Posted on 08/21/2012 2:52:24 PM PDT by darrellmaurina
By now probably everybody who cares anything about politics or about right-to-life issues knows about the U.S. Senate candidate from Missouri who made really dumb statements about female biology in rape cases.
What may not be widely known is that U.S. Rep. Todd Akin is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, and apparently was a ruling elder at Twin Oaks PCA in Ballwin, a St. Louis suburb, though he's no longer listed as being a member of that church's session (i.e., board of elders or consistory).
Most of the top Republican leadership is calling on Rep. Akin to drop out because of his "open mouth, insert foot" moment in front of a local reporter. Just a few hours ago, I got a press release from U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, along with former Missouri senators John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, John Danforth, and Jim Talent, calling for Akin to step aside.
The reason this is all over the national news is because a loss by Rep. Akin could easily prevent the Republicans from getting a Senate majority this fall. Missouri was considered a likely pickup for Republicans until Rep. Akin's comments.
No matter what we think about Rep. Akin, I think we need to look at this as an example of the need for Christian politicians to use wisdom in what we say and how we say it.
Otherwise, bad things happen like this article by a left-wing Christian website:
Rep. Todd Akin’s views typical in southern PCA churches
"Todd Akin was a follower of the late D. James Kennedy. Kennedy, founder of Florida’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, was not a fringe character in American evangelicalism. He was well-known and well-respected — and his views on rape victims were the same as those expressed by Akin. Todd Akin is a product of Covenant Theological Seminary — that’s where you go if you want to be trained in patriarchal misogyny with a side of disturbing nostalgia for the Old South."
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/08/21/rep-todd-akins-views-typical-in-southern-pca-churches/
When we enter the political realm as Christian conservatives, we will be watched by secularists for opportunities to attack us and our faith.
Christian conservatives have a bad habit of not asking ourselves what our words sound like outside our subculture.
It wouldn't at all surprise me if Todd Akin had been told hundreds of times that rape rarely results in pregnancy, and repeated that in front of a reporter who knew how explosive that comment would be.
This whole stupid discussion about whether rape can result in pregnancy isn't an issue addressed by Scripture, but there are plenty of Scriptural arguments that sound really bad to a secular audience. If we're going to make those arguments we need to know right up front that they will cause some of our enemies to mock, some to get angry, and others to scratch their heads. That's not necessarily bad, but we need to avoid unnecessary offense at the same time that we understand that some offense **IS** necessary to win. Truth hurts.
We need to be prepared to defend pro-life positions using arguments that convince not only ourselves but others.
It's one thing to say something dumb from the pulpit, but it's more difficult when tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people hear it. Akin really blew it, and we need to be careful to avoid similar mistakes.
IMHO, there are few out there that do this as well as Santorum. The screeching moonbats on the far left shrieked at everything he said, but those in the squishy center tended to pay attention to him and think about what he said.
Take for example, how Rick handled nearly the exact same question during the primaries.
Akin could have learned a lot from him...
Is that where he go his Medical degree?
He obviously had no degree in biology or history
This one is going to hurt Calvinists and hurt us badly. The old stuff about Southern Presbyterians hating women, with shades of allusions to Southern neo-Confederate stuff, is already getting spread all over the internet. (Of course, Akin is a northerner and Covenant Theological Seminary was from a northern denomination that merged with the PCA, but it's too much to ask that facts not confuse people, I guess.)
Akin is an engineer. Remind me not to stand under a bridge he engineered.
Would you please inform me about the Cumberland Presbyterians? I'm a church of Christ member myself but visited a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation once with a work colleague. Compared to what I'm used to at the coC, it seemed pretty "high church" but the preacher was down to earth and folksy. When I met him after services, he joked that the symbol of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was a wine goblet but that a moonshine jug was more apt for the Cumberland Presbyterians. :-)
Aside from that, my knowledge of that branch of Presbyterians is close to nil. Many thanks in advance for what information you can provide!
Demanding Akin resign: this is what I HATE about the gutless GOP and as soon as there is a viable alternative party that can win elections - I’m outa there. Dems can commit actual crimes and are lauded. Bill Clinton actually raped women and he is the keynote speaker of the upcoming convention. Akin said something unpopular using awkward phrasing - all he meant was even in rape the baby is innocent and not deserving of being killed - and the long knives of HIS OWN party are out for him in minutes. Pansy-a$$es all of them.
The Cumberland Presbyterians are an entirely different denomination from the Presbyterian Church in America.
