Slava Novorossiya

Slava Novorossiya

Friday, October 16, 2015

CLERGY ‘BLESS’ ABORTION CLINICS IN CLEVELAND, OHIO


RCRC bless Abortion Clinic


United Methodist and Episcopalian Church Clergy Lead Prayer Rally to “Bless” Abortion Clinic
State   Sarah Zagorski   Oct 12, 2015   |   1:16PM    Cleveland, OH

In Ohio, United Methodist Church pastor, Reverend Laura Young, says she believes pro-life protesters in front of Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities have “misguided faith.” In fact, she thinks these clinics should be blessed, which is why she went out to an abortion facility called Preterm on October 8th in Cleveland. In 2014, Preterm was involved in the abortion-related death of Lakisha Wilson.

Young explained her acceptance of abortion like this: “Christianity, like most faiths, is founded on love. Watching protesters shouting judgment and hate based on what they call religion is horrible. Is that loving God? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself?”

Think Progress reports that the group hopes their “blessing” will protect Preterm from “preachy protesters, as well as encourage the strength and bravery of those providing and relying on its services.” Young plans to go out to other abortion facilities in the state if their event in Cleveland is successful.

Young also says religious groups are fueling the so-called war on women. She explained, “Women are being attacked at a moral level by the radical Religious Right. They’ve hijacked the political discussion. This event is an opportunity for progressive religious leaders to stop the silence. We need to be in the conversation.”

The abortion reverend heads up a group called the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and they run an “all-options” counseling hotline for women facing crisis pregnancies. She said, “It breaks my heart to know women are sitting in pews across the country feeling shamed, believing that they’re cursed for making this decision. That’s a question I get a lot on the phone, ‘Am I going to hell?’ When God instead is there to support women through it all.”


On their website, the group says their mission is to “ensure reproductive choice through education, advocacy, and counseling. The Coalition seeks to give clear voice to the reproductive issues of people of color, those living in poverty, and other underserved populations.”

As LifeNews previously reported, on July 29, the Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy Board said the undercover videos exposing the organization’s organ harvesting business are simply an attack on women’s health care. Jeffrey Walton from the Institute on Religion and Democracy reports that the board is made up of religious leaders from the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church and American Baptist Churches as well as clergy from Reformed Jewish and Unitarian Universalist congregations.

In a statement the clergy said, “As faith leaders committed to justice, honesty, and liberty, we are troubled by the decades-long campaign of harassment against Planned Parenthood and those they serve. Our faiths demand care for those marginalized by poverty and other oppressions. Faith leaders have supported Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years because of our shared goals: every person — regardless of income, race, or religion — deserves access to safe, affordable, high-quality health care.”

They concluded, “Our religious traditions call us to offer compassion, not judgment. People who work for Planned Parenthood give care and respect to those in need, doing God’s work. For this we are grateful.”

Thankfully, pro-abortion religious groups are in the minority and countless prominent religious leaders have expressed disapproval for Planned Parenthood’s outrageous practices. For example, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap., archbishop of Boston and chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said that the videos reveal “the now standard practice of obtaining fetal organs and tissues through abortion and fail to respect the humanity and dignity of human life.”

Then he reminded Catholics that Pope Francis has called abortion the product of a “widespread mentality of profit, the throwaway culture, which has today enslaved the hearts and minds of so man.”

Additionally, Rev. Franklin Graham and Baptist theologian Albert Mohler commented on Planned Parenthood’s lucrative business after the footage was released. Rev. Graham said, “Abortion is a sin and is clearly murder in God’s eyes. The people who perform it have no conscience, so I’m not at all surprised that they would be selling organs, tissue, and body parts from babies. Planned Parenthood should be put out of business. They’ve done enough damage.”

In some ways, Mohler used even stronger language than Rev. Graham to describe Planned Parenthood and said they “stand at the epicenter of the Culture of Death.” He also dismissed the abortion giant’s justifications for their executive’s unbelievable comments.

He said, “They are not going to be able to explain this video away. I have no reason to believe that the video is anything less than totally credible. But, even if Planned Parenthood somehow finds a way to evade justice in terms of criminal activity, the part of the video that Planned Parenthood does not –and cannot — deny reveals their senior medical director enjoying a conversation over a meal in which she describes tearing apart the bodies of unborn human beings in order to get the desired organ: “I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”


Methodist, Episcopal clergy ‘bless’ Cleveland abortion clinic in prayer service
Fr. Mark Hodges
NewsAbortion

CLEVELAND, OH, October 12, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- More than a dozen religious leaders from a variety of denominations gathered last week to support abortion and "bless" a Cleveland abortion facility.

