Faith-based abortion?

Under the Bush administration's faith-based initiative, churches and other religious organizations could receive federal money to support their ministries to the needy. Now Planned Parenthood, the nation's biggest producer of abortions, has its own programs that it calls "faith-based initiatives" designed to forge an alliance with clergy and mainline denominations. Planned Parenthood's goal is to offer sex-education classes and abortion counseling in churches.

"We've let others define us as not religious," said James Stewart, president of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. "And nothing could be further from the truth." Mr. Stewart said that any congregation interested in taking part in the program could choose from a wide array of Planned Parenthood services. Those he mentioned include sex-education classes for children, distribution of contraceptives in church, and on-site clinics offering advice to pregnant church members on whether they should have abortions.

The goal, apparently, is not to cash in on new federal-funding opportunities. Rather, the organization is attempting some theological jujitsu. Up until now, religious groups have been Planned Parenthood's most effective enemies. By co-opting religion and enlisting churches to advance its agenda, the group hopes to undermine the opposition. More importantly, by garbing itself in religious robes, Planned Parenthood can make abortion seem morally acceptable, even righteous.

Plenty of churches seem willing and eager to be used by Planned Parenthood. The organization now has a Clergy Advisory Board, and its "Statement on Comprehensive Sexuality Education"—essentially a manifesto condemning sex education that teaches abstinence—has 25 pages of signatures from pastors, church workers, and theologians.

Most so-called "mainline" denominations—those who are members of the National Council of Churches—have long affirmed, as official church teaching, their belief in abortion. Many share other Planned Parenthood dogmas, such as the validity of extramarital sex and the morality of homosexual behavior.

Some of their theologians have gone even further than Planned Parenthood in affirming the sanctity of baby-killing. A number of feminist theologians call abortion a "sacrament," a gift of God (or, the Goddess), and a necessary rite of passage for a woman to attain her full consciousness. No wonder Planned Parenthood sees America's religious establishment as a potential ally and service-provider.

What about evangelical churches? So far, Planned Parenthood seems to have made few, if any, inroads with conservative denominations. Of the signatories to Planned Parenthood's anti-abstinence statement on sex education, there were a few Roman Catholics and a few Baptists of indeterminate affiliation. Another is author Virginia Ramey Mollencott, described on the back cover of one of her recent books as a "trusted and beloved evangelical lesbian feminist."

But, as the example of Ms. Mollencott suggests, evangelicalism is changing. With the general collapse of evangelical theology, once-conservative churches are becoming more and more like the liberals.

The distinction between evangelicals and liberals has always been adherence to Scripture. Liberals pretty much gave up the authority of the Bible, letting them believe anything they want. Evangelicals have always insisted that the Bible is true.

But enter postmodernism, which teaches that a text has no determinate meaning and thus can be interpreted according to the needs of the reader, or the reader's interest group. A liberal could simply disagree with what the Bible says about homosexuality, for instance, saying that it reflects an ancient cultural bias that we are free to ignore. A postmodern evangelical, though, armed with postmodernist hermeneutics, can deconstruct what the Bible says on the subject and construct an interpretation that encourages homosexuality. The evangelical can affirm the authority of Scripture, and at the same time twist it so as to agree with the liberals after all.

In the meantime, many evangelical churches are agreeing with the defining characteristic of all liberal theology, that Christianity and the church must change in order to conform to the dominant culture. The only way to appeal to people today is to change the church's practices and to tone down its unpopular teachings, they say. That was the message of 20th-century liberal theology, and it is the message of many church-growth programs in 21st-century evangelical churches.

Although liberal churches have been spiritually moribund for the last few decades, they may be coming back. Liberal congregations are realizing that they can emulate the church-growth techniques of successful evangelical churches. Unencumbered by theology as they are, they can grow their own megachurches. Their tolerance of diverse beliefs and immoral lifestyles can only accelerate their popularity.

With evangelical churches and liberal churches growing closer together, it may become ever more difficult to tell them apart. The time may come when a once-conservative church has a Planned Parenthood clinic in its fellowship hall.

Personally, I don't know of any evangelical churches who agree with this paragraph, and for a very good reason: it's pure foolishness. The universal Church of Jesus Christ was established to provide an alternative to the world, and only those local churches who remain true in offering that alternative may be counted as among that universal Church. Those local churches which embrace post-modern deconstruction and moral relativism are, in effect, removing themselves from both the universal Church and the ranks of evangelical Christianity - whatever they call themselves.

