Abortion Provider's New Chaplain Posits Pro-Choice Jesus

Agape ^ | 3.11.04

[ambrose]

Abortion Provider's New Chaplain Posits Pro-Choice Jesus

Pro-Lifer Says Planned Parenthood's Pastor Contradicts Mainstream Christianity

By Jim Brown and Jenni Parker March 11, 2004

(AgapePress) - A conservative Protestant activist says he is appalled but not surprised that a United Methodist minister has been hired to serve as chaplain of the nation's largest abortion provider. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has selected Pastor Ignacio Castuera to fill the newly created position and communicate "the theological justification for choice, sexuality, and contraception."

Castuera serves as pastor at St. John's United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California, and has been a member of Planned Parenthood's clergy advisory board for the past ten years. A longtime, strong supporter of abortion rights, he has worked with California Abortion Rights Action League on numerous pro-abortion campaigns, and once headed an outreach project of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a group that has honored him for his commitment to "reproductive freedom."

Castuera even promoted the Planned Parenthood's pro-death ideology in print. In a May 2003 article in the pro-abortion organization's Clergy Voices newsletter, Castuera commented that one can ?extrapolate" from all the other life-affirming stories about Jesus in the Bible that he "would indeed support a woman's right to choose." The pastor has written numerous articles in professional journals and newspapers, and in his new capacity, he will continue to promote Planned Parenthood's mission and vision as an official spokesperson.

Mark Tooley is director of the Institute of Religion and Democracy's United Methodist Action steering committee. He says Planned Parenthood has for some time used its clergy advisory board and members like Castuera to provide a religious veneer for the agency's promotion of unrestricted abortion rights. But UM Action's director contends that the abortion mill's new ministerial mouthpiece does not speak for the traditional Church.

"Rev. Castuera and others who are willing to serve the cause of Planned Parenthood represent very much a limited aberration within Christianity. Certainly they don't come from the mainstream of Christianity," Tooley says.

The Institute on Religion and Democracy works to reform the social and political witness of the American churches, and Tooley's committee specifically seeks to defend Church beliefs and practices in the spirit of John Wesley, the father of Methodism. Tooley says the hiring of Castuera comes as no surprise to him and is all part of pro-abortion activists' divisive political strategy.

"Planned Parenthood is trying to show that Christianity is divided over the issue of abortion," he says, "and that's why they have their clergy advisory board, and that's why they have the chaplain -- only for that political purpose. But in fact, for 2000 years Christianity has been almost entirely uniformly on the side of defending the sanctity of all human life, including unborn life."

Tooley believes Castuera is unlikely to be disciplined by the United Methodist Church, especially considering the fact that the denomination's leadership and national bureaucracy have supported abortion for the past 30 years. While the United Methodist Church officially opposes partial-birth abortion and the use of abortion for birth control and gender selection, it officially defends the individual's right to access abortion services.

[Spruce]

It's a well-known fact that Jesus LOVED children.

[muawiyah]

The dealers of death and their running dog lackies sure know how to come up with false prophets, almost on cue.

Did the Methodists bother to get a copyright on their name, or what?

[Petronski]

NOT to be believed.

[Petronski]

You have got to see this.

[johniegrad]

"Iggy" needs to consider his position. He may be able to find work as a whore for the abortion industry in this life but what will he do in the next life?

[kennedyd]

It's a well-known fact that Jesus LOVED children.

I think that's the argument used by the chaplain for NAMBLA.

[3catsanadog]

Tooley believes Castuera is unlikely to be disciplined by the United Methodist Church, especially considering the fact that the denomination's leadership and national bureaucracy have supported abortion for the past 30 years. While the United Methodist Church officially opposes partial-birth abortion and the use of abortion for birth control and gender selection, it officially defends the individual's right to access abortion services.

This is something I did not know from the denomination I am a member of. Maybe it's time I become a Southern Baptist or a Catholic. I'm heading over to the United Methodist main web site to check this out.

[narses]

In a May 2003 article in the pro-abortion organization's Clergy Voices newsletter, Castuera commented that one can "extrapolate" from all the other life-affirming stories about Jesus in the Bible that he "would indeed support a woman's right to choose."

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***It's a well-known fact that Jesus LOVED children.***

And Sawney Beane loved people!

[Bogey78O]

You can't make this stuff up.

[onyx]

Thanks (I think) for the ping.

WKB *ping*

[billorites]

Guess that was Jesus I saw lurking there in the penumbra.

[Gianni]

Castuera commented that one can ?extrapolate" from all the other life-affirming stories about Jesus in the Bible that he "would indeed support a woman's right to choose."

I guess the thinking is: If you're gonna burn, go big?

[Esther Ruth]

I knew someone who went to a United Methodist Church and if I remember right, I think they also believed that God was not male, but instead female, or maybe no sex at all, just generic, I think they just believe the things in the Old Testament were nice stories to teach us things and not actual events.

[whereasandsoforth]

I guess we are all really-really-really lucky that Mary didn't exercise her "right to choose".

Planned Parenthood is nothing more than satellite offices of hell.

[Esther Ruth]

It seems when ever I've met United Meths also, they have always ended up being very pro abortion, very feminist and very liberal.

[GeronL]

Why does Planned Parenthood even pretend?? Its so obvious they aren't anything remotely christian

[Esther Ruth]

You wrote "Why does Planned Parenthood even Pretend?"

Why does the Evil one come as an angel of light?

Why does a wolf put on sheep's clothing?

[Tench_Coxe]

"And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. But, whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Every time I hear one of these 'ministers' speak, I can't help thinking of this passage.