The "blessing" of the Preterm facility was initiated and coordinated by Rev. Laura Young, a Methodist priestess and the executive director of The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice’s (RCRC) Ohio chapter.  

"Bless this building,” prayed Rev. Tracey Lind, Dean of Cleveland's Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, at the abortion facility. “May its walls stand strong against the onslaught of shame thrown at it. May it be a beacon of hope for those who need its services."

RCRC is based in Washington, D.C. Its national president, Rev. Harry Knox, participated in the Cleveland demonstration as well, and told the Columbus Dispatch, “I’m here today standing alongside my fellow clergymen and clergywomen to say, thank God for abortion providers.”  

Knox is a "married" homosexual who has also spearheaded same-sex “marriage” efforts in Georgia and Florida.

The group held signs that said to be pro-abortion is to be "pro-family" and "pro-faith."  Other signs read, "Good women have abortions."

One demonstration participant, Molly Marvar, had positive things to say about her abortion at the Cleveland Preterm clinic, calling her abortion a great, caring experience, and a privilege. “It was a defining moment for me," she said.  "It’s really important to me that I speak up about my abortion to help other women.”

“There is a reverence for life that happens in this clinic,” Marvar told Think Progress.  “And the decision to get an abortion is often a really, really, spiritual decision.”

In an interview with Think Progress, Young explained that she believes God supports abortion.

"Women who have had abortions are being attacked at a religious level, and the faith community has a moral obligation to heal these spiritual wounds,” she said.

Young, a self-described "progressive theological thinker and a feminist," said if her demonstration and "blessing" is successful, her group will bless other state clinics as well.  She recently testified against a pro-life bill in the Ohio senate, along with Unitarian, Universalist, United Church of Christ and Episcopalian clergy.

Young also recently led the invocation for the Ohio House of Representatives. She was assigned to lead Ohio's RCRC by her Methodist bishop, Gregory Palmer.  

Young says pro-lifers are exercising a “misguided faith” when they peacefully tell women entering Preterm that there is a better way, according to the National Right to Life. Rather, Young insists that pro-lifers are "hurling hate and judgment" on women who have abortions. Young rhetorically asks, "Is that loving?"

However, the Very Reverend Jason Kappanadze, priest of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Elmira Heights, New York, differs with Young. “The Church never judges people, but judges actions,” he explained. “We do, however, tell the truth, to help people discern the godly, loving path.”

“How far we have strayed from true understanding, when we characterize an attempt to save lives as hateful, and characterize the taking of life as loving?” he asked.

“To tamper with the creation of human beings by God - intentionally and by His loving will - is an example of human arrogance and hubris, and is indicative of a loss of fundamental reasoning and the understanding of life.”

Kappanadze says he sees the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice as emblematic of a deeper problem. “The growth of the acceptance of abortion is parallel to the loss of direction of many Christians, who can no longer call people to repentance because of their division,” he said. The division of Christians, he said, “prevents them from speaking with one voice, as it was in the beginning of the Church.”


‘Blessing’ abortion clinics won’t help women

   
Rev. Laura Young, celebrating Planned Parenthood’s “Pink Out Day” (via Think Progress/JANINE DUNMYRE)

At Think Progress, Alex Zielinski has written a glowing report on clergy’s efforts to “bless” an Ohio abortion clinic – more than a bit out of place in the pro-abortion news site’s “health” section.

Also completely out of place are many assertions made by Mr. Zielinski and those featured in the article – clergy and others who view abortion as something that should be ‘judgment-free.’

Zielinksi writes:


On Thursday, Rev. [Laura] Young and other religious leaders plan on blessing Preterm, a local abortion clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. While many states face contentious anti-abortion legislation, Ohio is especially threatened by measures that could shutter clinics and essentially “regulate abortion out of existence,” according to local reproductive rights advocates.


Preterm in Cleveland was the abortion clinic of choice for 22-year-old mother Lakisha Wilson, who suffered a heart attack during her second trimester abortion (performed by Dr. Lisa Perriera) and subsequently died a week later.  Preterm has a history of problems, but just this year at least two of the patients there have been transported to hospitals by ambulance. Perhaps this is a clinic that needs to be ‘shuttered’ for the safety of women.

And what’s the real point of this “blessing”?


The group hopes their blessing will protect the facility against the kind of abuse stemming from preachy protesters, as well as encourage the strength and bravery of those providing and relying on its services. If it’s a success, Young said the group will go on to bless other state clinics.