I am truly horrified. < /mouth agape >

#4.....Thank-you, and well said.

For instance, my denomination, The Presbyterian Church, PCA, was formed in 1973, in a split from mainstream Presbyterianism.

And the conservative 308,000 member Presbyterian Church in America is still growing.....with about 50 new church start-ups each year.
(per World Magazine)

I think there is a mis-spelling in the original. It's not a "sacrament", it's a "sacrifice". Just your ordinary garden-variety human-sacrifice. Been doing it for thousands of years. Nothing wrong about that. Nothing to see here. Move along.

A gift from the "Prince of Darkness" is more like it. I can't think of a higher blasphemy than that, I really can't. May God have mercy on their demented souls.

I remember your struggles within the church......

..I know this is wrenching for you....

..When we left the ELCA years ago, several of our friends chose to stay & work within the church.

But we had young children, and believe we were led to our PCA church, where we have grown in our faith.

I'm not sure Veith expressed clearly what he wanted to express in that paragraph. Rather than the "evangelical" churches putting their actual imprimatur on abortion, some of them -- in their church-growth zeal -- seem to believe they need to tone down their forthright and Biblical condemnation of evils like abortion in order to attract unbelievers.

But as you've noted, it would be a distinction without a difference. Any church who by its silence capitulates to this abomination has ceased to be salt and light.

More than 450 years ago, Martin Luther wrote: "If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle field besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."

Look, here is something you pointed out on another unrelated thread a few days ago to someone else...the attempt of some to equate evangelicals with conservatives.

What about evangelical churches? So far, Planned Parenthood seems to have made few, if any, inroads with conservative denominations.

But, as the example of Ms. Mollencott suggests, evangelicalism is changing. With the general collapse of evangelical theology, once-conservative churches are becoming more and more like the liberals.

They honestly think that because they say it, it becomes truth. They just don't get it, do they?

That is a wonderful quote. I had never seen it before but it could not be more right on. It truly is the point of it all. The battle today is the philosophy that can call the killing of innocents in the womb a "woman's choice" and morally acceptable. This is not merely a battle for the "hearts and minds" of people, it is literaly a battle of life and death. The culture of death. It is truly epochal.

Those local churches which embrace post-modern deconstruction and moral relativism are, in effect, removing themselves from both the universal Church and the ranks of evangelical Christianity - whatever they call themselves.

According to this article, they've been incorrectly calling themselves conservatives.

Rush Limbaugh has been beat-up by the mainstream press for years for making this contention. It is so divorced from the natural law that people's instinctive reaction is to recoil in disbelief.

I cannot think of a better indicator of a truly evil church than one in which abortion is a sacrament. It harkens back to the child sacrifices to Moloch in a prior pagan era.

It is so divorced from the natural law that people's instinctive reaction is to recoil in disbelief.

I believe that is true about abortion in general, regardless of whether they call it a sacrament or not or how they ceremoniously present it. The idea that a mother will voluntarily, sometimes gleefully murder her own child is a concept hard to grasp.

Yes, I agree also with #4 (logos) as very well said! Churches can call themselves "evangelical", but only their fruit will prove whether or not it is so.

By the way, I was a member of Briarwood Church in Birmingham, Alabama back in the late 60's-early 70's as they were helping to form the PCA. I was in college at the time and so away from home most of the time, but I worked at their church camp in the summer. My parents found this church as they became more and more hurt that their beloved Presbyterian church was becoming so liberal. Briarwood brought them back to the Word of the Bible. I know that as I faced the liberal teachings at the University and began questioning my own faith (as most young people do, it was the strong faith that I saw in my parents and at Briarwood that brought me through that period and eventually to an even stronger faith in my life. Over the years, moving from state to state in the corporate world with my husband we have been fortuanate to find PCA churches in a few of those places... Charlotte, NC there was Christ Covenant PCA (Harry Reed was the pastor there and he has now moved on to Briarwood when the founding minister there retired).... and now in Atlanta there is Perimeter PCA.

If any of you other FReepers are looking for a solid Evangelical church may I suggest visiting a PCA.

I cannot think of a better indicator of a truly evil church than one in which abortion is a sacrament. It harkens back to the child sacrifices to Moloch in a prior pagan era.

The adherents fare no better. We (Minnesotans) have church/synagogue-attending politicians who labor (or promise to labor, if they're elected to office) mightily to keep abortion legal for any reason during the full nine months of pregnancy.

As Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them."

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