Real Churches Don’t Kill Babies, the ELCA Does

2/6/2016

(The following article was written a week ago by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.)

Today in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s “Prayers of the Church”, this prayer was made: “Make your church a prophetic voice for the voiceless…”

I thought of the voiceless cries of over 3,000 unborn children who die daily in American abortion clinics. To my knowledge, the ELCA has never had a prayer for unborn children. Perhaps this is because the ELCA pays for abortion for any reason in its healthcare plan—which is funded by offering dollars. That’s right, your offering dollars can be used to pay for elective abortions.

Way back in 1996 when I was an ELCA pastor I sent letters to all 11,000 ELCA congregations upon discovering the ELCA pays for elective abortions. Sadly, the ELCA bishops sided with the current (and still current) policy of paying for abortion for any reason, including sex selection. The issue came before the 1997 ELCA assembly. It was proposed that the ELCA limit abortion payments to rape, incest and fetal anomaly incompatible with life. For some of us, these exceptions are not valid reasons for abortion, but it was hoped that this compromise would pass and limit the vast number of reasons that the ELCA would pay for abortion. We lost. Two-thirds of the assembly voted to continue to pay for abortion for any reason, and no reason, in its healthcare plan. As one pastor said back then “Real churches don’t kill babies.” But the ELCA does.

Back in those days I received a letter, I believe from a pastor’s wife, who said she was so glad the ELCA “was there” to pay for her 16-year-old daughter’s abortion. So is it any wonder that the ELCA never prays for unborn children?

And again this week the ELCA offered an environmental prayer: “Guard all creatures that fly, swim, creep, and walk upon the earth. Defend and preserve threatened lands and waters.” But again, no prayer that God would bring lost human beings to saving faith in Christ. No prayer that God would guard the unborn. But they can pray for the environment.

Sincerely in Christ,

Pastor Tom Brock
pastorsstudy.org

2 Comments

Didaskalos link

2/6/2016 05:55:33 pm

Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose names the apostate ELCA often invokes in ludicrous attempts to claim kinship with these men, both condemned abortion in no uncertain terms.

"In 1540 Martin Luther was lecturing on the book of Genesis, and reached chapter 25 where Abraham marries again after the death of Sarah. Luther proclaimed that ‘the begetting of children is wonderfully pleasing to [God] … He is not hostile to children, as we are.’ Then he added: ‘How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God! Indeed, some spouses who marry and live together in a respectable manner have various ends in mind, but rarely children.’ The God who declares that we are to be fruitful and multiply regards it as a great evil when human beings destroy their offspring.

"Luther also wrote a tender little treatise, entitled Comfort for Women Who Have Had a Miscarriage, which was published in 1542. Here he sought to reassure suffering Christian women that their child did not require baptism in order to be saved. He made it clear that he was not writing for women who resented being pregnant, deliberately neglected their child, or who strangled or destroyed the child. The Christian woman had to bow before the strange providence of God, but could do so in the knowledge that her child who died in the womb had gone to heaven. To Luther, the unborn child was clearly a child."

http://evangelicalsforlife.com/?p=54

Bonhoeffer: “Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2008/08/bonhoeffer-on-abortion/

Rev. Roger Ph. Drews link

2/10/2016 01:38:14 pm

I too was an ELCA Pastor and did succeed in getting both the NC Synod and the I-K ynod to stand up for life. Sadly the General Assembly rejected both efforts to protect the in utero children. I was the first Executie Director of Lutheran For Life but preaching to the choir was not very satisfactory and I trid the ELCA.

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Real Churches Don’t Kill Babies, the ELCA Does

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