning this church’s acceptance of Tiller , two verses come to mind.
2 Thessalonians 3:6, Now we command your, brethren, int he name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
2 Thessalonians 3:14, And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
Do you really talk like that?
We are all sinners but not all of use have been redeemed.
OK, at the moment, for all practical purposes. It does happen, but it hasn’t reached the legal *right* in all 50 states that abortion has.
I forgot about the euthanasia movement, which is gaining steam.
And there is much wisdom in this...similar to a man who is rotten to his wife for 28 years, fools around, says 'sorry' to the wife, and demands to come back home. It behooves the wife to let him be lonely for a long while: he'll either repent, strengthen through suffering, and learn the value of what is lost...or end up in the gutter where he was headed anyway. If she let's him come home without the 'cleansing' and new, real commitment, it is bad for both...and the kids, too. Change takes time and lonliness. Desperate loneliness. And an ability to part with selfishness, pride and impatience that gets a guy to that place to begin with; and a giving-up of the self-directed life....acknowledging that there is One who knows better. And breaking is the only way to start back to sanity in-earnest.
Like that. That's what to do. Tough love.
A church is an extended family, bound by spirit, not flesh. Like-dynamics apply to both, I reckon.
Not at all what you're trying to twist things into, by whatever motivates you.
I talk in all sorts of ways to all sorts of people.
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