Dear Krys,
I rarely answer letters like this
but I feel that you are sincere, albeit very misinformed, in your issues. First it is good
to hear that you have a dear Christian mother, I am sure that you are in her prayers
regularly as you shall be in mine. Please give her my greetings, one Christian to another.
Thank you.
Now let’s look at your post.
First let me be blunt and say that you are guiltier of hypocrisy than those you so
quickly, and ignorantly, condemn. Your post if filled with unsubstantiated rhetoric and
few facts. I will comment briefly on each section.
You write~
I was
surfing the Web and found your Web site. I
read your article "The
Sanctity of Human Life." Respectfully I feel a need to respond because the
Christian rhetoric upsets me. Respectfully, let me explain...
1) You state you are against a pro-choice
candidate who upholds the law of
the land although he/she may not personally
support abortion. You strongly
suggest
that it is a sin to vote for a pro-choice candidate. As Christians,
are we not supposed to follow the laws of the
land? Everyone in the
not a
Christian. They may not subscribe
to our teaching. Until the law of
the land
is changed, abortion is legal and Christians will have to abide by
that
law. To rule out a qualified
political candidate because he or she is
pro-choice does not seem to wise. It is like
throwing out the baby with the
dirty bath water.
I do not “strongly
suggest” that
it is a sin to vote for a pro-choice candidate, I flat out say so and my case is strongly supported
in Scripture.
You are absolutely correct that? “Everyone in the
I and the vast majority of true
Christians that I know do “abide by the law” and for you to imply differently is
not only unfair it is simply wrong.
Your further implication that
because unlimited infanticide of the unborn is the law of the land we as Christians should not, by our votes, strive
to overturn this most evil of laws relegates Christians to second-class citizens. I pray
that you did not intend this, because that is exactly what the Nazi’s did to the Jews
in the 1930s.
2) You and my mom (who I love dearly) always
put this abortion issue to the
forefront and treat it as the ONLY litmus test
for a political candidate.
As I recently said to my mom, sin is sin.
According to what I've read in
the Bible, lying is just as great a sin as adultery. Disrespecting your
parents
is just as sinful as murder. You state in your
opinion piece. "...
the
Bible teaches clearly that the affirmation of sin is the same as
commission
of the sin ourselves."
Again, give your sainted mother
my regards, (and btw your attitude toward your mother’s right to her opinion borders
on disrespectful).
I have many tests and I never
said that this was the ONLY one; I did say it was the foremost one. And from a Biblical
perspective, IT IS!
Yep, Sin is Sin. But contrary
to the teachings of pop Christianity, some sin is more serious than others. National Sin,
which affirms and promotes murder of children, is definitely one of the most serious. In
fact it is this exact sin for which God gave the people
And, you won’t find me, or
any solid Bible believing Christian endorsing any of the other sins you list.
So I don't get it. A political candidate that bears false witness lies,
slanders,
cheats, etc. is a BETTER political
leader than one who is
pro-choice?
And, it is not sinful to vote for that person?
Absolutely, if any of those
charges could be proven true. The problem is that the only proof of such behavior is
regarding John Kerry. There is no sound evidence of any of that regarding The President.
All of the charges in that regard against the President are slanderous and totally without
foundation.
That is why I respectfully say that the Christian rhetoric upsets me. Sin
is sin
no matter what it is -- lying, cheating, abortion. So why is GW so
much better of a candidate that John Kerry? And, I am not just talking
about the lies (mistakes) told to get us
into a war. GW's hands ARE NOT
clean!!.
Observation ~ you really hate
“Bible Believing” Christians, don’t you?
I already answered that. Yes, sin
is sin, but not all sin is equal.
Again, contrary to the hate-filled
rhetoric of the left, the
President DID NOT LIE to the American people. President
Bush spoke truthfully based on the totality of the information he, and the entire
international community as well as the congress, had. That some of that information now appears to be incorrect does not make the prior
informed statements “lies”. To say such is “Slander” and “False
Witness” in its worse form.
3) Every time I see pro-life rallies on TV or
hear about some other
pro-life event, I laugh because I feel the
movement is filled
with hypocrites.
Here's why. If these zealots were so PRO-LIFE why are
they not
adopting some of the hundreds of thousands of children who
languish
in the foster care system. Why doesn't every Christian church
have an
adoption ministry? Why aren't pro-life funds going to help families
or
singles adopt children? (Do you have any idea how much it costs to
adopt? I
do, because I adopted a baby. I could have used some financial
help for the first five years. The adoption cost--about $15 to $16K . Then
I had to buy formula, diapers, clothes, food,
medical care, etc, and pay
thousands of dollars a year for part time child
care. If someone had been
willing to help me out financially I would have
adopted my child's sister
who was born two years later.) I know women -- single women -- who want to
become mothers. Because of their ages or other
situations, they will not be
able to bear children. However, because of the
costs of adoption, they will
never become mothers.
