Church members go ballistic over graphic abortion display
After a summer hiatus, Todd Bullis and his group of Christian pro-life activists resumed what they call the “Church Project,” an effort to awaken Ventura, CA, church congregants to the reality of abortion through graphic displays on Sunday mornings.
Todd’s effort has been educational for me. He chooses churches with no demonstrable evidence that they are pro-life, even though they say they are. To date one hostile church member has hosed him and neighbors have blocked his Truth Truck. Todd has had to call police several times to intervene.
The uproar ensuing upon Todd’s arrival was no different this week. For the first time Todd’s crew picketed his former home church, Reality Carpinteria, and church members freaked. (Reality booted Todd a year ago for his pro-life activism, although his current church leaders told Todd they could find no unbiblical action on his part.)
First, a woman congregant turned over Todd’s signs, inexplicably beginning with his placard warning that graphic abortion photos were ahead. Then a neighbor went off on an expletive-laced tirade. Police were called. More angry church members expressed their outrage.
There is lots of drama on this video. My favorite comment is the woman church member asking Todd, “Are you Catholics?” – a tribute to the pro-life leadership the Catholic Church is known to show.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAjKDXOyDa4[/youtube]
Then, not on video, Todd’s pastor came out and offered to have the meeting with Todd his church’s leadership had been refusing to have for months.
Their agreement upon completion of the meeting:
- Reality will have an elders meeting to pray and seek the the heart of the Lord concerning abortion and the churches role in helping to end abortion.
- Reality will take some type of leadership roll in the pro-life movement based on Christ’s prompting and leadership.
- Reality will list on its web site the pro-life groups it supports and encourage the Church to support them.
All good. But it shouldn’t have taken a visual display of abortion to wake up this church, or any church.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Praise God! This is a sincere body of worshippers so I knew that either they’d come around or else we’d discover there was something amiss that wasn’t apparent. Their senior pastor has been engaged in a two-year battle with his little girl’s cancer (she six now) so perhaps they’ve been distracted. Thank you Todd for keeping the issue at the forefront.
But, this is not to excuse the behavior of some of the folks walking onto the Reality campus. We all know that being at church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than being at McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.
I love Reality I really do. Here is the issue, is the church’s response to abortion an acceptable response and I have to say no its not. I am not just talking about Reality I am talking about the church in general. Please everyone look at your own church and ask the tough hard questions. Is my church’s response to the 4000 murders committed every day to children an acceptable response. If it is not than please start the process of exhorting your church to do what is good and what is right before the lord.
LOL “Are you CATHOLIC?!” best compliment evah! ;D
My response as a parent would have been to tell my children what abortion is and how it breaks the heart of God and to tell them we need to help and we need to pray. We worry so much that the “little children who come to learn about Jesus” might see the pictures, but are we worried about their classmates who never will be because of abortion?
These church members, instead of coming to tear down these signs, should have gathered to pray against abortion. These signs are a wake-up call to repent for our apathy in this area.
Thank you, Todd.
joan, might you consider adding an initial to your last name, as we have a very frequent pro-abortion commenter who uses that moniker? :) Thanks!
Wow, Joan, for once I agree with you!
I’m proud that people associate Catholic with pro-life!!
Lol!! That explains it! I like this Joan :>) !
I’m always going back and forth on the use of graphic photos (based on the context they are used), but the whole “you are not about Jesus, you are about politics” really gets me. When did Christianity become a personal quest for feeling good about oneself? What about the children having to look at his, what about the children who won’t get a chance to look at anything, ever? I wonder how frustrating it was for abolitionists in the 1800s who no doubt had to deal with such… I can’t find a proper word. Sigh…
And kudos to the police officer who said he went and checked the regulations to make sure he knew what from what, I’ve been asked to leave from outside a polling place before handing out voting guides and the officers were in the wrong because the city clerk gave them bad information about the law.
Dang, that woman’s comment makes me even prouder to be Catholic!
