Posted on 06/11/2013 9:59:31 PM PDT by Morgana
There are many on the “religious left” who have decided that religion is nice, God is good, but culture is more important. Therefore, they have decided to take the pieces they like best of the Bible—good, loving God who forgives all weakness—and mix them with the lies of the culture—abortion should be a woman’s choice because it’s not a life until, well, they don’t know until when, but not until they say so at least.
One of the threads in this religious left movement is the United Methodist Church who actually has written into its Social Principles in the Book of Discipline:
The beginning of life and the ending of life are the God-given boundaries of human existence. While individuals have always had some degree of control over when they would die, they now have the awesome power to determine when and even whether new individuals will be born.
Awesome power? When did human beings get an awesome power given only to God? According to the United Methodist Church, since 2004 ,when this statement entered its Book of Discipline, making it an official statement of the Church.
However, this ideology contradicts both the Bible and even the Declaration of Independence, which declares that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The United Methodists are not the only denomination that support abortion rights, but by far they seem to be the least obvious to people. Because they have always been a more mainstream, even liturgical, church, many well-meaning, God fearing and genuinely pro-life folks attend UMC churches every week not realizing the pro-abortion ties. They give their money to the church, which then gives some of the money to the national UMC organization. Their site shows us how that money is divided:
Source: http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?mid=1732
The United Methodists are members of the abhorrent Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The RCRC uses the guise of faith to justify abortion rights without any sort of governmental or even church intervention, outside allowing more of it. I’m on their mailing list and very often the letters I get from this false faith organization parallel the sentiment and even political demands that I receive from Planned Parenthood.
I have many Methodist friends who are pro-life and disgusted by the idea of giving to abortion, so they want to be sure their money stays only in their own local church where their pastor is pro-life. But he or she can’t be a pro-life pastor and yet give church funds to a general conference which publicly, on-the-record, supports and funds abortion rights organizations. Additionally, as we have reported numerous times, all money is fungible. Let’s say Sally insists her money only go to he local body where she knows it’s not touching abortion directly. The money the church gives still frees up other money in the national organization which can all be used to fund the affiliation with RCRC and any other pro-abortion organization.
Deeper than the issue of funding, however, (and that’s pretty deep) is the issue of the heart, which would allow one to worship Jesus in one swoop and worship Satan in the next because, make no mistake, the abortion ideology is fueled by the pit of hell and the demonic powers and principalities itself. You can’t marry one and divorce the other. Either you’re married or you’re not.
The United Methodist Church clearly states, with no doubt, its support for abortion:
Our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us reluctant to approve abortion. But we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother, for whom devastating damage may result from an unacceptable pregnancy. In continuity with past Christian teaching, we recognize tragic conflicts of life with life that may justify abortion, and in such cases we support the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures. We cannot affirm abortion as an acceptable means of birth control, and we unconditionally reject it as a means of gender selection.
Being reluctant isn’t enough for those who claim the name of Jesus. Jesus Himself was the product of what the United Methodist Church would deem an “unacceptable pregnancy.” What’s unacceptable is throwing Jesus into the abortion justification. In no way does the Bible justify abortion to solve a problem. Neither should the church.
xzins — the insider perspective?
Matthew 6:24 Jesus says “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
The insider story is that the statement of the United Methodist current position on life is accurate.
What the article doesn’t demonstrate is that this is an improvement brought about by pro-life forces over the former positions of the church. From the late 60’s on, it has been a tremendous struggle, but there have been improvments in the language.
Most don’t realize how difficult it is with liberals in charge of the hierarchy and only a once-every-four-year rules conference to change anything in the UMC.
However, I won’t applaud the current position at all. It is a huge contradiction, and hopefully time will see it become fully pro life.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.