Bishop Holley to PP: Stop targeting black women
Bishop Martin D. Holley, a black priest and Auxilliary bishop of Washington, D.C., responded quickly to a recent Guttmacher Institute report indicating U.S. black women have abortions at five times the rate of white women.
Bishop Holley serves as Chair of the Sub-Committee on African American Affairs and he is a member of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Bishop Holley said,
As an African American, I am saddened by evidence that Black women continue to be targeted by the abortion industry. The loss of any child from abortion is a tragedy, but we must ask: Why are minority children being aborted at such disproportionate rates?
Over 80 percent of Planned Parenthood clinics are located in minority neighborhoods…..
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, began the ‘Negro Project’ to reduce the Black population…..
My brothers and sisters, we can overcome abortion in our nation.
Let us defend our community by rededicating ourselves to family life and marriage, promoting the gift of chastity and marital fidelity, committing ourselves to prayer and service to others and defending the life and dignity of each human person. We can welcome every child as a gift and we can overcome abortion.
Bishop Holley’s recent PP remarks add to those of other U.S. bishops who for years have spoken out again and again about the sacredness of human life.
And the American public continues to desire greater protection of vulnerable unborn human life. According to LifeSite News,
A new poll conducted for the Knights of Columbus by the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion between Sept. 24 and Oct. 3, 2008 showed that almost all Americans think abortion should be restricted. The pollsters conducted over 1700 interviews with Americans across the country.
The purpose of the poll was to enable comparisons of the views of Catholic voters with those of the general electorate. The poll asked respondents to state which of six statements came closest to describing their opinion on abortion.
Only 8% chose option 1, which said that abortion should be available to a woman any time she wants one during her entire pregnancy, whereas 13% chose option 6, that abortion should never be permitted under any circumstance…..
…..71 percent of pro-choice respondents said they would significantly restrict abortions. Of these, 43 percent would restrict abortion to the first trimester and 23 percent would restrict abortion only to cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother…..
In sharp contrast to the public’s continued desire to restrict abortions and to Bishop Holley’s entreaties, another black man — and presidential candidate — Barack Obama has stated he is eager to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) as soon as possible once he is elected.
FOCA, if enacted, would wipe out all restrictions on abortions.
Sherry Tyree, 66, a graduate of John Burroughs School and Washington University, is a founding member (1984) and Vice President of Women for Faith & Family, a national Catholic women's organization that supports and defends traditional church teachings. Sherry is married to Dr. Donald A. Tyree, professor emeritus, School of Business, St. Louis University. 
From 2004-2006, over 27% of all African-American pregnancies in St. Louis City and County ended in abortion. It is extraordinary that there is not more of an outrage.
Those figures are from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Their website is full of statistics that can be broken down by counties, years, races, etc.
http://www.dhss.mo.gov/MICA/
The outrage should be in the fact that the church and individual Christians are failing in their duty to reach one’s in this perverse world of ours in the way that God has called upon each of us to do.
It is shocking to me that people who claim to place their faith in Christ and follow Him and understand the this whole perspective for the reason of Christ, and God’s master plan; that is the plan that He has disclosed to us, could possibly get so bent out of shape and surprised by the number of abortions or any other sin in our world by people who truly do not know God or understand His instructions to us. What is surprising is that many churches fail to understand it also.
When it comes to MURDER of children or any act by human beings, God judges one’s heart.
Was the murder (killing) of a child (baby) carried out due to evil demonic influences because that person has crossed over too far into darkness? Most of our souls and spirits become sickened over the crazy evil person who have been overcome by darkness to the point of raping and murdering children or beating to death a child. on.
Or,
Was the murder of the baby (abortion) because of being lost and duped by the enemy, not understanding what sin is or who God is and feeling hopeless, lost, alone and unable to care for the child that she is carrying that she comes to a decision because of her limited understanding of God and while totally living outside of God’s will that an abortion is the best thing that she could do for the child and herself consisting of both love and selfish reasons? Isn’t this how most live and behave who are living outside the will of God? We as Christians must never lose sight and judge these as unable to come into repentance.