Chris – please pardon my ignorance – I have to ask about polling places – do you mean that we can hand out voter information regarding life issues at voting locations? I assume that is as long as it does not specifically support one candidate or issue?
Thanks!
Reality’s agreement is not enough. The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) advocates that there are three things every responsible pro-life church can and should do:
1. Stop the killing in your own church by educating your members as to the reality of the humanity of the unborn and the inhumanity of abortion. The most effective way to do this is on a Sunday morning using video and still image presentations which show embryoscopy, ultrasound and abortion imagery. Small children can be taken out of the service if parents are concerned.
2. Minister to those who have been wounded by abortion. Preach frequently about forgiveness through Christ. Have Bible study and support groups aimed at those who have been wounded by abortion.
3. Activate your members to be a witness against the evil of abortion outside the church. Promote and encourage pro-life activism outside the church. Promote and encourage financially supporting pro-life organizations such as Pregnancy Resource Centers.
Until churches like “Reality” (how ironic that is their name) wake up and begin walking the talk with regards to helping the “least of these” in a truly effective way as listed above, they should have the reality of abortion looking them in the face every Sunday morning.
Don Cooper
Operations Manager, The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform
Well done Todd and gang. Keep up the great work.
Don Cooper
Here is the issue, is the church’s response to abortion an acceptable response and I have to say no it is not. I am not just talking about Reality Church, I am talking about the church in general. Please everyone look at your own church and ask the tough hard questions. Is my church’s response to abortion acceptable? If no than please start the process of exhorting your church to do what is good and what is right before the Lord.
I think the word you’re looking for is extorting, not exhorting. Maybe you should consider founding your own church instead of trying to force others to bend to your political platform adequately enough?
If even church-goers try to suppress truth in this way, our chances of ending abortion remain slim in this great country. I noticed all 3 of the angry protesters were older folks, who probably don’t have any “little children” of their own (but likely thank God for the blessing of grandchildren!). The head pastor at my former church would speak about abortion occasionally, usually when there was a pro-life issue on a ballot coming for a vote, but the crowd always seemed uneasy when he did this. That church sponsors a CPC as well, but it is always understaffed and poorly supplied due to apathy among church members. I wish Todd would bring his group to my former church!
To the pro-ABORTION joan (because we know by now that you’re not just pro-choice, you think abortion is super duper!): What’s your platform? “Death to all”?? To be frank, it’s doesn’t seem to be any of your business how those in the church exhort other believers, because you aren’t one. The fruit on your tree is rotting corpses.
my parish will be participating in 40 Days for Life (hopefully) when it starts next week. We participate in the Life Chain in October.
BTW, does anyone think its possible that the angry church members could be post abortive? Remember, pre-born child murder was legalized almost 40 years ago. Some of these people could be post abortive mothers and fathers, perhaps forced into abortions years ago by a parent or boyfriend.
Don – thank you for the succinct bullet points do what a church should do. That is an excellent summary. I still find myself somewhat uncertain about the use of graphic images – the context, not whether it is OK or not. I agree that there are times and places that graphic imagery is definitely the right response. I also believe there are times it is not. But your point that our churches must educate our members is certainly beyond question. Unfortunately, I think even the “better” of the churches is only marginally adequate at #3, somewhat inadequate at #1 and woefully inadequate at #2. There are many post-abortive support resources out there. But I must say that I have never ever heard a direct discussion of the sin of abortion that included a clear outreach to post-abortive women. The closest thing I have heard was a discussion about abortion on the anniversary of Roe V Wade that included section 99 of Blessed John Paul’s Gospel of Life. But even that was somewhat generic and not framed as a direct appeal to women right there that day. Without question, we must all pray every day for our clergy and our church leadership that they hear God’s call and respond with courage and mercy.
Yes. What about the little children? The ones that become those pictures.
Liz,
Absolutely.
Todd and Don?
THANK YOU!
Praying for you.