You really do not know many
Christians, do you? Many of the Christians I know are doing the exact things that you
list. In fact, most of the adoption agencies are Christian based. Catholic Charities is
one of the largest adoption and life aid agencies in the world.
Also, every church I have been
in since becoming a Christian have active
pro-life ministries including aid to crisis women who chose to have their baby. So you
paint with a broad brush out of ignorance sir.
It is propaganda and an untruth to suggest that
most women are using
abortion
as birth control. Many, many women
who have abortions do so after
a lot of soul searching.
I wish this wasn’t true, but it is.
In addition most abortion clinics make give
patients
a mandatory talk before the appointment and before the procedure.
The talk is about their other options.
Some yes, most NO.
However, when they say you can
choose to keep your baby, they are not offering
any money or other type of
support except counseling.
All Christian Crisis Pregnancy
Centers offer this support. I know, I have been involved with many.
A friend of mine had an abortion back in the
1970's. She
had two minor children and was in her mid-30's when she became
pregnant again. Because of some health issues,
she decided to have the
abortion because carrying the fetus to term -- she was
told by the doctors
-- would
most probably kill her. (By the way she was a stay-at-home mom at
the time.)
It was a gut-wrenching decision but she and her husband felt
she needed to live for the other children.
I, and most Christians, have no
problem with a TRUE Life of the Mother exception, in fact
that the Life of the Mother is preeminent is biblical.
I know of others who may not
have had health problems but could not carry a
fetus to term because there
was no way they could emotionally or
financially care for a child. (The men
in their lives were not supportive.) If the
Pro-Lifers were compassionate,
they would have programs -- ones that are
advertised to the masses --
telling women if they want to keep their
babies, that a stipend or grant
would be available to them. There should be other support like less
expensive but excellent child care options.
(Back in the day there were
homes for unwed mothers.)
All of this is out there. You
are much uniformed regarding these issues.
Pro-Lifers tend to respect the sanctity of
human
life in the womb but not outside of the womb. That to me is being
hypocritical and very unChristian-like. It
might even qualify as sin.
Nothing in this paragraph is
true.
Granted, people should not be having sexual
relations outside of marriage,
but they do. And abortion is the unfortunate
consequence of that
sin. Until
women are given better options once they become pregnant,
abortion will continue -- legally or illegally.
Sadly, True. But
abortion/infanticide does not need to be endorsed in our laws anymore than other forms of
murder.
And, just a personal note: It takes two to tango as they say.
gulls me why is it always the women's fault? Perhaps the pro-choicers
should
be telling men to keep their pants zipped -- and that includes
Christian
men.
We Do!
And, besides, why are you, my mother, and other
pro-lifers
so concerned about what a women--who you do not
even know -- does with her
body?
We are not concerned about
“her body”, we are concerned about what she does to the Baby’s.
If
this nation was more pro-family and pro-mother, there would be
little need for abortion and more women would
choose to bring children into
the world.
Sadly, TRUE.
Our
country has a multitude of problems that affect many more people than
abortion
rights. There are many people
holding or running for political
office who are pro-choice and are good leaders,
honest people, and willing
to serve. They have good ideas and plans to
help strengthen the family and
our nation. Keeping them out of office because
they are pro-choice and
voting for less qualified people seems so
unwise. We need leaders who can
make a dent in the other social issues you've
written about -- Protecting
Marriage and the Family, National Security and
the War on Terror, The
Economy and Jobs, and Taxes. From what I
understand about history, when
people are feeling secure -- especially
emotionally and financially -- they
tend to look outside of themselves and address
other social issues.
Fundamentally true, but still
from a Biblical perspective (and remember it is from that perspective that I write) the
“Sanctity of Human Life” must be foremost. Why? Because it is to God.
When our nation starts to respect motherhood
and provide support for families,
abortion will become less and less. Why? Because
it will be honorable to
become a mother and the Church could be a whole
lot towards supporting this
type of social policy.
Yep, but until then, we who are
true Christians must stand for innocent life, be it the unborn, the disabled, or the
elderly.
I hope I’ve helped you to
better understand the issue from our perspective. I plan on posting this answer on my site
for the folks.
In Christ
Pastor Dick <><
Visit my blog at www.pastordick.com/blog