April 23, 2004
Sunday's pro-abortion "March for Women's Lives" may not generate the huge crowds its organizers and the mainstream media are predicting. Several pro-life groups are saying that's because support for abortion is on the decline. Perhaps someone should share that information with several mainline denominations who are aligned with the abortion-rights movement.
What do the American Civil Liberties Union, the Episcopal Church USA, Planned Parenthood of America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Organization for Women, and the United Methodist Board of Church and Society all have in common? Answer: Each is either an organizer or an endorser of Sunday's pro-abortion rights "March for Women's Lives" in Washington, DC.
Diane Knippers of the Institute on Religion and Democracy calls it a "scandal" that officials of mainline churches like ECUSA, PC(USA), and the United Methodist Church have allowed their denominations' names to be attached to a march that supports "government-funded abortion on demand, with no restrictions, including partial-birth abortion."
Knippers contends it is the denominational leaders -- not the people in the pews -- who are guilty of aligning those denominations with what she describes as a "dubious cause."
She says "a majority of church members, even many who call themselves pro-choice, would be disgusted" if they knew that their denominations have joined with the "aggressively secular organizations" who are organizing Sunday's march for abortion rights.
"The representatives of these declining denominations, when they endorse this pro-abortion rights march, are not earning the respect of the world or of fellow Christians," the IRD president says. "Instead, they are showing themselves to be largely irrelevant."
Knippers says the role of the church when it comes to abortion is to offer godly counsel and ministry to those women who are in a crisis pregnancy. But in this case, she says, "religious elites" have opted to assume the arguments put forth by a secular culture.
"[They are] focusing on modern concepts of autonomous individualism, rights without responsibilities, and sexual freedom rather than on timeless virtues of compassion and accountability," she says.
An Open Invitation
The organizers of the march claim there will be hundreds of thousands of marchers taking part what they say will be a high-water mark for the pro-abortion movement. But apparently they are concerned that their predictions may be in jeopardy, and are attempting to shore up their ranks. As Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council puts it, "every sordid liberal group in America has been extended an invitation because support for abortion is dropping."