The Catholic comment makes me angry and ashamed! But it rejuvenates me and spurs me on to stir up the members of my own church to wake up from their apathy and stop “talking pro-life” and start LIVING it! There is a Planned Parenthood in my town and yet you don’t really see born-again Christians in front praying (except for me) but a lot of Catholics. While I appreciate the Catholics being there I wish more members of my faith would realize they will answer in eternity for what they didn’t do while babies were being torn from their mothers piece by piece.
HI Liz,
In my very short time of participating in 40Days for Life and Truth tours (about 3 years)…It would really seem the ones who are more vocal/ violent(?) the most against our presence were either of middle age or later years. Makes you think, right?
The younger generation of pro-aborts I encounter are still mad at us but are a little less “agitated”…
And oh, just want to add…I was called a “disgusting human being” by a very angry but distinguished looking senior driving a luxury SUV for holding up a pic of an aborted baby.
They’ll have a meeting to pray and seek the heart of the Lord regarding abortion? Give me a break! What lame, religious-speak mumbo jumbo. The “heart of the Lord” regarding abortion is extremely easy to discern, folks. You don’t need an elder’s meeting to “seek” it. That sounds so phony.
The Lord, the Word Incarnate, took on human flesh and became man. He didn’t descend from heaven a full-grown man, but began His human journey at conception in Mary’s blessed womb. He redeemed very single second of our human existence and showed quite clearly that every single second of it is blessed, good and precious to God by His own conception, development in the womb, and birth. That tells us everything we need to know about the heart of the Lord regarding abortion.
Yeah, I like that, “Are you Catholic?” LOL!!!
I have protected in front pf PP for years now. I have done pro-life Work in watts. The most unsafe I have ever felt is when I am infront of a church. Christians get so mad
If ALL churches would “man up” and speak about this REGULARLY, we wouldn’t HAVE to be seeing the members or men like the guy holding the sign calling out the pastors, priests, etc.
Abortion is NOT just a “Catholic Issue” and it never has been. ALL Christian faiths have an obligation to promote LIFE and speak out against this atrocity.
Jen, I love that! What beautiful words. I often think of that, that Jesus could have descended as a newborn babe but He didn’t. He came to earth as a lowly blastocyst. He went through ALL stages of human development. Jesus was a fetus. Just like all of us. Beautiful precious thought.
Pro-lifers were criticized when they engaged in the same civil disobedience that other groups received accolades for. So we stopped breaking laws (for people in jail cannot witness for the unborn publicly).
People don’t like graphic images of abortion, but apparently church people have no problem with abortion itself. No doubt the people who got most upset about the graphic images are people with abortion experience. Sometimes it hurts before the healing can begin. Post abortive church people – turn to Jesus for healing and there are plenty of good programs out there.
Stand firm, pro-lifers because it really doesn’t matter what others think. The graphic pictures save lives – there is plenty of evidence of that – and they never convince anyone to get an abortion who otherwise would not.
You know, it explains a lot when you realize that Joan considers basic human rights to be nothing more than a “political platform.”
Todd – welcome back – I still, 100% disagree with what you’re doing, but glad that you have your health and all seems well.
Thanks ex. Nice to hear from you. I hope your well as well
As Pastor Flip Benham always says, “Abortion will end when “The Church” of Jesus Christ decides it will end, and not one second sooner” !
Thus far, ‘The Church” is and has for 40 years been MIA!!!
Such irony when it comes to sign holding like this, ie, people get angry at those showing photos of the destruction instead of at those perpetrating it. I don’t like to dismiss people who seem genuinely concerned about kids seeing the signs, but I don’t know, if children are old enough to discern what’s in the photos, maybe they are old enough to be told in general terms what abortion is. I sometimes think what adults are really afraid of is childrens’ reaction to the idea of adults harming babies, a reaction which is no doubt universally visceral and horrified.
imo the anger is not a bad thing; it seems like it’s a sign of consciences being prodded.
