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The Scandal of Episcopal Clergy Promoting Abortion
By Jeff Walton
www.theird.org
August 3, 2015
The United States Senate is scheduled to vote tonight on a stand-alone bill that would end federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country. Senate rules, which require 60 votes to end debate, will almost certainly doom the legislation -- but the fact that it is on the floor only weeks after videos emerged showing Planned Parenthood officials haggling over the price of fetal organs is a testament to how national conversation can shift rapidly. This story is unfolding as new videos are released by the California-based Center for Medical Progress and over a dozen states and two U.S. House of Representatives' committees launch investigations into the practices of Planned Parenthood.
Episcopal Church officials have been silent about the controversy, but several prominent Episcopal clergy have outrageously affirmed the abortion giant as "doing God's Work." The Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy Board counts among its 14 members Episcopal priests David A. Ames of Providence, RI, Gawain F. de Leeuw of White Plains, NY and Susan Russell of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA, who serves as Vice Chair of the board.
Russell's notoriously liberal activist congregation, which describes itself as a "prayerfully pro-choice church", even hosted a signup table for parishioners to support the pro-abortion clergy board in a letter to California's U.S. senators this past Sunday.
Shameful -- but hardly surprising. The Episcopal Church has long been an affiliate of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), an ostensibly religious organization funded by secular philanthropies and providing a veneer of religious support to abortion-on-demand.
As IRD President Mark Tooley wrote on Friday, "These clergy outrageously claim God's endorsement of Planned Parenthood but avoid mention of abortion or trafficking in baby parts, a seeming acknowledgement of the unsavory nature of Planned Parenthood's grisly work."
"Every denomination these clergy represent unsurprisingly has rapidly declining numbers," Mark observed. "Clergy and churches should defend the vulnerable, not excuse their destruction. By embracing Planned Parenthood, these clergy serve an amoral deity of their own design, not a loving and just Heavenly Father."
How sad that these clergy are leading women and children down a path that leads to death and destruction! IRD's Matthew Maule offers a forceful rebuke to the satanic idolatry of abortion in a piece published today.
I want to commend two resources to you as Anglicans considering how to respond to Planned Parenthood. First, Anglicans for Life Director Georgette Forney has a concise outline of what wrongdoing Planned Parenthood is accused of. I encourage you to read it and share it with your friends and fellow parishioners (there is also a video blog version here). Anglicans for Life has excellent suggestions about how your own congregation can minister to post-abortive women seeking healing.
Secondly, the Anglican Church in North America is planning a summit on life issues this January, timed with the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Please click on the link and mark January 21-22 on your calendar for this important event! http://www.anglicandoma.org/summit2016
Jeff Walton is Anglican Program Director for the Institute on Religion & Democracy
