Rev. Donna Schaper is the Senior Pastor at the Judson Memorial Church in New York City.
William James in his marvelous book, THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, speaks of the transition from Catholicism to Protestantism as the transition of the brocaded, artistic, colorful Baroque to one man in a black suit carrying a black book which he places on a plain table in an unornamented meeting house. His observations are on target. There is nothing perfect about Protestantism. Still it has a few values that might make a non-violent approach possible for those of us who spiritually and theologically value the right to choose an abortion. With Hillary Clinton, many of us think abortion should be safe, legal and rare. We also think it is a constitutionally guaranteed right. We also have respect for the constitutional promotion of a brocaded right to the separation of church and state.
When Roman Catholics take up a separate offering to remove abortion from federal funding and send their people home with an experience of the body of Christ - and a postcard to send to their congressional representatives - they violate both the body of Christ and the constitution. These are not small matters. Some of us are tempted to do more than growl: our stomachs churn at the deeper issue of one theology dominating another, illegally. Some of us find ourselves filling up with a kind of hate at injustice, abuse of the constitution, power gone amok. Some women are wearing T-shirts saying that we are feminists formerly for Obama. Not me: I see what he is up against. We surely understand the President's dilemma and praise our baroque friends for their protection of immigrants, gays, even women to a point in the new and overall positive health care bill. We sense ourselves eating different bread but not being part of a different body.
The reason hate is so
tempting is that we are in fact so close to our Roman Catholic brothers and
sisters. In the name of all that
is good about Jesus and his international body, I spend a good bit of time
praying for the hate and anger to subside. I also pray for the right lawsuit to stop my sisters and
brothers from abusing the constitution by handing out post cards and taking up
special offerings. Protestants may be plain but we frown on
this sort of imperial moral legislating.
We actually believe in the separation of Church and State and hope no (consenting
and believing) Catholic will ever have an abortion.
It is not hateful to call to account. Nor is it hateful to enjoy the right to be different. While frowning on the temptation to hate a group of unmarried men, namely the bishops, who don't even represent their people, who believe more than not in the right to choose an abortion being protected by the federal government, we who are hurt and we who will be hurt by the lack of funding for abortions have a right to call for strong countervailing action. A good lawsuit against the postcards would go a long way towards resolving this dilemma. Then we might go back to living on a fair and even playing field when it comes to politics, theocracies and women's rights.
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I hate the Catholic Right for the same reasons I hate fundamentalist Islam. They both have the same vision for our country. Only the theology is different.
What country you belong to has no berring on God's laws. If you believe that life begins at conception then abortion is murder. NO state law can change that. God's laws do not have loopholes.
In the west, animals have more rights than the unborn.
At least Catholics are consistant on this.
M. Theresa said, "that if abortion is not evil nothing is."
I find it quite rich that the website of your own church has plenty of stuff on it about "social justice" advocacy. I guess it's only out of line when the vision of "social justice" another church is pushing for doesn't agree with your own, huh?
And I see you're preaching against the amendment in your most recent sermon? There's a word for people like this: "hypocrite."
Monk21 you would also have to beleive the death penalty is morally wrong
Unless you were one of those Life-Begins-At-Conception-and-Ends-At-Birth Catholics
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