There are many Episcopalians that are strongly against abortion, however, there are also many that support keeping abortion legal. However, let us first examine the actual official statement on abortion:
While the Episcopal Church recognizes a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy, the church condones abortion only in cases of rape or incest, cases in which a mother’s physical or mental health is at risk, or cases involving fetal abnormalities. The church forbids “abortion as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection or any reason of mere convenience.”
We can gather two things from this stance, first of all, we see that the Episcopal Church believes that it is a women's right to terminate her pregnancy. However, the Episcopal Church only sees abortion as being morally permissible under very extreme circumstances and absolutely reject abortion as a means of birth control.
However, does the Episcopal Church want to see abortions made illegal, excepting in the conditions mentioned in our own official statement. Nope! Not only that, one could argue that many in leadership positions in the Episcopal Church see nothing wrong with abortion at all. In fact, if one were to visit the Episcopal Digital Network, they will find plenty of articles written that support Planned Parenthood and support for abortions on demand. All of this is wrapped in the veil that a women shouldn't have to suffer the consequences of sexual intercourse. Whatever happened to the Church preaching a message of abstinence if one doesn't want to have a child? What about using contraceptives to ensure that a pregnancy doesn't occur in the first place? Where are articles written against abortion as a means of birth control? Where are the articles exposing the evils of abortion? Where is the balance? This idea that it is okay to use abortion as a form of birth control is disgusting and plain evil. This shouldn't be a political issue for the Christian, it should be a human rights issue and a moral decency issue. That said, the Episcopal Church is way too busy giving out awards to Episcopal priest Katherine Ragsdale, who believes that abortion should be a "Sacrament" of the Church and she would personally break the law to ensure that an underage girl could have an abortion. You are probably saying, "this is just one crazy priest, right?" Nope, this the is the dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School! Read the filth for yourself, if you dare: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/priest-who-calls-abortion-blessing-tells-congress-shed-break-law-help-minor-cross-state
Now, let us take a look at our the portion of our Baptismal Covenant that has been the focus of the Episcopal Church for quite some time:
"Will you strive for justice and peace among all
people, and respect the dignity of every human
being?"
I guess striving for the dignity, peace, and justice of every human being doesn't include the unborn baby? Maybe our baptismal covenant should be re-written to include that we will "respect the dignity of every human being, unless they are unborn or if they go against progressive political politics." Now, if the Episcopal Church added that to their Baptismal Covenant, I that would square the Church away on my hypocrisy claim. If you think that the murder of a generation of children is "progress," then you are probably a psychopath.
At the end of the day, abortion is a very difficult decision and it is one that shouldn't be taken lightly. It is also true that the Church should be a voice of forgiveness, understanding, and love. Personally, I don't think that abortion should be 100% illegal, I think that the reasons given in the Episcopal Church's official stance are all good reasons and morally acceptable reasons to consider an abortion. However, our Church is being lead by a bunch of hypocrites who cite the Baptismal Covenant when it agrees with their politics, yet they utterly trash it when it goes against their politics.
As laity, we need to make our leaders "respect the dignity of every human being," including those who are unborn. Leave the politics at home! Thoughts?
Thanks for bringing this up, Sean. I'm glad someone is willing to address it. I'll confess that the issue of abortion is not one which I am prone to engaging. On the contrary, I, like most people, avoid it. However, this silence has often panged my conscience; thanks for providing me an opportunity to face the hypocrisy. I think it is unfortunate that this issue has become so politicized that it is difficult to have meaningful conversation about it; even the language is loaded (i.e. pro-choice and pro-life, rather than the more accurate pro-abortion and anti-abortion). Because of this, and with some sadness, I generally support the current public stance of the Episcopal Church in opposing government action that would abridge “the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of pregnancy” (GC resolution A054); such decisions are too complex, important, and morally fraught to be decided by partisan legislators. However, the same resolution boldly proclaims that “all human life is sacred from its inception until death”, and therefore “all abortion (has) a tragic dimension”. Accordingly, a woman with an unplanned pregnancy should expect the full support, in counsel and resources, of the Church. I believe this is the right approach in what is a difficult and extremely important ethical issue. Unfortunately, as you rightly point out, we have influential voices in TEC today that speak loudly on this issue from an extreme legal rights perspective, going so far as to speak of abortion as an unmitigated blessing. Frankly, Ragsdale's rhetoric is one that I simply cannot square with the gospel (and I think I'm a pretty generous and reasonable sort of guy). This is a fundamentalism of the worst kind, a usurpation of the liberty of the gospel, and a denigration of the dignity of human life. I hope our church will not continue in such scandalous politicizing, and instead embrace this issue, not with rhetoric that panders to the left or right, but with the radical and costly love of the gospel. As Stanley Hauerwas has said, “The church must refuse to use society’s terms for the abortion debate. The church must address the abortion problem as church.”
ReplyDeleteHi Rob! First of all, I want to thank you for reading the blog and thank for your comment! You have done a great job at explaining the complexities of this issue and I am in agreement with you. In order to change the way the Church approaches abortion, we must first see the issue through the lens of a Christian and not as a partisan politician, you did a great job expressing that thought. I, like you, am actually quite pleased with the official stance and language used by TEC on the issue of abortion. However, if only our leaders would take a closer look at what it says and try to see the issue as a Christian, while leaving the politics at home (on all sides).
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