“Are you Catholic?” Love it!
I am told by my Catholic friends that I am Catholic and just don’t know it.
I love it. A priest here in Ventura once gave mass saying look at Todd and what he can do, how much more can we do being Catholic if we will just step out in faith and do what God is calling the church do do.
I love you Catholics, can I be an honory catholic
Don’t be an honorary Catholic, Todd. Be a Catholic.
The respect for life group in my parish will be out in force this Saturday praying the Rosary at the local abortion clinic. I know for certain that our witness has saved innocent lives.
Our children’s generation is under siege. How many of their generation, their Priests, teachers, artists, philosophers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, good friends… whom God Almighty created and intended to be here have been snuffed in their mother’s womb because somebody saw them as an inconvenience?
Next to Deicide, the slaughter of the innocent unborn is without question the most egregious crime we have ever committed. We pretend to be enlightened and “modern,” but abortion proves that we have devolved into barbarians.
Next up? The scourge and evil of contraception which laid the groundwork for all this baby killing to begin with.
These signs would actually be illegal in Lithuania, as would “the portrayal of physical or psychological violence, displaying a dead or mutilated body, [and] information that arouses fear or horror or that encourages self abuse or suicide.” And, I think that’s a good thing.
http://grigaitis.net/blog/2011/03/ban-on-displaying-a-dead-or-mutilated-body/
I can’t speak for Lithuania or the situation there.
But in other places there exists a situation whereby the slaughter of innocent babies is considered ok, but exhibiting pictures of those unspeakable crimes is considered over the line.
That is a culture in the throes of insanity.
We all should feel horror at what is perpetrated each and every day to innocent children. When more people face the ugly truth of what it is we’re doing as a society, it will stop. And I think THAT is a “good thing.”
The virulence of the reaction against Todd’s display and position is probably due to the poor people who have unresolved issues about a past abortion. The photos are a terrible reminder of what was done to their child/grandchild. There are so many victims of abortion, including the perpetrators. Hopefully, Todd’s action will lead to the beginning of repentance and healing for these people.
“The respect for life group in my parish will be out in force this Saturday praying the Rosary at the local abortion clinic”
The Catholics have been praying in front of RI’s Planned Parenthood for years. The clinic is still there!
“How many of their generation, their Priests, teachers, artists, philosophers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, good friends… whom God Almighty created and intended to be here have been snuffed in their mother’s womb because somebody saw them as an inconvenience”
And how many psycho killers, mass murders, rapists, etc. were also snuffed out? Works both ways.
But keep on praying and “keep your rosaries off of our ovaries.”
CC says:
And how many psycho killers, mass murders, rapists, etc. were also snuffed out? Works both ways.
All of those possible psycho killers, mass murderers, rapists, etc, deserved LIFE. I’m not a fan of the death penalty, especially when it’s meted out before any crime has been committed. You can imagine that all the babies aborted would have turned out to be criminals if that helps you sleep at night, but the truth is that those unborn babies were innocent when they were killed. Abortion is the slaughter of the innocent.
The Episcopal Church has actually taken the opposite stance. Where I live (an Episcopalian bastion in the South), there are peace and justice types crawling all over the place, but when you mention the right to be born, you are absolutely dismissed. I have had arguments with ordained priests–all they want to talk about is the patriarchy and man’s desire to control women’s bodies and blah blah blah.
Please bring those pictures to the Episcopal churches. To understand abortion, we must SEE abortion, unfettered.
Dear Courtnay.
I cant bring the pictures to every church, maybe you can bring it to the churches were you live? If you need help go to http://www.cbrinfo.org, great people and they have all the pictures.
Thanks, Todd, I know. I am not speaking of one particular church, I am speaking of the Episopal Church as a whole…they have chosen to become a nasty crucible of social experimentation that diverts from God’s will. 2 million Christians, being told from the pulpit on a a regular basis that killing children in God’s will.
