Posted on 03/06/2014 9:14:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Chris Oyakhilome, charismatic pastor of 30,000-member Christ Embassy church in Lagos, Nigeria, has sparked an online debate after insisting that it is "never mentioned anywhere in the Bible to keep a child from a woman who was raped!"
Christ Embassy Naples in Italy shared on its Facebook page remarks reportedly made by Pastor Oyakhilome during a question-and-answer segment during a church service on Sunday, March 2.
Considering the question, "Can a baby that is a product of rape be aborted?" Oyakhilome was said to have responded:
"No child should be brought into this world by force, if a lady has been raped, it is left for her to make a decision of whether to keep the baby or not. If you have never been raped or someone close to you haven't [sic], you may not agree with this statement.
"It is never mentioned anywhere in the Bible, to keep a child from a woman who was raped!"
Vanguardngr.com, the popular online portal of the Nigeria daily newspaper, reports that Pastor Oyakhilome's comments have been trending on Facebook after various responses were posted online "swinging in and out of his favor."
Among the nearly-200 responses to the news item were comments from Nigerians expressing disagreement with the Christ Embassy founder, usually referred to as "Pastor Chris," that the Bible was silent on victims of rape who conceived having to keep the baby.
"If really Pastor Chris made such [a] response, then it's just unfortunate. The Bible is clear on murder — abortion irrespective of how the pregnancy came about is a murder," wrote Fred Otone Olomuro.
"Wicked as rape may be, it CANNOT be a valid ground for abortion. Beware of human rationalisation. If we accept this, I can assure you that there will be a sea of human reasons why we will be committing murder in the name of abortion," added another commenter named Valentine.
There were others, like Stanley Chukwu, who agreed with Pastor Oyakhilome's assessment.
"It is perfectly the best thing to do. Pastor Chris is absolutely right, keeping a baby conceived out of rape is morally reprehensible," wrote Chukwu.
Another commenter, perhaps speaking from personal experience, said she "totally agreed with Pastor Chris," and added, "If you are not been rape(d), shut up your mouth."
Although the Bible does not specifically address the issue of abortion, the intentional termination of a pregnancy, Christians, which amount to 40 percent of Nigeria's population, often cite passages like Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-16, and Exodus 21:22-25 to argue against the act, even in cases of rape. The Roman Catholic Church, which claims nearly 19 million adherents among Nigeria's 168 million residents, also cites passages like Jeremiah 1:5 and Psalm 139:15 in its doctrinal position on abortion as a "moral evil" in all cases when a life has formed.
In Nigeria, ranked as the second-most religious country on WIN-Gallup International's "Religion and Atheism Index," abortion is only legal when the mother's health is threatened. The Guttmacher Institute, which reported in 2004 that rape accounts for 1 percent of all abortions in the U.S., also revealed in a 2008 study that there are at least 760,000 abortions carried out yearly in Nigeria, most of them illegal and resulting in the deaths of thousands of women.
Pastor Oyakhilome, whose Christ Embassy is ranked as Africa's 10th largest church by the Leadership Network, is considered controversial due to his prosperity teachings and faith-healing claims. The Nigerian minister was compared to a "false prophet" and a "charlatan" in a 2012 opinion post by journalist and author J. Lee Grady. Grady cited Oyakhilome's ministry's alleged "cult"practices, gnostic-like "New Creation" theology and connections to T.B. Joshua, another popular and controversial Nigerian minister and self-declared prophet.
According to Grady, "Oyakhilome already has 16 churches in the U.S., mostly attracting African immigrants in cities such as Dallas, Houston, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. He has 39 churches in the United Kingdom (where many Nigerians live) and 18 in Canada, and his daily devotional books called Rhapsody of Realities are supposedly available in 70 languages."
It seems good that there is a vibrant and large Chistian community there to have this debate.
Why does the baby have to pay the ultimate price for the sin of its father?
In this day and age, when it is well known that taking a large dose of birth control pills AFTER unprotected sex will prevent pregnancy, how can anyone get an unwanted pregnancy?
Why isn’t it prescribed immediately for rape victimes (who WANT it)?
Abortion should be the single most unnecessary medical procedure, when it is known how to prevent pregnancy (even AFTER unprotected sex)
“Can a baby that is a product of rape be aborted?”
Of course — They are killing the babies that were not the product of rape....so, why not babies from rape.
The left just doesn’t care — There is no sanctity of life to them. The left will save a shelter full of puppies long before the left will get upset over the death of the most vulnerable unborn.
Depends on if it is rape, legitimate rape, or rape rape.
Seriously, what crime has the baby committed that it gets a death sentence?
You would make a woman walk around for 9 months pregnant and force her to raise a rapists child?
See my previous post- pregnancy is preventable AFTER unprotected sex and is probably the best option here. I could not tell a woman she has top spend the next 18 years raising a child she didnt want conceived by force.
I respect your opinion too, I am just saying I disagree
I hope this guy's church crashes and burns. He's no Christian.
Why Abort it? They should profit from it. Let it be born and make it a slave. Or let it grow to maturity, then kill it to harvest its organs. I mean, it’s just the offspring of a rapist. The Bible never says we can’t harvest the organs of a rapist’s offspring.
The Didache: The Teachings of the 12 Apostles
“The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child” (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).
This pastor is providing a clean example of the shortcomings of sola scriptura.
Pregnancy is not preventable after sex.
Successful gestation is preventable.
Pessaries are prohibited under the Hippocratic oath.
Clearly, conception following rape is a most difficult thing, but if life begins the moment of conception then are there exceptions to terminating innocent life?
Are there times when it is justified to terminate (kill) the life an innocent bystander?
I cannot apply Christian standards upon the non-Christian, but, and I say this carefully and in humility, that our lives are not our own and our life is not all about us (me).
Is God sovereign, or is He not sovereign? If He is sovereign then everything is in His hands and He is aware of every detail of our lives, right down to the number of hairs on our head.
It is a difficult issue, but I think the greater difficulty comes when we try to squeeze into play Christian values onto a non-Christian person. Those who do not know Jesus are completely isolated from Christ and all that means.
RE: This pastor is providing a clean example of the shortcomings of sola scriptura.
You just quoted the Didache. Where in the above quote are the scriptures silent on?
In the end I think we will have to conclude a child is a gift from god whether he or she is the product of rape or not.
RE: . Let it be born and make it a slave.
Why is that the only option? have you ever considered the hundreds of thousands wanting to adopt a child?
See here:
http://statistics.adoption.com/information/adoption-statistics-hoping-to-adopt.html
I believe there is an alternative. It's called "adoption".
“It is perfectly the best thing to do. Pastor Chris is absolutely right, keeping a baby conceived out of rape is morally reprehensible,”
This person is a Christian? Where do we begin with a person who could say and/or think this?
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”
God creates human life.
That doesn’t prevent conception. What you describe is a chemical abortion.
“it” is a baby, a defenseless human being with a soul and all the right to live that you or I have.
Sola scripture has nothing to do with it.
Is this pastor not using the Doctrine of Sola Scriptura to defend aborting a child?
He can’t find it in the Bible so it is “perfectly acceptable.”
Do Protestants consider the Didache: Sacred Scripture?
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