Presbyterians Pro-Life NEWS
Winter 2004
Woman to Woman: Great Ends
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by Terry Schlossberg
Our denomination holds up the Great Ends of the Church as one of our "Preliminary Principles": proclaiming the gospel; providing shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship for the children of God; maintaining divine worship; promoting social justice; and exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. The Great Ends appear in Chapter 1 of the Book of Order.
PC(USA) Elder Jim Powers, in a memo to several of our church leaders, raises the question of what it means to be the church in our time. His memo shows how far from the Great Ends we are in some of the commitments, both financial and philosophical, of our national offices.
Abortion a Great End?
Abortion support is at the top of the elder’s list. He itemizes and documents such items as the "active opposition to the Partial Birth Abortion ban recently passed by Congress," and "active opposition to ‘abstinence only’ education" that he found on the web site of Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options (PARO). PARO is a group that receives at least $10,000 a year from denominational offices.
Mr. Powers also cites abortion support by the PC(USA) Washington Office and the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns. Both are fully-funded national level offices.
Mr. Powers doesn’t list the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), the Advisory Committee on Litigation, or the Office of Women’s Ministries, all of which support the right to abortion under all circumstances, and all of which we support with our mission dollars. He also omits the abortion coverage provided for in the PC(USA) medical benefits plan, paid for by church members’ tithes and offerings. So, in a sense, Mr. Powers’ list only scratches the surface.
Abortion is the Church’s business
This is not to say that our denomination has no business addressing abortion. It is to say that we have lost our identity in the way we address abortion. We are indistinguishable from the ageing cultural voices crying out for "women’s rights," as if abortion were nothing more than a civil rights issue. As if the morality of abortion has only to do with a woman’s freedom, and nothing to do with whether another human being (the baby) lives or dies.
The Great Ends do apply
Abortion is, above all, a moral and spiritual issue. This matter of the baby’s life is something about which the church ought to have a lot to say. It ought to have a lot to say in the baby’s defense. And that is because every Great End of the Church can be applied to the life of the most vulnerable and needy of our brothers and sisters—those who are otherwise completely helpless.
Abortion is the issue—more than any other issue-—that challenges the church to remember, also in the words of the Book of Order, "who and what it is, what it believes, and what it resolves to do (G-2.0100)."
Remember who we are
Shall we Christians in the Presbyterian Church (USA) just keep averting our eyes from this great evil in our midst, and from our official refusal to call any abortion immoral? Shall we continue to think that abortion does no spiritual harm and withhold ministry to women (many of them our teenagers) who are making the decision to end the lives of their children—or already have done that?
If we do that, we make ourselves complicit.
The proper alternative to averting our eyes is to remember who we are; to reaffirm what we believe about the value of the human person; and to resolve to bring our churches back to compassionate life-saving preaching, teaching, and pastoral care ministry. And let’s insist that our denomination seek the Great Ends of the Church on this issue.
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