The United Methodist Church might one day be able to call themselves Christians. They are only 36 votes shy this time around…

Tim, I hate to say it but there is only one requirement for calling oneself a Christian, and it has absolutely nothing to do with one’s position on Abortion.

John 3:16 says it well. You might read it. I learned a long, long, time ago that “I” don’t get to decide who the true christians are. That’s God’s problem, not mine. I also like Micah 6:8 for good working definition of what the Godly life is all about.

Yeah Tim, what were you thinking? Just because the Methodists support the slaughter of babies doesn’t mean they aren’t Christians. They care very deeply about the stem cells they are going to harvest. It’s about saving the lives that matter Tim. You just don’t get it.

Thank you, Sherry, for this article.

The movement of the United Methodist Church to the right side of the abortion issue can be credited in part to the efforts of The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). From the IRD website:
http://www.theird.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=622&srcid=622

You can see a comparison between where the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and the United Methodist Church stands on the abortion issue.

I don’t think we should classify anyone as Christian or non-Christian. I have, however, never understood Christian faiths that are permissive toward abortion. Considering the peaceful teaching of Jesus and his specific interest in children, I can’t reconcile that with abortion. I’m not going to go all judgemental, but can someone explain it to me?

And I’m discussing this in a purely religious context, not in the context of current attitudes and political issues.

Davel - I looked into your link and develed a little further into the footnotes. It seems to me that the larger RCRC is nothing more than a group seeking to rationalize extremely permissive behavior in contrast to either the spirit of Gods covenant or some direct laws. I’m certainly not a fan.

Thank you, davel, for the link to the Institute on Religion and Democracy. I was actually thinking of Diane Knippers, Terry Schlossberg and Faye Short when I was writing this post. All were speakers at a Women for Faith & Family conference held in Washington, D.C. some years ago. Yes, undoubtedly, IRD has been influential despite enormous opposition. Brave women.

RCJ: I’m going to attempt to respond to your question.

Here’s my basic statement: I think that abortion is a terrible thing. I particularly think that the vast majority (some estimates put it as high as 95%) of abortions should not happen. The pregnancies that are ended by abortion shouldn’t happen in the first place. It’s nuts. For the church to hang on to an obsession with sex and sexuality at the expense of other mission is crazy.

However, I do not believe they should be banned by law, and I make that statement as a clear statement of christian conscience. I have several reasons for that statement:

1. Banning abortion will not end it. It will move it underground, where it was before Roe V Wade. This would not be a good thing.
2. I believe that there are some hard cases that do occur from time to time that require the people involved to make a terrible choice. Sometimes, the choice would be to abort to prevent something worse.
3. I do not believe, in general, that legal remedies for personal morality work very well.

I wish it was possible for the pro-life and the pro-choice people to sit down in either this kind of virtual room, or in a real one, and have this conversation without screaming. It’s not. Particularly among Christians, it’s absolutely wrong to throw around labels like “heathen” or “murderer” at each other. I seem to remember a verse that talks about removing the log from one’s own eye before you attempt to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Last: a true story that happened a number of years ago.
I was a member for some years in an independent fundamentalist church. There was a young couple in the church who had been trying to have a child for a number of years. She had had several miscarriages. Finally, she conceived, and it appeared she would probably carry the baby to term. An Amniocentesis showed that her baby was badly deformed, with an open spine and only a rudimentary brain. The doctors told her frankly that the baby would probably not survive more than 24 hours after birth, and counseled her to consider an abortion. When the word got around that they were actually thinking about it (they told the pastor in private), they were literally shunned by the church in their time of greatest need. It was terrible what these good church people did. She did attempt to carry the baby to term, and the baby did die shortly after birth. After it was all over, there was a serious discussion within the leadership of the church to throw them out over their consideration of abortion in this case. They left and never came back.

Unfortunately, the attitude that I saw during that few months is all too prevalent within the church. And it’s one that I think is totally wrong. When a family is touched by tragedy, the last thing they need is to be judged for their struggle.

The church is going to have to answer for their obsession with the fetus at the expense of what happens to the child after birth, and is going to have to answer for their attitude that refuses to acknowledge that people are going to be sexually active, whether the church tells them they can or can’t.

I think that people should concentrate more on loving the woman and young girl who find herself in this position of having an abortion. There is not a thing on this earth that takes place that Gods has not allowed.

It seems to me that Christians refuse to believe that Satan is the ruler of this world. Sometimes I even forget this and think that I can change certain things that cannot be, nor did God intend us to attempt to do. He instructed us to win hearts to Him.

Satan showed Jesus all the world and their glory and promised Jesus all these things NOW if Jesus would fall down and worship him. Jesus was tempted and He would not have been tempted if Satan was not the ruler of the whole world and all the kingdoms. Jesus did not deny that all these worldly governments were Satan’s.

I do not think that many married women are having abortions. Most abortions are due to a life styles that are not being lived as God intended.

My understanding of scripture is that we are to have faith in Jesus and go out into the word and spread the word of God. There is not a thing that we can do to take the world out of the control of Satan’s hands. Scripture tells us that things will get worst.

In these times Christians are truly failing in their duty of being Christ life and spreading the word of God to those like the ones who are having these abortions.

I feel it is error on the part of a church to support abortions, it is wrong to say that based on this that the people or the church are not Christians. No church or person is right on everything all the time. Many are in error and we must pray that their eyes are opened if we are indeed correct and they are in error.

God is patient and forgiving. He allows all these things. I think about it all time, how would Jesus respond to a woman or young girl who have had an abortion or a life style that He does not approve of?

I imagine that Jesus would respond as He did to the “Woman At The Well”.

I also think about the adulteress woman that the Pharisees wanted to stone to death, and where Jesus forgave her and told her to sin no more.

This is what I pray for those who find themselves in this position, that God allow them to know the love of Christ because then they would turn away from sin at any cost. I know, I was that woman at the well.

As far as the aborted babies, the deepest parts of me feel that if the baby never lived outside the wound, it is as though it never existed.

In the case of a volunteer abortion, I believe that one has rejected a gift from God, being that He is the only one who can create life and it is as though that child never existed.

I believe if the child is born, (have lived outside the womb), that baby’s spirit goes up to God.

But, when you see how abortions came about in America and this government. God allowed it. But, Christians must concentrate on doing God’s work that He has told us to do. Let all see the love of Christ in those who are His. Let these woman and girls see the love of Christ in. I haven’t seen this in many who label themselves “Pro-Life”.

Maybe that is what this church is attempting, even though we see it as being in error. God will be the judge. I will not lose any lost sleep over it.

By the way, The Pregnancy Crisis Center is an excellent organization that does show people the love of Christ.

After Christ because of the hope that all can have through Him, every life is acceptable and no child of any pregnacy no matter how it occured is unacceptable.

Let me also add that a parent who decides to terminate a child for what ever the reason before than child breath life. I will leave the judging of that act by the mother up to God, and will love and embrace her and counsel her as to the love of Christ and God’s word.