Oddly, only in the realm of abortion does informing women equate to “abuse.” And what will Young use to determine whether “blessing” an abortion clinic is a success? Will the facility’s abortion numbers increase? Will fewer protesters show up to “abuse” women with biological facts about fetal development? What?

Pro-choicers are just so much more open-minded than those preachy pro-lifers, writes Zielinski:


In Ohio, where Young serves as the Director of the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, progressive clergy are doing similar work. Young also spends her time answering calls on an “all-options” counseling hotline run by clergy members. Unlike other religious organizations that use the guise of counseling to discourage women from getting an abortion, this line is judgement-free. Women can call looking for spiritual counseling before and after they get an abortion (if they decide to) and will find general support — something often missing in a church setting.


Ah, yes. Pro-life counseling is ‘fake’ but counseling in support of abortion is legitimate. Perhaps if abortion clinics offered counseling for “all options,” these pro-choice clergy wouldn’t need to operate their own counseling hotline. And I wonder why “general support” for abortion is so “often missing in a church setting.” Hmm.

According to these pro-choice clergy, God is in full support of whatever choices women make – including abortion:


“It breaks my heart to know women are sitting in pews across the country feeling shamed, believing that they’re cursed for making this decision,” Young said. “That’s a question I get a lot on the phone, ‘Am I going to hell?’ When God instead is there to support women through it all.”


That women sit in silent pain in churches breaks my heart, too. But there is an answer to this feeling of shame, and it isn’t in encouraging them to feel that God approves of their abortions. Excuse me while I get religious for a moment: When we sin, we should feel ashamed – but Christ offers forgiveness! We are under a curse – but Christ came to free us through His shed blood on the cross.  We are destined for hell – but again, Jesus Christ came to offer Himself as a ransom for us so that through Him, we might be saved. So this is the good news – forgiveness, hope and healing in Jesus Christ. It is not good news to say that – hey – whatever choice you make, God’s totally in support of that. Nowhere in Scripture do we see evidence of this, which causes me to wonder what kind of theology these pro-choice ministers have learned at seminary. God cannot support our sin, including our choice to kill our offspring. But He is faithful to forgive when we genuinely turn from our sin.

Think Progress continues with the narrative about how “great” abortion is:


Molly Marvar, one of the many women who has had an abortion at the Preterm clinic, has been asked to share her story with those who come to witness the Thursday blessing. She called her 2012 procedure a great, caring experience and a privilege.


Molly – who is apparently a holistic health and wellness advocate – views the killing of her child as “great” and a “privilege.” We used to call this kind of thinking ‘disturbed.’ Now it seems to be par for the course. Remember this the next time someone tells you that no one is actually ‘pro-abortion.’


“It was a defining moment for me. But it doesn’t define me,” Marvar said. “It’s really important to me that I speak up about my abortion to help other women.”


At least Marvar is correct that killing one’s child can be a “defining moment” – just probably not in the way she thinks it is.

Her experience also inspired her to fight the stigma around abortion by creating shirts artfully screenprinted with a red “A,” something she describes as a “T-shirt campaign for abortion rights and awareness.” Marvar sees Thursday’s clinic blessing as another platform to help break the religious shame that’s so often paired with abortions.

Shame knows no religion. Advertising a past abortion by wearing a giant “A” on one’s chest will likely do little to remove the stigma of abortion, as similar efforts have shown – possibly because our society (which some say is actually becoming less religious) is already aware on some level that abortion kills a human, and being proud of that is… well, a bit warped, at the very least.


“There is a reverence for life that happens in this clinic,” she said. “And the decision to get an abortion is often a really, really, spiritual decision. Even if someone personally wouldn’t get an abortion, they should at least understand this.”


Straight from someone who has had an abortion – it is a spiritual decision. Not just a medical procedure. Not just a “choice” like anything else. Not like having a cavity filled. It is a decision that can impact the rest of your life – because abortion cannot erase pregnancy. There is no “reverence for life” happening at abortion facilities. There is a disregard for it.

Attempts to “bless” a place where children are killed and women are injured might make for good photo-ops and may assuage some consciences, but religious leaders like Rev. Laura Young may one day find that they have caused great injury to women and children – and to the name of Christ – by supporting and “blessing” abortion.


This is What Apostasy Looks Like

As I have often said, sin and rebellion, if left unchecked, will simply produce more sin and rebellion. It all just spins out of control and compounds, accelerates and multiplies. This is of course true of the individual, but it is also true of a culture or even a church.

When known error and sin is embraced and excused, then more sin and error will be run with. Pretty soon we have full blown apostasy, if we are talking about a believer or a church or a denomination. As sin goes by un-repented of, and even condoned and justified, then we have what Scripture refers to as apostasy.

