Day is done,
gone the sun,
from the lakes
from the hills
from the sky,
I once was lost, when I was an Episcopalian, but now I'm found, when I became a born again Baptist. It's only a matter of time before this dwindling denomination disappears. A seven day a week Christian will never stay there.
Too often church leaders just become owners of a tax exempt business instead of Christian leaders.
I'll bet that when Lambeth approved the moral acceptability of artificial contraception, contradicting 1900 years of Church teaching, the "good" bishops didn't dream that they were signing the death warrant of the EC.
Next up for approval: all forms of non-reproductive sexuality.
Ain't moral relativism, especially when separated from Apostolic teaching authority, grand?
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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.
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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
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So how many womens 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 lets 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.
Roman Catholic and Protestant doctrines differ in, among other things, the degree to which they are legalistic. The Catholic Church would have us obey the rules formulated by the Vatican, but Protestants believe that we are free by grace and justified by faith. The phrase the sacredness of life means one thing to Catholic bishopsthat the life of the fetus is all-importantbut to most people of other Christian denominations it means that there is a presumptive right to life that is not absolute but is conditioned by the claims of others. For us the right to life and the sacredness of life mean that there should be no absolute or unbreakable rules that take precedence over the lives of existing human persons.A Prayer for Children in Need from the RCRCThe pro-life position is really a pro-fetus position, and the pro-choice position is really pro-woman. Those who take the pro-fetus position define the woman in relation to the fetus. They assert the rights of the fetus over the right of the woman to be a moral agent or decision maker with respect to her life, health, and family security.
Mother-Father God, Loving Parent, it is never easy to look into the face of a child desperately in need. But we do acknowledge that it is much easier to respond and offer our help when we can actually see that desperation; see first hand the plight and witness ourselves the conditions and sources of misery.Help us, Creator of All, to continue to open our hearts and hands to those children in our world whom we can see are motherless, fatherless, hungry, ill, abandoned, oppressed, violated, without hope, addicted, violent, homeless, imprisoned, victimized.
But we know that there are more children in need than we can actually see. More whose lives, for many reasons, are hidden from our view. More who are not only not seen and not heard but whose needs and lives are altogether forgotten by the adults who hold all the power in their world.
We are confident though, Loving One, that their need is not unseen by you, their cries are not unheard by you, nor their lives unremembered by you. So we would ask that you show them to us, and open our ears to their pleas. And when you believe that we are ready, bring us into their lives so that we might join our lives to theirs and together build a better world for every child.
Amen.
And here's a picture of a pro-choice mom:
Yes, I crossed the Tiber. I had had enough.
"I don't think it will happen but I would love for the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Churches to say that because of this approval, all ecumenical discussions with the Episcopal Church about anything at all were terminated."
At least from the Catholic perspective, we don't hold talks with the Anglicans (and it is with the Anglicans that we hold talks - as an entire communion, not with the Episcopalians in particular) because we're trying to bridge our differences. Rather, we hold talks with them to clarify our differences, and one hopes, see if they misunderstand our teaching so that then they can once again accept it.
The effort may be futile, but it is required.
Make sure I stand way clear if that lightening bolt hits!
Not much left to say is there, but "Adios."