You are right. Personally I don’t go to pro choice churches. The reason why I don’t go to a pro-choice church is because you don’t go to an evil mans house when you need help you go to a good mans house. Will an evil man help you? no so why even bother. I always go to the churches that say they are pro-choice, the ones who stand on the word of God and say they are pro-life.
Here is the real kicker, Do you know the difference between a pro-life church and a pro-choice church is?????
The answer is “almost nothing” Both do almost nothing to save the lives of the unborn and both do almost nothing to help people who have had abortions.
Todd, don’t be an “honorary Catholic”. Stand on God’s Word and just be pro-life. period. I want more born-again Christians from my church to come out and stand for life in our community. It annoys me that being pro-life has become a “Catholic” thing when I know a LOT of Catholics who voted for Obama (is that standing by your convictions? Think not). Not putting down the Catholics, thank GOD they are out there (the faithful ones, that is) praying in front of clinics and offering help to moms. Just saying, I don’t think you have to pray Hail Mary’s and whatnot in order to be pro-life or to be effective in front of clinics. Anyone who claims the name of Christ should be pro-life regardless of denomination.
I actually had people at my church tell me they don’t go to march for life events because its always in a Catholic church (doesn’t bother me) and they are always praying their Catholic prayers to saints (bothers me). So I say, why not open OUR church to host march for life? Lets get up and pray too! Sitting back and saying “Well, the Catholics will handle it” is just WRONG and I know we will answer to the Lord some day for our apathy.
Both do almost nothing to save the lives of the unborn and both do almost nothing to help people who have had abortions.
This does not ring true for my pro-life Church. We are involved at the federal and state level either supporting pro-life legislation or arguing against anti-life legislation. We provide counseling for women who are post-abortive. We organize prayer vigils outside abortion clinics and in churches, organize groups to attend the March For Life in Washington every year, organize support for CPC’s, etc.
It annoys me that being pro-life has become a “Catholic” thing when I know a LOT of Catholics who voted for Obama (is that standing by your convictions? Think not).
The reason that being pro-life has become a “Catholic” thing is because the Catholic Church is the only mainstream denomination whose teaching authority has remained steadfast on the principle of human dignity from conception to natural death.
What annoys me is the people who lump together Catholics and CINOs (Catholics In Name Only). There are Catholics who know and live their faith, and know and live the teachings of their faith (many of which are former Protestant converts who had an intellectual conversion prior to their spiritual conversion, like myself)… and there are CINOs who are only Catholic because they were raised that way, and/or it’s part of their cultural identity, and/or the Catholic Church has the best free doughnuts every Sunday, or they have the best children’s programs, or some other lukewarm reason. A good friend of mine and her husband are Catholic only because her husband’s family is Catholic and they’d get upset if their family left the Church. But she’s pro-choice, voted for Obama, etc., and I’ve tried to gently share with her many times that if she’s going to be Catholic, it should be because she actually believes in the teachings of the Church and not because she fears family reprisal. But it’s an uphill battle.
Jen,
love your comments about Jesus’ incarnation. Msgr. reily, and the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, have an absolutely beautiful Litany to Jesus in the Womb of Mary. it is so so so powerful and beautiful to contemplate our little Jesus, only an inch long, Jesus’ first heart beat, Jesus’ first brain wave, yet this same Jesus is the one who created the very one who cradled Him within herself. This is the prayer recited after the litany.
Jesus, notwithstanding your Divine Nature as Son of God, equal and one with the Father, you deemed to become incarnate as the Son of Man, assuming the condition of a pre-born child in the womb of Your Holy Mother, and Blessed Virgin Mary. You, therefore, sanctified and elevated every maternal womb for all time and every human whose life is begun at conception. Jesus, manifest yourself in the hearts of your people as the Eternal Son of God, whose earthly life began in the womb of a woman called Mary. You could have chosen to commence Your Messianic mission in another manner; However, You showed Your love for us by becoming a pre-born infant in the womb of Your Holy Mother. You took on the total human existence from conception to death. You consented to be carried in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and then, after birth, saved us by Your suffering and death on the cross. From conception to death we live and have our being in You. Jesus, we adore and thank You for choosing to become incarnate in the womb of Your mother, Mary. We beseech You to bless all mothers and intercede with the holy Spirit and Your Father, that every infant in the womb receive Your precious gift of life.