Various passages speak to this, and offer strong warnings about falling away and hardening one’s heart and being deceived by sin. Let me just offer a few of these here:

Acts 20:29-31 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!

1 Timothy 4:1-2 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

2 Timothy 3:13 Evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

2 Peter 2:20-22 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Strong words and strong warnings. But for many folks they seem to be falling on deaf ears. And one of the clearest ways to discern if apostasy is breaking out in a church or Christian group is to simply note if the reigning sins of the age are being committed or defended by them.

If the sins being most championed by the world at a given time are also being celebrated, affirmed and promoted by a church body, then you likely have a major case of apostasy going on. And usually in such a situation, the best advice that can be given is to run for your lives. Leave that hell hole and have nothing to do with their iniquity and perversion.

Today the two sins most being pushed in the secular culture are homosexuality and abortion. Both have almost become sacred activities which must always be promoted and never spoken ill against. Yet we find some pastors, churches and denominations also fully promoting these abominable sins.

Consider this utterly mind-boggling story out of the US:


More than a dozen religious leaders from a variety of denominations gathered last week to support abortion and “bless” a Cleveland abortion facility. The “blessing” of the Preterm facility was initiated and coordinated by Rev. Laura Young, a Methodist priestess and the executive director of The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice’s (RCRC) Ohio chapter.
“Bless this building,” prayed Rev. Tracey Lind, Dean of Cleveland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, at the abortion facility. “May its walls stand strong against the onslaught of shame thrown at it. May it be a beacon of hope for those who need its services.”

RCRC is based in Washington, D.C. Its national president, Rev. Harry Knox, participated in the Cleveland demonstration as well, and told the Columbus Dispatch, “I’m here today standing alongside my fellow clergymen and clergywomen to say, thank God for abortion providers.”

Knox is a “married” homosexual who has also spearheaded same-sex “marriage” efforts in Georgia and Florida.

The group held signs that said to be pro-abortion is to be “pro-family” and “pro-faith.” Other signs read, “Good women have abortions.”

One demonstration participant, Molly Marvar, had positive things to say about her abortion at the Cleveland Preterm clinic, calling her abortion a great, caring experience, and a privilege. “It was a defining moment for me,” she said. “It’s really important to me that I speak up about my abortion to help other women.”

“There is a reverence for life that happens in this clinic,” Marvar told Think Progress. “And the decision to get an abortion is often a really, really, spiritual decision.” In an interview with Think Progress, Young explained that she believes God supports abortion. “Women who have had abortions are being attacked at a religious level, and the faith community has a moral obligation to heal these spiritual wounds,” she said.

Young, a self-described “progressive theological thinker and a feminist,” said if her demonstration and “blessing” is successful, her group will bless other state clinics as well. She recently testified against a pro-life bill in the Ohio senate, along with Unitarian, Universalist, United Church of Christ and Episcopalian clergy.


Wow, this is such a monstrous, demonic and ungodly situation that I am almost left speechless. These folks stand completely condemned by their own mouths, and of course by the word of God. We know that God never blesses that which is evil. He can only curse it.

And these people are simply bringing curses and the just judgment of God down upon themselves. They are the perfect illustration of just what wholesale apostasy looks like. They perfectly reflect the Isaiah 5:20 which pronounces God’s judgment on those who call good evil and evil good.

Unless these folks repent, they are in a real bad way. We can pray that the satanic blinders will be removed from their eyes, and that they will see the gross error of their ways. And we can also pray that their wilful deception and promotion of all things satanic is stopped dead in its tracks.

Satan is alive and well on planet earth and we see the clearest of illustrations of this with this group. While they might be on the extreme end of deception, perversion and apostasy, bear in mind that plenty of other churches and church leaders are quickly moving down this very same path.

How many even so-called evangelical leaders and churches are pushing all things homosexual, including homosexual marriage? How many are making excuses for baby killing and attacking prolifers who seek to keep the innocent from being led to the slaughter?

While some of these Christians may not have fully gone down the path of apostasy and rebellion against God, they are certainly well on the way. And my same advice applies to them as well: we can pray for them and ask God to help free them from their deception and blindness before it is too late.

And if need be, we can pray that if they cannot or will not be improved, that they will be removed. Things are that serious: when church leaders actually lead their flock astray, then they are quickly heading into a most dangerous place indeed, where only the righteous judgment of God is the proper answer, if repentance is not forthcoming.

As Jesus said so plainly and powerfully: “If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” (Mark 9:42)

No comments:

Post a Comment