Most in the world and those who feel that they need abortions are accustomed to all the perverse things in this world and have no reference for what IS NOT PERVERSE or the capability to see things from a different perspective. They need to be rescued from their environment (lifestyle) and all the perversions of this world. These ones are the very people that Christ died for and wanted rescued. I WAS ONE OF THESE and so were most of us Christians before coming to Christ but, it appears that most Christians would like to pretend otherwise. Attempting to legislate morality through legislature in contrary to what Christians have been called to do.
How does one truly thinks that God judges one who have had an abortion(s) in comparison to one who murder a child as in the example above such as the rape and or murder of children by one who has been over taken by evil?
I was in Atlanta last week and listened to Pastor Woodrow Walker preach one heck of a sermon on Wednesday regarding “Testimonies” that is very befitting concerning things that I would like to express regarding the issue of abortion and even though the sermon had nothing to do with abortions, I had been thinking about everything that he preached concerning the abortion issue earlier and also concerning an attorney here in St. Louis who had been disbarred here for not disclosing a criminal past as a young man who I am certain will be okay and that God is only speaking to Him about the things I am about to disgust here concerning testimonies. This man will continue to practice law even if in another State but he will glorify God with his past and everything will be better than he could bring himself to imagine.
We must remember that we cannot save the world, BUT THAT WE CAN BE SAVED FROM THE PERVERSENESS OF THIS WORLD!
We are in this world as Christians but not part of this world when we really come into fully understanding what Christ has done for us all and, our role in this world.
Most who are in the world, those who place themselves in the position of needing abortions, THEIR LIFE IS OUT OF ORDER! The order that I am speaking about is the order of how God intend for us to live our lives in worship of Him and by faith. Remember, we cannot save the world, BUT PEOPLE CAN BE SAVED FROM THE PERVERSENESS OF THIS WORLD!
How does God intend for us to do this?
TESTIMONIES
It is through our own testimonies. God uses individual people’s life experiences to witness to others and that is how God is glorified. It is through us! God will use experiences GOOD and BAD to glorify Him. Every experience has it value. The criminal, the whore, the prostitute, the drug addict, the alcoholic, the victim of abuse, etc… and, all those who are lost and living contrary to God’s word can come to a point in their lives where God will use them to glorify Him.
When one gets to this point of understanding they will truly come to understand God’s Grace alone with His Mercy.
As Christians who have overcome through the grace and mercy of God, God expects us to share our testimonies because we all have one. Our testimonies should help to lift people out of their circumstances, to provoke the unsaved to righteousness. We must encouragement people because all have the ability to be saved from this world. No one has to waddle in sin. There are no excuses because of what Christ did for us all.
THE REASON MOST FEEL THAT THEY MUST LEGISLATE MORALITY IS BECAUSE THEY THEMSELVES ARE STILL WADDLING IN SIN AND HAVE NOT OVERCOME SIN IN THEIR OWN LIVES BUT ARE PRETENDING (HYPOCRITES). THIS IS THE REASON MOST CHRISTIANS DO NOT HAVE A TESTIMONY TO SHARE. EVERY CHRISTIAN WHO HAVE A TESTIMONY AND HAVE OVERCOME HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO SHARE IT.
God needs His people willing to provoke others into change and this is done through our own testimonies by empathizing and not sympathizing with people. When you tell people your testimony, you are not just speaking empty words. The Holy Ghost will pierce the hearts of others when you speak (share your testimony). THIS IS HOW GOD EXPECTS HIS PEOPLE TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE.
Take a look at Peter’s life in the bible and study it. Notice how Peter saw all things from the eternal point of view and how his own personal testimony pieced the hearts of many and brought them to Christ. This is what God wants from His people because all things as we know them are coming to an end. No one knows when, but we know it will happen because Scripture tells us this.