Jesus, conceived in the womb of Mary, grant that Mary’s loving mantle overshadow these precious pre-born infants in the wombs of their mothers and assist in their birth. We ask this, Jesus, in Your name, who with the Father and Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever. Amen.
Taken by permission from Helpers of God’s Precious Infants Prayer Book, Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, Inc., 2000. Call (773) 777-5303 to order
Lrning wrote:
I’m not a fan of the death penalty, especially when it’s meted out before any crime has been committed.
:) That has to be one of the most concise, sane and wise summaries of right morality that I’ve seen in years; amen!!
Sydney wrote:
It annoys me that being pro-life has become a “Catholic” thing when I know a LOT of Catholics who voted for Obama (is that standing by your convictions? Think not).
Believe me: it annoys us at least as badly (if not more), and it’s humiliating to all fathful Catholics when it happens (i.e. very often)!
Not putting down the Catholics, thank GOD they are out there (the faithful ones, that is) praying in front of clinics and offering help to moms. Just saying, I don’t think you have to pray Hail Mary’s and whatnot in order to be pro-life or to be effective in front of clinics. Anyone who claims the name of Christ should be pro-life regardless of denomination.
Well said. The sanctity of human life is an issue of natural law, not of revelation or specific doctrine; the issues of “what specific prayers to pray”, issues of systematic theology, and the like are very important, but they are quite thoroughly a distinct matter, to be handled in a very different venue.
I actually had people at my church tell me they don’t go to march for life events because its always in a Catholic church (doesn’t bother me) and they are always praying their Catholic prayers to saints (bothers me). So I say, why not open OUR church to host march for life?
I know of no sane, faithful and well-informed Catholic who could possibly object to that; God-speed to you!
Lets get up and pray too! Sitting back and saying “Well, the Catholics will handle it” is just WRONG and I know we will answer to the Lord some day for our apathy.
…as will Catholics who choose to turn a blind eye to the matter (and to the Church Who commands them to obey Proverbs 24:11, and save those who are being led off to death). “For I was in My Mother’s womb, and you let me be torn asunder…”
Joanna, I get what you’re saying. My husband is one of those. A good good man, don’t get me wrong but says he is Catholic because he is Italian and its part of his cultural identity. Hasn’t stepped foot in a Catholic church since we were married in one 7 years ago. Couldn’t answer my questions about Catholicism when we were dating because he didn’t know what he was supposed to believe! I was a CINO. I went through RCIA, was faithful to mass and really wanted to believe every facet of the Catholic church and be a good Catholic but I never could reconcile certain things and felt drawn back to my Protestant roots. And I am happy in the church I am in and feel very spiritually fed and lead.
I guess I just don’t get those who squawk so loudly over being Catholic and yet support things the Catholic church is clearly against (my family members who are soooo proud to say they are Catholic yet voted for Obama!) I agree with you in that if you are going to be Catholic then BE Catholic. Live the faith or don’t call yourself one.
I just want to see more Protestants out there WITH the Catholics fighting abortion. Too long Protestants have said “We want to focus on souls…” well, don’t you think the baby has an eternal soul? Don’t you think these moms who abort have hurting souls? This is a mission field! These women need to FEEL the love of Christ by the support we give them. I am slowly waking up my small church to the pro-life need. They have started to step up to support moms in crisis pregnancy but I still think we need to do more. 53 million children are dead and I know Christians who did nothing will answer to the Lord someday for their apathy.