To make a very long story short, the PCA heritage is in the old southern Presbyterian Church in the United States or PC(US), as distinguished from the northern Presbyterian Church in the United States of America or PC(USA). Both the northern and southern churches merged together in 1983, after both had conservative secessions earlier on. The southern conservatives mostly left in the 1970s and 1980s to form the PCA; the northern conservatives left in the 1930s to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Rep. Akin’s seminary is actually from the RPCES which has a somewhat different and more complex background; that denomination merged with the PCA many years ago.
The Cumberlanders date back to a much earlier secession in the early 1800s by people who did not want to demand advanced seminary training for ministers on what was then the frontier (i.e., places like Kentucky and Tennessee) and were not convinced five-point Calvinists. The pastor who spoke with you has a point — the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is an heir of the Stone-Campbell movement which left several different denominations including Presbyterianism for similar reasons to the Cumberlanders.
A major shortage of ministers on the old frontier is largely responsible for the pressure to ordain men with little formal theological training. Obviously lots of highly educated men are in non-Presbyterian denominations, but it was this need to get more ministers that was responsible for the growth of Baptist, Methodists, and the Campbellite movement. Cumberlanders are people who shared many of the concerns from the same movement but didn't go as far.
Akin really blew it, and we need to be careful to avoid similar mistakes.If folks in general cared about the unborn and women who got raped, they would have found a way to understand Akin (I had no difficulty at all), not criticize him. He's in the corner of pro-life. Is it because he opened up a topic that Romney had buried that bothers people? Or are many Republicans actually not pro-life?
“We need to be prepared to defend pro-life positions using arguments that convince not only ourselves but others.
It’s one thing to say something dumb from the pulpit, but it’s more difficult when tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people hear it. Akin really blew it, and we need to be careful to avoid similar mistakes.”
~ ~ ~
People get upset at a few spoken words and ignore legislation for the increase of abortion here and overseas and legalizing sodomy by the two men running for the highest office in the land.
And God is going bless us? Sister Lucia of Fatima
called it “diabolical disorientation” and it’s happening
again...daily now.
” He’s in the corner of pro-life. Is it because he opened up a topic that Romney had buried that bothers people?”
~ ~ ~
Exactly. The election is about the economy not “social issues” (another term like “pro-choice” to cover the acceptance of murder of the most innocent). Our bad economy is part of divine judgment for choosing abortion.
Sex is for self gratification not marriage or children.
Accepting Contraception has led to abortion becoming a right protected by law.
Mother Teresa: watch...nuclear war...follows.
Do you work? Do you think gov’t stealing half your income (so half the country can sit on their asses doing nothing)is moral? Maybe more people are concerned about that than some unelectable Senate candidates “pro-life” bonafides. Missouri is now lost and so is the election. But the “pro-life” zealots are happy...and we get 4 more years of Obamian communism. Just wonderful....
He's not an engineer. He got a degree in "Management Engineering" (whatever that is) at an engineering school.
The election is about the economy not “social issues” (another term like “pro-choice” to cover the acceptance of murder of the most innocent). Our bad economy is part of divine judgment for choosing abortion...Accepting Contraception has led to abortion becoming a right protected by law..Thank you!! Possibly Jesus gave that gaffe to Akin as a gift. Thank God he's strong enough to bear it, for Romney is now making himself look a fool, and he's sadly bringing Ryan right down with him. When Santorum stepped down, we were troubled, as he too was a champion for life, and now Ryan of course is handcuffed by his master. And I agree, something's going to give; it IS the 40th year of abortion, not that I dwell on numbers, but that number is of course connected to biblical history/cleansing, etc.
Excellent short essay.
A lot of people have either forgotten the Stone-Campbell movement (and its place in the American Restoration movement) or swept it under the rug. The Campbellites are actually still a strong influence in many of the non denominational churches, although many of them don’t know it.
Do you work? Do you think gov’t stealing half your income (so half the country can sit on their asses doing nothing)is moral? Maybe more people are concerned about that than some unelectable Senate candidates “pro-life” bonafides. Missouri is now lost and so is the election. But the “pro-life” zealots are happy...and we get 4 more years of Obamian communism. Just wonderful....Are you jumping to conclusions? If conservatives vote for the man (support him), doesn't he stand a chance? Life first; all the rest will then follow. It's a bloodbath out there. You don't "see" the blood, but a pro-lifer (and more importantly Jesus) does. Don't you think He has a "breaking" point? Are you prepared to deal with that?
I would like to know that IF Akin loses to Claire, will it be his fault, this state’s fault or God’s fault? By the way when God sends a messenger the message always happens exactly the way God intends?
Romney thinks Boy Scout leaders should be gay and Akin thinks there are different types of rape and that receptive female partners are more likely to get pregnant than rape victims.
I vote for Romney getting the boot, and Akins moving up to his slot on the national ticket.
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