This so called Pro-Life movement is way off base, it is WRONG and not scripturally based. Christians must go out into the world and operate as instructed using your own personal testimonies about God’s grace, mercy while telling the people about the Kingdom of God to come.
Lastly, I know that all babies have eternal life no matter who that baby was or how it came to its death but, I have heard Father Corapi state otherwise, that babies do go to HELL if they have not been Christened. Maybe some knowing Catholic out there could give us the Church’s view on this. By the way, I look forward to listening to Father Corapi’s sermons even though I am non-Catholic. And out of all the years I have been listening to him I have only disagreed with him on two other issues, his belief that all babies do not have eternal life and one concerning a priest friend of his who molested a child supposedly only one time, where I feel the punishment was befitting even if it was only one time.
Text of the FOCA is at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.2020:
Reasonable stats on abortion in the US and a nice history of the subject is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States#Number_of_abortions_in_United_States
I’m exhausted with the dogmatic partisan posts recently on this Blog. I don’t know of anyone, right or left, who is “pro-abortion”. Like most folks, I favor some reasonable restrictions on the practice.
Abortion is an outrage. So is the Catholic Church’s attempt to fuse dogmatic theology with governmental power. Democratic government is about consensus and compromise.
The entire abortion debate in the US has reduced the Catholic Church in the eyes of most non-catholics as nothing more than a right-wing equivalent to NARAL. That’s a shame given the the rich history and deep wisdom Catholics should be bringing to all areas of our Nation’s struggles.
D.walker,
When has God ever let anybody off the hook for being duped by the devil? Eve was duped? That brought about the fall of the entire creation. Demonic possession? Probably a lot less common than you may wish to believe.
I think you would like to apologize too much for the depravity of man. Demons and satan aside, WE are lost, it is OUR fault, and God doesn’t accept excueses for sin.
You still believe a lie, and no matter how many times it is argued, you keep perpetuating that lie. The lie is that the pro-life movement is only, and should only be concerned with the eternal standing of those who would have an abortion. You will not accept that the lives of children being killed should be advocated for whether their parents’ souls are at risk or not. This is legislation of morality, but only in the same what that murder, rape, and theft laws are. Don’t legislate morality? Then we get to have anarchy.
D. Walker,sin is sin. You cannot justify it. You can only ask for forgiveness. Only God can judge the heart.
Mike,
Where have I stated that God let someone off the hook for being duped by Satan,? We have all been duped by Satan and have bared the consequences.
Can you honestly say that the Holy Spirit has guided you into your belief on how you feel that the abortion issue should be handled?
Mike,
One other thing,
Neither you or I or anyone decide whom God lets off the hook. Hey, it appears that He let the adulteress women off the hook, doesn’t it? It is called God’s MERCY. But, in my reading of most of the other events in scripture, we always pay a price when we fail to be loyal and obedient to God even when He forgives us, i.e., King David, Jacob, and Saul of Damascus who became Paul etc…
We don’t know what God have in store for another or what kind of mercy or blessing that He has in store for someone else unless he has shared that with you through His gift of prophecy. We know that this life on earth is only temporary and that we hope for eternal life in God’s Kingdom to Come.
Life on this earth is consists of trials, test, punishments for the purpose and hope that they will draw us to God, or closer to God perfecting us to reflect more of Christ. Life also consists of awful attacks from Satan on this earth. To sum it all up, we were created to worship and serve God and were given the job of telling others about God’s grace and mercy and, about the Kingdom of God to Come.
Sadly Mike, nothing that you have ever written or that I have read of your comments reflect that you have a personal relationship with Christ or understand your duties as a Christian.
Looks like the ‘Negro Project’ is a success…
Tim,
The problem with that is that chickens always come home to roost. Check of the TRUE figures from the cdc and you will see that the figure is extremely high for White females also AND WOULD QUESTION THE FIGURES SHOWN WITHIN THIS POST.
Here are the latest and REAL abortion statistics regarding race from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention.
See TABLE 16:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5609a1.htm