I just want to see more Protestants out there WITH the Catholics fighting abortion. Too long Protestants have said “We want to focus on souls…” well, don’t you think the baby has an eternal soul? Don’t you think these moms who abort have hurting souls? This is a mission field! These women need to FEEL the love of Christ by the support we give them. I am slowly waking up my small church to the pro-life need. They have started to step up to support moms in crisis pregnancy but I still think we need to do more. 53 million children are dead and I know Christians who did nothing will answer to the Lord someday for their apathy.
I fully agree with you! Abortion was one of the key issues that made me leave the ELCA, actually (both my husband and I were born/raised/married in the ELCA)… when I started researching what they believed/taught about abortion, I was absolutely appalled (I wrote a blog post about that, here). It was my first step away… I could not in good conscience remain in a church that taught such horrifying doctrine about unborn children.
Here is Reality’s Sermon on Abortion, the first 1/2 is a great Sermon and the second half is really bad. Please remember Abortion has not been addressed before I started exhorting Reality. I do believe they are beginning to come around, slowly but surely.
http://www.realitysb.com/santa-barbara/sermons/abortion-the-bible-and-a-way-forward/
Bryan,
Yes, you can, at least in Michigan. We hand out prolife voting guides at polling sites that explicitly say who to vote for. The only rule is you have to be so many feet away, 100 I believe. A lot of people take them and a lot of conversations happen. And then you get the police called on you by a pro-abort sourpuss, or someone offended by the fact that people living in a democracy actually want to discuss politics with other people.
“they are always praying their Catholic prayers to saints (bothers me).”
There may be some understandable confusion on this, so just to clarify - Catholics don’t worship saints. We ask for the saints for their intercession, ie, we ask them to pray for us in the same way that we ask our living family, friends, fellow posters, etc here on earth to pray for us.
lux_perpetua
The litany of Jesus in the womb of Mary was composed by a friend of mine.The friend,Marta Catalano,composed her prayer one morning while riding to work on a New York subway train.She was connected with Msgr.Philip Reilly and the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants.She was a frail prayerful soul that spent many hours in the best or worst weather praying at abortion clinics.Marta passed away a few years ago after a long illness in which she showed much patience.
Todd – just wondering? What don’t you like in the second half of the sermon? Listening to bits and pieces of it – just wondering where the issue is?
The issue is the part were he says something to the effect that we as Christians should not protest and protesting or doing any such thing will never help. the way to end abortion is by making people Christians. Thats the bad part. I mean come on can you imagine Pastor Britt talking to Martin Luther King Jr. I can see it now.
“Now listen here, you just be a good negro and when more people become Christians than we will treat you like real people”
or what about Gandhi?
Pastor G at Reality told me that all aborted babies go to heaven and the church is more concerned about those that are going to hell that is why its better to win soles.
The second half is the most important half, its what we do when we see great evil abound around us that matters. Would not pastor G do everything he could to save his babies lives even if they were going to heaven?
But what about the moms who commit suicide after their abortions or worse, die ON the abortion table? Without Christ? Aren’t we concerned for THEIR souls? What about the women I’ve met who are so bitter at God for allowing them to conceive when He knew they’d abort that they reject Christ. What about their souls? That Pastor has faulty logic. By his logic, not only should we NOT be objecting abortion but we should be actively going around killing infants to ensure their souls get to heaven. A little bit of Andrea Yates in him, eh? After all she killed her kids to save them.
If we as a people allow our country to kill the innocent, those of us alive must be the guilty. Please remember the innocent have little to fear, it is us the guilty who will be judged.
Todd – I’ll watch more of the sermon later and get back to you.
augustinehippo,
thank you for giving me her name. i will be sure to pray for the repose of her soul whenever we say the Litany.
Abortion is a great evil. Would it not solve the whole thing if people who don’t want to have children or who are not prepared to have children simply did not get pregnant? All those out killing the unborn could better spend their energy and time and money advocating abstinence and better decision-making processes instead of killing our kids. I over-simplify, but carry the idea to its proper place and perhaps it could be of use……