RELIGION IN THE NEWS
Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Seattle Intelligencer, January 21, 2006, with a headline: Planned Parenthood Enlists Help of Clergy. Baptist minister, Vincent LaKina’s work in Western Washington, the nation’s only Planned Parenthood affiliate to have a full time chaplain on staff signals a growing awareness within the abortion rights movement that disregarding the moral and religious questions shared by many supporters has been a mistake. By knowing people of faith, we have, in essence, handed a political weapon to people who are against choice, said Chris Charbonneau, President of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington. The notion that if you are religious you’re anti-choice, and if you are pro-choice you are a total heathen, is a dichotomy that shouldn’t be preserved, Charbonneau said. On Sunday, the 33rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, former Pastor LaKina will be preaching in Woodinville to rally optimism for Roe versus Wade, but the bulk of his time is spent reaching out to clergy around the state who support abortion rights. In just one year, LaKina has established a state-wide network of more than 100 clergy from various faiths willing to counsel Planned Parenthood clients. I expected a lot of opposition, but as I travel the state, people are generally courteous and supportive of what I do, said LeKina. When asked why he as a minister does what he does, LaKina says he believes women should be able to do what they want with their bodies and that they are, little by little, losing that right through the courts. Other Planned Parenthood affiliates are getting the message, stacking their mastheads with clergy who back abortion rights. The Chief Executive of the Kalamazoo, Michigan affiliate is a Presbyterian minister, offices in New York City, Oakland, Austin and Denver, are among many with volunteer clergy boards, and the federation’s National chaplain is a Methodist minister in Watts, Los Angeles.
Tom:
Dave, you know in our programs, we are talking about the apostasy in the church and pastors, liberal or otherwise, doing this, doing that, ordaining homosexuals, so on and so forth, but still, this is shocking. This really gets to you, don’t you think?
Dave:
Tom, you seem to be very good at getting me angry, getting up my dander! A woman has a right to do with here body what she wants! Okay, well, she did something with her body that caused her to be pregnant. Now, I’m not talking about women who have been raped. Now, it’s not her body that we are talking about. She’s got a living, human being growing inside of her. Now she has the right to kill that baby just because she wants to do what she wants to do with here body? You know, the woman’s womb should be the safest place for a baby to grow. And then, Tom, we haven’t even gotten to partial birth abortion. I mean, they have nothing but the crown of the head still inside and on the way out, and you know, kill this baby!
Tom:
You know, Dave, this minister, so, called, part of his work is to encourage the women who work for Planned Parenthood to deal with this. They can’t deal with it, you know, throughout the country it is so difficult for them to live with what they are doing.
Dave:
And Tom, I notice we don’t get anything about the Bible. He talks about people of faith. What do you mean, faith? faith in what, faith in whom? What is the basis of your faith? Is the Bible God’s Word? Is this what we go by? Now, there’s no question that this is a living human being in there, and we’re going to kill this? This is murder, and God’s wrath is coming down upon this world. But, it’s just people of faith, rally those who are pro-choice, and not one word of support from scripture. How would you support this from the Bible?
Tom:
You can’t, and just as you said, I mean, it’s murder, there’s no other way around it. And the numbers---this is out of Seattle Intelligencer, and they quoted 2002, I think it was 1.26 million abortions in this country!
Dave:
I think there’s more than that.
Tom:
I think it was just in the year 2002.
Dave:
That’s just that year, one year, right. And it’s up in the many, many millions. Tom, it’s staggering! You know, the closest example we might have in the Old Testament would be when the Israelites followed the ways of the heathen and began to offer their children to Moloch as a sacrifice. This is human sacrifice. It’s even worse than human sacrifice. Of course that’s been practiced by pagans down through history. You can go to South America, check up on the Aztecs and the Incas, and the Myans, and so forth.
Tom:
Well, we have China. What are they doing in China?
Dave:
O, Wow!
Tom:
You know, Dave, you mentioned the Israelites, what about what took place in Egypt? The Egyptians decided, No, we’re going to cut down on the population here.
Dave:
And they wanted the babies, all male babies to be killed, and the Israelites would not go along with that. Well, but you say, Yeah, but that was outside of the womb, they were going to kill them just after they were born. What is the difference, what? five minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, a month, two months, you know. Tom, it’s basically selfishness. See, the human sacrifice, sacrificing their children, was at least, supposedly, to appease he gods. It was supposedly, to bring greater blessing, it was a sacrifice for some greater blessing for the rest of Israel, or whatever. This is only selfishness. This woman does not want to have the trouble of taking care of a child, it would interfere with her career, or who know what. It is just pure selfishness!
Tom:
Dave, the article said that this minister, again so-called, he wears a clerical collar that looks very much like a priest, and the women who work for, some of the women, it gave some examples of him, supposedly ministering to these women. But Roman Catholic women, working for Planned Parenthood talk about problems of guilt that way. But in one of the exchanges, the woman said, Well, you know, he encouraged me, he made me feel a little better, but I’m not quite sure that I do, something to that effect.
Dave:
Of course, you just murdered your baby that you should have loved and nourished.
Tom:
Well, this woman participated through Planned Parenthood to bring that about.
Dave:
Right, helped others to murder. And now, we are going to go to God’s Word, and say that, Well, God forgives you for murder anyway. You can’t find that in the Bible, and there is no appeasing of the Lord. And your conscience is going to haunt you forever unless you repent and turn to Christ for the forgiveness that he has procured, through his sacrifice for your sins, upon the cross.
Gary:
You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay with us.
