Protestants and Abortion

The American Spectator ^ | 1/31/2013 | Mark Tooley

[iowamark]

Southern Baptists have changed their mind about Roe. When will United Methodists join them?

Last week about 100,000 or more marched in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year they commemorated 40 years since the 1973 Supreme Court decision constitutionalizing abortion on demand.

Supporting the march and the pro-life cause were leaders of America’s two largest religious communions, the 68 million-member Roman Catholic Church and the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. Meanwhile, agencies for the third largest, the United Methodist Church, crafted a news release virtually celebrating Roe v. Wade. But 40 years ago, both Southern Baptists and United Methodists, at least officially, backed abortion rights...

The head of the Southern Baptist public policy agency in the 1970s, then called the Christian Life Commission, backed government-funded abortions and supported, along with United Methodists and other Protestant denominational agencies, the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. By the late 1970s, conservative Southern Baptists, alarmed that their church was following the liberal path of Mainline Protestants, began to organize their eventually successful ascendancy over the convention. In 1980, the Southern Baptist Convention backed a constitutional amendment banning abortion except to save the mother’s life. In 1988, conservative Richard Land became the new head of the Christian Life Commission, replacing a pro-abortion rights liberal. At the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in 2003, the Southern Baptist Convention repentantly declared: “[W]e lament and renounce statements and actions by previous Conventions and previous denominational leadership that offered support to the abortion culture...”

As Africans and U.S. evangelicals gain a majority within the United Methodist Church, the abortion rights stance almost certainly will fall. And someday soon, United Methodists may formally repent of their past, long-time official support for unrestricted abortion on demand. 

[Wpin]

I noticed you wrote “Evangelical Methodist” church...is that a different branch from the “regular” Methodist church this article is talking about? BTW, congratulations on enjoying a good Church “family”. It is so important in our lives...

[Wpin]

That is wonderful...I have been really enjoying being very active in our Church...it has been like I finally found my home...

[Tim Hans]

I too have chosen to stay and fight for my church. There are too many decent people there to just abandon them. I’ve found that if you speak up there are others who didn’t have the courage to speak up and will be glad you did.

[Bryanw92]

>>I too have chosen to stay and fight for my church. There are too many decent people there to just abandon them. I’ve found that if you speak up there are others who didn’t have the courage to speak up and will be glad you did.

I’ve noticed that too. Many people are sheep. They follow the leader and if the leader leans left, then they do too. If another voice speaks up, then they have to choose who to follow and then their conscience (aka the Holy Spirit) has a chance to be heard.

[CityCenter]

Yes, it’s a different denomination but it does orginate from the UMC. I guess at some point they got in a disagreement about purchasing pew seating in the church (this was a long time ago) and decided to break away because they disagreed with the practice. The church is very conservative and puts Biblical tradition and holiness at the center of its teachings.

[zerosix]

Would that this writer's hope and prediction will come to pass lest the Methodist denomination go the way of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. which is on the glide path to extinction.

Any so-called "church" bearing the name of Christ, that signs on to affirm abortion, is in no way following the tenets of Christ and should never carry His name for He is all about LIFE, not death.

We know as Christians, that as human beings, we are all flawed, all corrupt all deceitful but we know the truth, what is right and good. Though we fail to follow our own convictions that we learn through Christ, we must continue to stand up for them for to deny them is to deny Christ.

Fortunately, those 55+millions of aborted babies lost to the world, are not lost to God. Unfortunately, for the perpetrators of their deaths turn from their wickedness and seek Christ, they are lost eternally no matter how acceptable it is to our society.

I pray for the outcome of this writer's belief for if the Southern Baptist Convention saw the error of it's way and prayed for forgiveness, perhaps the Methodist denomination will seek to do so as well.

[zerosix]

They are in your words, "pretty much" though not completely for some close friends of mine left and ABC when their female pastor was dithering as to the question of her stance over whose "rights" were affected when a woman chose abortion.

At least half of the congregation left after this soul searching, unfortunately, others stayed.

I asked why they didn't leave when the congregation determined that it really didn't matter whether their pastor was male or female.

The move to put women in the ministry has generally been the beginning of the end for most denominations, as should have been expected for their is nothing in scripture that supported this practice.

[zerosix]

Do you continue in the hope that your attendance could make a difference?

I'm not trying to be difficult but after sitting in a Presbyterian church for much of my life, I realized how my presence must grieve the Lord and made the decision to never return.

I found a Bible believing and preaching church and have never looked back nor regretted that decision.

I also love being with people who stand up for Christ and His teachings which do not include abortion nor homosexual "rights" nor other sins.

We love sinners but hate sin. There is no such tolerance in scripture.

[Mr Rogers]

What the SBC has said about abortion over the years:

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/baptist/sbcabres.html

Remember, resolutions are often passed by a very small subset of the delegates at a conference.

[zerosix]

The Lord doesn't refer to humanity as "decent" or "indecent" but "lost" and "saved."

No matter how many "decent" people there may be that you hate to leave, you need to decide whether they are open to salvation or not. If not, Paul advises us to "shake the dust from our sandals" and move on to where the opportunity to help the lost find salvation.

Don't cast your "pearls before swine."

I say this as a friend who has been in such a situation. I left, my husband stayed until he witnessed his baby granddaughter be baptized by a female pastor who refused to baptize "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" for it was "too paternalistic!"

Following that, he left and never looked. He finally realized that he was the only one in the sanctuary that seemed to notice that it was non-biblical.

In the Book of Revelation, John quotes Jesus as saying of the Laodocian Church that was "lukewarm" He would "spew out of His mouth."