Where Are the Churches in the Battle to End Abortion?

This piece was written by Steve & appeared last Sunday in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. In it he raises a very good point, the lack of unity in the Body of Christ & how it is hindering the fight to defend life & put an end to abortion.

In John 17 we read how Jesus prayed for the unity of those who followed them as well as to preserve them in the truth. Sadly, as Steve points out, many of those who claim to be Christian are rejecting both the unity as well as the truth about abortion. The Church has always taught that abortion is wrong. 1 of the earliest non-Scriptural writings we have, the Didache (or Teaching of the 12 Apostles) makes it quite clear that abortion is wrong: " thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born". (2:2)

None of the experiences that Steve had in dealing with DBQ Churches came as a surprize to me. & the least surprizing of all was what he discovered about many of the "Catholic" Churches in the area. Not only do some of the priests & leaders in those parishes consider abortion an unimportant issue compared to their liberal socialist agenda, some actually have people who support abortion on their staff. & this reaches up to the Archdiocese of DBQ Chancery. & I won't go into where most of the religious orders in the area are these days when it comes to supporting abortion. All I will say is that what I reported a couple years ago about Sr. Donna OP is more the rule than the exception. Note: even among the worst, there are some faithful sisters who are pro-life. & even a few who actually show up to protest @ the local Planned Parenthood.

As for those Churches who see their mission as that of "saving souls", I have 1 question. "Isn't a part of saving souls calling them to repentance from sin, including the sin of abortion?"

Saving souls also means saving lives
By Steven N. Brody
The longer that I am involved in the pro-life movement, the more I am convinced that the battle cannot be won without a more unified involvement from our church community.
When I began my role as executive director of Dubuque County Right to Life back in 2008, one of the priorities I wanted to focus on was meeting with church leaders to broaden and expand our relationships. I had the naive notion that Dubuque’s churches were pro-life, but for some reason, not all were involved with our organization. What followed was an eye-opening experience to me.
I learned of the rifts and schisms within denominations that caused some to support abortion and some to oppose abortion. Within the Lutheran Church, those affiliated with the Missouri Synod were pro-life. However, if the church was affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), they were pro-abortion/pro-choice. Within the Presbyterian Church, same issue. Affiliate churches belonging to Presbyterian Church USA are pro-abortion/pro-choice, while affiliate churches belonging to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church are pro-life.
Some Baptist churches in town have no problem partnering with our organization. But others choose not to because of our relationship with Catholic churches.
A Methodist church in town declined to work with us because, in their words, “Our discipline differs from your point of view.”
And it may come as a surprise that although we may be viewed as a Catholic organization, some Catholic parishes do not uphold the sanctity of life to a level higher than other issues.
Finally, I will never truly understand why so many of the Jewish faith are pro-abortion/pro-choice, given the holocaust they suffered in Europe and the abortion holocaust going on today.
Within the evangelical Christian community, I have found more support, even though their congregations tend to be smaller than some of the other mainline churches in town. But even so, I have been turned away by some. They usually say something like: “We are pro-life but that is not something we focus on. We focus on bringing people to Christ. You respect what we do, and we’ll respect what you do.”
While speaking recently at an Assembly of God Church, I had an epiphany that will no longer allow me to accept this excuse. We are both in the business of saving lives! Our role is to save babies from being killed in the womb, so they can have an opportunity to live and perhaps one day enter into a relationship with Christ. If churches wish to succeed in saving lives and saving souls, they should understand and endorse the commitment of saving lives in the womb as potential lives to be saved later in life.
I am pleased to say that our church partnerships have grown and we are grateful. However, there are plenty more we would love to enter into fellowship with.
If you believe in the sanctity of life, and know it is a fight worth fighting, please join us. Together as a united front, we will succeed.
Steven N. Brody is executive director of Dubuque County Right to Life. Comments: dcrtl@dcrtl.org.