NOLA Episcopal priest welcomes Planned Parenthood
by Kelli
I write to express my support for the right of the clinic to be there and to serve the reproductive needs of our community…. I also write to make clear that there are many Christians, Christian denominations and many other people of faith who support the reproductive rights of women….
I am very disappointed with some fellow Christian people and churches who have made threats of exclusion and boycotts to congregants who wish to work with the clinic.
As a parish church that is named for the most wondrous conception in history, we welcome the Planned Parenthood clinic to the neighborhood.
It will serve a very important role in education, health screenings, contraception and, when necessary, a safe place for the termination of pregnancy.
~ Rev. Walter Baer of the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation, in a letter to the New Orleans Advocate, as quoted by LifeNews.com, September 23
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.
This guy is a phony. Everything is an act for him. He is getting post-abortive to come to his congregation. When I got to the bottom of the article I was glad to see it wasn’t a Catholic church being run by a renegade priest. He will reach out his hand to shake yours when he greets you after get the counseling you that Jesus thinks it is ok to kill your unborn children. If there is a hell it was made for guys like this.
Do the leaders of these pro abortion churches (Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, United Methodist) ever wonder why people are leaving their churches in droves? The “mainline” churches have become the sideline churches.
As I was reading that, I threw up a little bit in my mouth.
It is a very curious sort of blindness to celebrate the conception of Jesus Christ and yet to conclude that the conception of other individuals made in the image of God might just be a “mistake” with the solution being “kill.”
I have to wonder if this guy is really closer to Herod than to Christ. It makes me so sad. :(
All I can think of is that I don’t want to be standing anywhere near him on Judgement Day.
Reverend Baer,
There are numerous clinics and charities in New Orleans where women can get education, health screenings and contraception. You do not speak of these. Your single writing in support of the Planned Parenthood abortuary indicates your singular support for abortion.
As a consequence of your outspoken and public support for abortion, I invite you to consider, for a moment, your own death. As a pastor, surely you urge the Christians in your care to examine their consciences and prepare for their judgments. Scripture says that pastors and all who labor for Christ will be judged on our works. False teachings and unworthy works will be purged from the soul by fire. (I Cor 3:10-15)
So please ponder about your own judgment. Meditate upon your naked soul, standing before the Christ Child and the Virgin Mother. Imagine that you are compelled to give an honest account of yourself, after this letter is read to you. Imagine 54 million little souls listening as your answer.
Is there nothing better you could do than to shame the Christians who only desire to protect these little ones from murder? Is there no charity that you could show to women in need other than to urge them toward abortion?
There is still time to change your heart, repent, and make public reparation for this scandal. Let Jesus command your conscience.
http://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/al-mohler/a-new-exodus-americans-are-exiting-liberal-churches-1333899.html
Here is an article about the mainline churches and their loss of membership. I am not a churchgoer, but if I was I would NEVER go to a church that supported abortion.
I grew up in the black church and went for many years. But their silence on the abortion issue sickens me. They are so deeply tied in with the Democratic party that they are afraid to say anything. Their uncritical support of Obama also is a turn-off. I used to hate it when I went to church and they had pro-abortion Democrats actually speak from the pulpit! I went to a Baptist church and they had Arlen Spector speak! Yet my Catholic friends tell me that they have to be a certain distance from the church to hand out literature or the priest has fits. Also I have heard the most hateful, awful things from so-called black Christians about Bush, Republicans, etc. I am an Independent, but is this godly? I work with a woman who brought in her little boy and he was talking about he wished he could kill Bush. This kid can’t of been more than eight or nine and his mother said nothing. Yet she was always going to church. My father said Sarah Palin should have aborted Trig and he is a churchgoer, too.
There is a group here called Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Viciniy that endorses candidates. What ever happened to separation of church and state? When Obama won they sent out a letter to be read at the black churches here. Now, can you imagine a group called White Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity?
Anyway, since membership is declining, maybe the Rev. can fill up the pews with PP supporters.
I work at an Episcopal school with an Episcopal seminary. The things that are taught in the name of Christ just blow me away. Which is why my family and I drive down a mountain 45 minutes away to get the true Gospel.
Lord have mercy on us.
“a parish church that is named for the most wondrous conception in history” -Rev. Walter Baer of the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation
Since when does the “Annunciation” refer to a conception? I thought Christians believed Jesus was God…like eternal and stuff. You know, the virgin birth and all that…how does that flow from a wondrous conception? I thought the annunciation referred to the message the angel brought to Mary…hence the use of the word “annunciation” in referring to the event.
Wow… He doesn’t even understand the name of his own church…could this be another reason they lose membership?
Tommy, Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit when she assented to his announcement. Her “yes” meant we could be redeemed. It’s my favorite story of the Bible, because I know I would have said no. I admire her faith and willingness and courage.
She said yes!!!
Tommy… If you know any Christians, please ask them to explain the Incarnation to you.
Yes, Jesus is God — eternal, before and beyond all creation. But Jesus entered creation as a man, at a particular point in history, and that is the beginning of the wonderful news that Christians spread to the world.
