Posted on 04/02/2002 4:57:13 AM PST by anniegetyourgun
Seattle, WA -- The Rev. Monica Corsaro doesn't look like a stereotypical minister. With her choppy blond hair, thick-rimmed hipster glasses and chunky black shoes, the Methodist minister won't even cop to her actual age ("30-something" is all she'll admit) because, she says, she constantly has to fight for respect.
Now this unconventional-looking minister has become a chaplain in what seems, at first blush, to be one of the most unlikeliest of places: Planned Parenthood.
Corsaro was recently appointed Planned Parenthood's "chaplain" for the state, making her the first full-time, statewide chaplain for the national abortion business.
As such, she will provide "pastoral counseling" to women seeking abortions and abortion facility staff, act as liaison with the religious community and lobby for abortion. She will play a pivotal role in the pro-abortion organization's public-relations battle against what its leaders claim is a false perception that most religious organizations are opposed to Planned Parenthood.
In fact, despite significant religious opposition by the Catholic Church and numerous protestant denominations, for instance, Planned Parenthood has a long history of working with religious organizations, its directors claim.
The portrayal of religion's position on abortion has been "distorted because of the heated and very vocal nature of the real extreme anti-choice members of the clergy," said Robert Harkins, executive director of the Washington state Planned Parenthood.
The outspoken Corsaro seems suited to such a controversial position. Raised in a liberal Methodist household in Geneseo, Ill., her pivotal moment came while attending Illinois State University. A friend asked her to attend a pro-life rally with a conservative Christian group. Meanwhile, other friends were protesting the rally.
Feeling like she didn't fully belong in either group, Corsaro asked herself: "Why can't I be pro-choice and pro-faith?"
"Why am I here with my political friends who can't stand Christianity, and why are my Christian friends on the other side?"
After receiving a master's degree in divinity from the Iliff School of Theology at the University of Denver, she served as associate minister at Audubon Park United Methodist Church in Spokane, where she also chaired the local Planned Parenthood's clergy advisory committee. Most recently, she served as minister of community outreach at University Temple United Methodist Church in Seattle's University District.
In January, Methodist Bishop Elias Galvan appointed Corsaro to the Planned Parenthood chaplaincy. The Methodist Church's official position is in support of abortion.
Corsaro said she was raised with the belief that God believes in each person's ability to make choices -- including "choices about one's body."
Most women who have a spiritual crisis at Planned Parenthood have "already made the decision to have an abortion but believe God will send them to hell," Corsaro said. "I try to focus on telling them 'God loves you, too.' " In her counseling, she claims she tries to lead the women to make decisions on their own, without badgering them.
However, pro-life advocates say there's no way a Planned Parenthood chaplain can be objective -- especially in light of the fact she lobbies for abortion.
"This is a minister who, from the get-go, agrees with Planned Parenthood's philosophy," said Genevieve Wood of the Family Research Council. "We would encourage women to seek counsel from their own ministers, not just take Planned Parenthood's word for it."
The Family Research Council also takes issue with Planned Parenthood's characterization of having broad-based religious support.
"The Catholic church, the largest Christian denomination in the country, and the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the largest mainline Protestant denominations in the country, are against abortion," Wood said.
Numerous other Protestant denominations including the Missouri and Wisconsin Lutheran Synods, the Assemblies of God, Wesleyan Church, Church of the Nazarene, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Pentecostal Church, Bible and charasmatic churches, the Mormon Church and other denominations all take strong pro-life positions.
But while Corsaro's appointment is the first time Planned Parenthood has established a full-time chaplaincy, it stresses longtime support from some religious groups for abortion.
In the 1940s, mainline churches and synagogues played a crucial role in popularizing family planning, said the Rev. Tom Davis, chair of the clergy advisory board for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In the 1960s, before abortion became legal, more than 1,000 ministers and rabbis formed an effort to help women obtain illegal abortions.
Today, Planned Parenthood has clergy serving on its boards and clergy advisory boards -- both nationally and locally. Most affiliates have clergy members who volunteer as chaplains.
"It's important to have someone (on staff) who can speak as a person of faith, speaking from her faith, for people of faith," Corsaro said. "And it's important to have a religious voice for choice."
There's a big difference between "family planning" using contraception and "family planning" using abortion. I can't believe this man of the cloth is trying to justify what they do using this argument. He virtually admitted and described the slippery slope of what has happened in this country re: the sanctity of life.
Because you can either say "It's okay to murder children" or you can say "Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life".
You can't say both and pretend you're serious and/or sane.
Isn't it time Methodist stopped hiding their heads in the sand, picked up their bibles, blew off the dust, even though that action could very well cause another dust bowl, and start reading and studiying it.
This is one of those statments that begs for the question: "What are your sources on such an outrages statement?"
Yes, God gave us free will. He also gave the angels free will and look what some of them choose.
This is a travesty and makes me proud to be active in not only the pro-life movement, but the Catholic Church which has never wavered from her teaching that abortion is murder.
God bless the unborn babies, the aborted babies, and the women being deceived into blackening their soul.
Corsaro and other Main-line Protestant denominations wouldn't be officially pro-choice if they followed the Ten Commandments. That's why they're losing members and not attracting conservatives.
We left our Main-line church (Presbyterian) and recently became members of the pro-life CONSERVATIVE Wesleyan denomination.
Those of us who either are or have been affiliated with the United Methodist Church are well aware of the liberal perception, but there is a significant movement among more conservative Methodists to fight the liberal intrusion.
See these links:
Good News
Unofficial Confessing Movement
Christian Methodists
It gives some women the spiritual justification, the spiritual stamp of approval they need. What's going to happen is these women are going to go through the same emotional agony in later years.
Pray for the changing of hearts and minds of women seeking abortions. Pray that they receive the care and support they need to keep their babies. Pray that they have the courage to say yes to life even in the face of difficulties.
The simple answer?
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. - I Corinthians 2:14
This poor deluded woman needs to be "born from above". She needs to quit playing religion and meet Jesus Christ. I am fearful that she will meet Him not as Savior, but as Judge.
2000 years ago the first Christians opposed the Roman practices of abortion and infanticide on the grounds that the taking of human life was prohibited by God.
This woman needs to make a decision as to which side she's on, God's side or the world's.
In the meantime (and with respect to your comment), I understand there are those who try to stay and fight from within. (I used to be PCUSA, so I can relate.) However, there comes a time when one must ask - can God bless this entire effort? We decided He would not and went where He was blessing instead.
I probably should've made it clear. We haven't been United Methodist since college (I graduated in 1980). As much as I loved the UM church I attended in college, my wife and I have not found, in the areas where we live, an acceptable UM Church (where we thought God attended). We encourage and pray for our brothers and sisters who stayed in the UM. We have many friends from college who are UM pastors. But we recognize we were not called to that fight.
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