Posted on 02/27/2019 8:27:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I’ve talked a lot about abortion in the last month, since the New York legislature cheered it’s extreme late-term abortion bill. Part of that story was how badly the legislation reflected on Christians. Just days after touting his Roman Catholic faith in a speech, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Reproductive Health Act into law, making it legal to kill unborn babies in his state all the way up to birth.
I’m not Catholic, but I’ve long admired the Catholic Church’s moral clarity and courageous stand on behalf of unborn children. When many evangelical and Protestant churches were AWOL on abortion, Catholic theologians stood strong, denouncing it as the evil it is. Pope Paul VI went even further in his famous encyclical, Humanae Vitae, condemning the culture of death and identifying the wrong ideas about sex and the human body at its root.
In view of this history, the failure of top Catholic clergy to clearly confront and to, yes I will say it, excommunicate prominent members of their flocks like Cuomo when they openly defy church teaching on the sanctity of life is disappointing.
Thankfully, not all Catholic shepherds have been silent in recent weeks. Some, like Spokane’s Bishop Thomas Daly, spoke out boldly. In a public letter released recently, Bishop Daly urged that politicians in his diocese “who obstinately persevere in their public support for abortion should not receive Communion without first being reconciled to Christ and the Church.”
He continued, “Efforts to expand access to abortion, allowing murder of children up to the moment of birth, is evil,” and “For a Catholic political leader to do so is scandalous.”
Amen! I wish we would see more of this kind of moral clarity and courage, and not just from Catholics. In many ways, most Christian denominations, and many evangelical non-denominational churches, show worrying signs that even official doctrinal stances against abortion aren’t accepted by average members.
According to a survey last year by Pew Research, a staggering 48 percent of self-identified Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Protestants aren’t doing any better. I’m not even talking about liberal mainline denominations, many of which already caved on Christian essentials and which have been mostly abandoned by Bible-believing evangelicals. Conservative churches must confront the problem in their midst as well.
Pew reports that an unbelievable 30 percent of self-identified Southern Baptists think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. For the conservative Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, it’s 46 percent. And Pew reports that a majority—54 percent—of those who belong to the Presbyterian Church in America say they support legal abortion.
Now, as Joe Carter points out at The Gospel Coalition, these numbers really are tough to believe. We’re talking here about theologically conservative denominations. Despite Pew’s excellent reputation, Carter suspects pollsters may have accidentally mixed in respondents from liberal, mainline churches.
But, even if the numbers are as much as 15 points off, they still represent a catastrophic failure of discipleship in our churches. For a third to half of Christians in officially pro-life denominations to support legal child-killing means that there is a massive disconnect between pulpit and pew.
Churches, Roman Catholic and Protestant and evangelical, ought to confront, withhold communion, and, if necessary, excommunicate members who support abortion, even those in the governor’s mansions, state legislatures, and the United States Congress. The New Testament instruction on dealing with grave and unrepentant sin includes phrases like “purge the evil person from among you,” and even “hand them over to Satan.”
But ultimately, we must deal with the failure of our churches to effectively teach a Christian view of the sanctity of life in the first place. Otherwise, public denunciations will be nothing but a band-aid—certainly not enough to stem the flow of innocent blood flowing in this country.
American religious groups vary widely in their views of abortion, David Masci | Pew Research Center | January 22, 2018
Why Do So Many Evangelicals Support Abortion? Joe Carter | The Gospel Coalition | January 23, 2018
Spokane’s Plain-Spoken Shepherd Makes Waves, Joan Frawley Desmond | National Catholic Register | February 12, 2019
Originally posted at Breakpoint.
Cuomo.
Where does he go to church on Sunday?
Oh. .... He don’t
This is a mixed up article that conflates literal support for infanticide with not making any abortion outright illegal.
I've never met one, but then, I meet my fellow Baptists IN CHURCH.
Cuomo should be excommunicated anyway. It probably won’t change his conduct, but it will reassure the scandalized faithful that yes, indeed, the Church really DOES teach that abortion is wrong.
Cuomo should be excommunicated anyway. It probably won’t change his conduct, but it will reassure the scandalized faithful that yes, indeed, the Church really DOES teach that abortion is wrong.
“Christians who favor legal abortion:...”
...aren’t Christians. They’ll find that out too late.
“Christians who favor legal abortion:...”
...aren’t Christians. They’ll find that out too late.
Cuomo is one of Satan’s workers on earth.
Yup. If there is any justice, the bishop’s failure to discipline public Catholics who publicly facilitate and promote abortion should be looked at as a scandal that dwarfs the homosexualist clergy cover up scandal.
Freegards
....“Christians who favor legal abortion:...”...aren’t Christians.”.....
Total Deaths in Wars.....1,043,569 Total deaths by Abortions in USA....approx. 40 Million
Total deaths Worldwide...... almost One Billion
This means 20% of the worlds population has been removed. We can now say that killing babies is the leading cause of death.....’sacrificed to the God of pleasure’ to avoid any inconvenience.
The numbers ‘alone’ cannot justify in any way supporting the mass murdering of babies we have today......ever!
And as we all know, these "accidents" almost universally are errors which assist a leftist narrative. These "slip ups" never, ever are accidentally to the benefit of the Conservative voice.
I wouldn't call these actions scandals....abortion is premeditated murder in the first degree in most cases....and sexual predators seeking their next victim, willing or not, still is sexual deviant perversion in the highest form. Those who support or fail to recognize the violent, wicked, abominable and heinous crimes that these are in fact, have failed recognize the God of the bible and are instead serving their own God.
Total deaths by Abortions in USA....approx. 40 Million
Total deaths Worldwide...... almost One Billion
Add to these numbers ... deaths by atheistic communism in the 20th century ... a measly 100 Million.
Abortion still has even that number beat.
1 John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
What is more hateful than killing a baby?
Sickening!
BTTT for this post with the facts.
It’s beyond disturbing....God will never let this pass..you can be sure of it.
It was said to me by another concerned early on... that people do not believe mankind has the solutions for the world problems..and of course it’s because we’re killing off the babies who God intended to grow up and give us the solutions.
“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”....but when people don't believe, nor do they want to, judgment is coming...with certainty!
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