After thousands of years of preparing Israel to receive Jesus, and preparing the world to receive Jesus, the final focus of that preparation was one young Israelite girl named Mary. The angel Gabriel asked her if she would be the mother of the one foretold, the one who would save the world. He was asking the world if we wanted a Savior, and she was especially prepared to answer for all of us. And then all of heaven and creation waited… until Mary answered, “Fiat! Yes! Let it be done to me, just as you have said.”
At that moment, Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb. God entered creation, “incarnated” as a man, taking on our nature, showing us just how valuable we really are to God.
Mary could have said, “No” — Just as Eve and Adam disobeyed God, in the beginning. And that may be the cause of the twisted theology of Rev. Baer. Since Mary had a choice to refuse life and condemn the world to perpetual darkness, every woman deserves the choice to kill her children too.
Mary and Eve offer us the contrast of good choice v. bad choice. Mary chose life. Eve chose death.
Rev. Baer thinks that any choice is as good as any other. He wants to protect all the choices, even the evil ones. He thinks a Culture of Life is a bad culture, because the “choice to kill” is resisted.
Bravo, Del! Well said!
And the thing with Rev. Baer is, choices with regard to human life are equivalent. But they’re not–the value of each human life IS.
Here is a painting of The Annunciation by one of my favorite artists, an African American named Henry Ossawa Tanner. If you ever get a chance to see it in person, please do. It sent chills down my spine.
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/104384.html
Yeah okay. Mary became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb.
There are a lot of parishes named after both the Annunciation and Incarnation…not so often the conception of Jesus’s human body. (Immaculate Conception, of course, refers to the conception of Mary.)
The point is that his church was named after the Annunciation which is not the conception, the implantation or the gestation.
phillymiss Thanks for the awesome pic.
The arrangement of items on the shelf behind Mary looks a little like an altar waiting for Mass doesn’t it!
The language of theology does not attempt to copy the language of science. But the meaning is clear: The human life of Jesus began when Mary accepted Jesus for the world. Jesus was conceived when Mary consented to the message from the Angel. Implantation and gestation occurred in their time, according to the natural development of human life.
The Annunciation is the Miraculous Conception of Jesus. Just go with this.
Here is a painting of the Father waiting for Mary’s answer, as the Holy Spirit also hovers over Mary in anticipation of her answer. The Archangel Gabriel kneels before his Queen as he delivers the message to her. There are many variations of this scene by many artists.
http://www.vatican-patrons.org/content/uploads/2013/09/Copia-di-Annunciation-Near-a-Seaside-Town-A0008798-scont.jpg
The next Big Miracle occurs at the Nativity, when Jesus was born without the opening of Mary’s womb or the loss of her virginity in fulfillment of the prophesy given to us by Isaiah. There was another Annunciation at this time — to the shepherds and Wise Men, who were the world’s first witnesses. The coming of the Christ Child was also announced to King Herod…. and we saw the world’s first rejection of the Savior, and the desire to kill this unwanted child.
The Virgin Birth is actually a bigger deal than the Annunciation/Conception, but our modern scientific interpretation of reality has drawn us to wonder more about the miraculous conception of Christ. How did the Holy Spirit twirl a complementary pair of chromosomes around those in the nucleus of Mary’s egg? We are perhaps the first generation of humans to think that this is an important question, as we kill a million children each year because they are not deemed to be “human” enough to protect.
I find it ironic that that Episcopal Pastor has a church named the Annunciation. Jesus came so that all may have life. LIFE. That includes all the little ones.
But no one is outside the mercy of God, and we should all pray for that spiritual leader – and all who support abortion and other human rights atrocities – because all who repent and return to Our Lord will have mercy. There is still time to turn back to God in all ways.
Movie on Netflix ‘Amen’.
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When the adherents of any religion become more concerned with the approval of man than they are with propagating truth then they have become as worthless and as odious as a soiled sanitary napkin.
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“For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction]. “
As surely as they do it to the least of Jesus’ brethren, they do it to Him.
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I hope that millstones are reuseable after they have been submerged.
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I wonder if clerical collars are effective in protecting scrawny necks from the abrasiveness of millstones.
Looks like a beautiful church. I hope the Rev’s heart is touched and he comes over to the side of life.
phillymiss,
I ‘liked’ your comment but this guy is a phony.
The Virgin Birth is actually a bigger deal than the Annunciation/Conception, but our modern scientific interpretation of reality has drawn us to wonder more about the miraculous conception of Christ. How did the Holy Spirit twirl a complementary pair of chromosomes around those in the nucleus of Mary’s egg? We are perhaps the first generation of humans to think that this is an important question, as we kill a million children each year because they are not deemed to be “human” enough to protect.
Everyone will have to decide for him or herself which miracle is the Bigger Deal, but this generation is by no means the first to wonder about the science of the conception. Christians in generations past thought it was an important question because they believed that the Incarnation, which made salvation possible, was the fulcrum on which the fate of humankind turned. They lacked modern pro-lifers’ understanding of what is really important, of course.