I think Andrew is one.
Reading an email from a pro-life group about what our church should be doing to stop abortion. It is lengthy. If our church did 20% of them, it would be all that our church did.
One of the final items on the list is for the pastor to get alongside local abortionists and abortion-silent pastors in order to convince them to change their ways. Andrew's only mentioned abortion a couple of times that I can think of. And those mentions were only in passing.
Not sure what the point of this post is. But church isn't a lobby group.
Except for the first five minutes after the service is scheduled to start. Then you find that the group in the lobby is your entire church.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, if Andrew were to start focusing his pro-life comments by speaking to those in the lobby, he could do good in opposing abortion, and train people to come in on time? Win-win!
Good idea. (Music team isn't in the lobby group.)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite instruction: Constantly remind congregation about the fallacy of claiming to be Christian while voting for political candidates who support legalised abortion.
We don't quite get that level of instruction, but we do hear about abortion quite often in our public prayer times at church...it seems to get a lot more airplay than other issues...
ReplyDeleteIt is so easy to point the finger at other people, when we have all sorts of nasties that we paint up as acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to know what are the kinds of things they think we should be doing.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that while abortion is horrifying, rather than simply speaking against it, we should be "putting our money where our mouth is" so to speak. For example, welcoming people with disabilities, and not patronising them. (I'm sure there are lots more, and better examples, these are just the first things that came to mind.) I'm thinking of the sort of things that love should compel us to do anyway, that should be part of everyday Christian living and not an "add on".
But the thing is, that these things start with me changing my attitude and behaviour every day, and as such are in some ways harder than it was for me to (once) ignore the doctor who seemed to be suggesting that perhaps I should go home and consider an abortion.
Sorry if I'm rambling.
Hi Caroline. There's nothing like you suggested. Closest (which I think is a good thing to do) is being welcoming to pregnant single women.
ReplyDeleteHere are a few more:
-Constantly educate the church on pro-life issues, including
foetal humanity and the risks of abortion
-Sponsor educational seminars to equip both pastors and lay
people on how to become informed and effectively oppose
abortion – Cherish Life Queensland is able to facilitate and
present life issues talks at these events
-Establish a church-based abstinence-only sex education
program such as “True Love Waits”
-Make sure that pro-life literature is always available in a
conspicuous place at the church, and have a pro-life message in
every church publication with adoption information, pregnancy
counselling contacts, and post-abortion counsellor contacts
-Encourage your congregation to use pro-life symbols such as
bumper stickers, Precious Feet Pins, etc. which are available
from Cherish Life Queensland
-Erect a Memorial Wall or Shrine of the Innocents on church
property
-Erect a pro-life billboard on church property – Cherish Life
Queensland can give you ideas for these
I think we also need to acknowledge that married women like me are often tempted to abort rather than go through with a pregnancy. If I fell pregnant now, life would become quite complicated.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago a friend of mine terminated her pregnancy (19 weeks?) because her baby had a disability. She was devastated afterwards and called the minister of our church to come over to pray and bless the baby's ashes. I felt really sad that she had not felt there was enough support for her for bringing a disabled child into the world - i.e. support from the church, the wider community and the medical community.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important that the church is a caring, supportive community, accepting of all people and being caring enough to help and become part of other people's lives. I have heard Christian people put down single mothers in Bible studies and in private discussions. Another woman I met said that the church she occasionally attended was more welcoming of her and her daughter when she brought her defacto partner along as they 'looked right'.
If we focus on caring for people we are more likely to see a drop in abortion rates than if we push pro-life leaflets, and shrines for innocents etc.
I agree.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Narelle :)
ReplyDelete