'Clergy' Who Promote Procured Abortion Are Engaged in Overtly Evil Acts and Must Be Exposed and Opposed

It is urgent that all faithful Christians be fully aware of the truth concerning what the Christian Church has ALWAYS taught about the taking of innocent human life. It is critical the Christian men and women stand up against the subterfuge of errant and apostate leaders who claim to speak with the authority of the Bible - when they have actually rejected the very truth which it affirms. The unbroken teaching of the Christian Church has been - and continues to be - that every procured abortion is the taking of an innocent human life. It is an intrinsically evil act.

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CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - A recent report on Catholic Online sets forth the content of a letter currently being sent out by Planned Parenthood. It brazenly asserts:
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The decision to have an abortion is personal. Though your reasons may be complicated and private, you're not alone. As religious leaders from a number of religious traditions, we're here to
support you in your decision.

God loves you and is with you no matter what you decide. You can find strength, understanding, and comfort in that love.
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The journalist who wrote the report at Catholic Online which featured the letter called me. He was startled by the letter. He was not aware of the pattern of this kind of subterfuge in the ranks of Planned Parenthood. It is not just Planned Parenthood, it is also the many other organizations which promote the taking of innocent human life in the womb.

I am - and I am sick of their lies. I am concerned that too many people are still unaware of the depth of their deceit. That is what prompted me to write this article.

The unbroken teaching of the Christian Church has been - and continues to be - that every procured abortion is the taking of an innocent human life. It is an intrinsically evil act.

A first century manual entitled the Didache, the teaching of the twelve apostles, was used to instruct those who were becoming Christians and entering into the Church. It is one of many authoritative texts which absolutely confirm the fact that throughout over two millennia of Christianity the Biblical admonition against intentional killing has included the intentional killing of our youngest neighbors in the womb. Here are some excerpts:

"There are two ways, one of life and one of death; and between the two ways there is a great difference. Now, this is the way of life. The second commandment of the Teaching: "Do not murder; do not commit adultery"; do not corrupt boys; do not fornicate; "do not steal"; do not practice magic; do not go in for sorcery; do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant.

"Your words shall not be dishonest or hollow, but substantiated by action. Do not be greedy or extortionate or hypocritical or malicious or arrogant. Do not plot against your neighbor. Do not hate anybody; but reprove some, pray for others and still others love more than your own life"

The effort to deny this unbroken Christian teaching defending the life of children in the womb and rejecting procured abortion is not faithful Christianity - it is apostasy and heresy. For any Christian leader to say otherwise constitutes a clear denial of their claim to teach the truth.

The efforts of Planned Parenthood in their recent letter are brazen and despicable. However, the organization has the full support of the current Federal administration in Washington, DC and they are acting with arrogance because of it.

Planned Parenthood must be exposed and opposed. It is engaged in evil acts. So too, the support of the intrinsic evil of procured abortion on demand by members of those who claim to be Christian clergy, no matter what their denomination, must also be exposed and opposed.

One of the more prominent examples of this effort is Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale. She is the President of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge Massachusetts. I noticed she will soon moderate a panel discussion at an upcoming seminar. This may signal a new round of public speaking. So, I wanted to expose her words from the recent past and prepare our readers. Rev. Ragsdale is not only an outspoken advocate of abortion on demand, she is an outspoken lesbian activist.

The description of her in the advertisements proudly notes that she is: "Well known for her work on abortion rights, public policy affecting women, and the intersections of faith and public policy. She is widely sought as a speaker on issues of public policy affecting women, professional ethics, and lesbian/gay rights.  She is married to the Rev. Canon Margaret (Mally) Lloyd."

Abortions have no rights. Rights are goods of human person. The child in the womb has rights. The first of them is the fundamental human right to life. Every procured abortion denies that right and takes his or her innocent human life.

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Dr Ragsdale has been the go to witness for the radical abortion on demand lobby for quite a while now. She not only makes for good optics when she wears that clerical collar, she feigns outrage that anyone would attempt to stop any abortion for any reason.

She has publicly referred to abortion as a blessing. She calls abortion clinic workers saints.

When she was appointed Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School on March 30, 2009, she gave a sermon in which she said, "These are the two things I want you, please, to remember - abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done."

She has the audacity to try to defend this position as consistent with the Christian faith she claims to profess. I have followed her perfidy for years.

On Thursday March 8, 2012, Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale appeared in a clerical collar to testify in the United States House of Representatives. Her testimony was an example of the counterfeit which now claims to be Christianity.

The Judiciary Committee on the Constitution was holding a hearing concerning a Bill entitled the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (H.R. 2299)  It would have made it an offense if an adult, "knowingly transports a minor across a State line, with the intent that such minor obtain an abortion, and thereby in fact abridges the right of a parent under a law requiring parental involvement in a minor's abortion decision, in force in the State where the minor resides."

Representative Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), a Democrat from New York, publicly called that Bill an "assault to the reproductive rights of women." He and others who oppose the fundamental Human Right to Life of the Child in the womb presented witnesses to support their opposition to this legislation.Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale was one of them.

In her testimony before Congress she boasted of taking a 15 year old girl whom she had never met before for an abortion. She cited her vows as an Episcopal priest as authority for the act. She pledged that she would openly break such a law in the future if it was enacted.

She attempted to clothe such a brazen act as somehow being noble and courageous.

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Her words reminded me of these words from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness to light, and light into darkness, who change bitter to sweet, and sweet into bitter." (Is. 5:20)

In 2010 she gave an address at a fundraiser for the "Jane Fund" of Central Massachusetts which proclaimed on its web site, "CHOICE should not be limited to WOMEN who have MONEY. Our mission is to help women who cannot afford abortion services." 

This group offered her entire speech online for a long time. It is no longer there. It was an example of evil masquerading as good, espoused by a woman who claims to be a be a Christian and a member of the Clergy.

Here are some examples which I kept in my notes:
 
"When a woman gets pregnant against her will and wants an abortion - it's the violence that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing. When a woman might want to bear and raise a child but fears she can't afford to because she doesn't have access to healthcare or daycare or enough income to provide a home - it's the lack of justice that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing."

"And, here's one that really gets me in trouble, when a woman simply gets pregnant unintentionally and decides this is not a good time for her to bear and care for a child - there is no tragedy. The ability to enjoy healthy sexuality without risking a pregnancy that could derail her education or career, the development or exercise of the gifts God has given her, is a blessing."

In the speech she gave at the Jane Fund fundraiser she also told the group:  "Our words matter. Our strategies matter - not only in their short-term efficacy but in their long term consequences. We have to play hard and play smart. We need to think farther down the road than the next bill in front of us.

"We must create a climate where abortion is not only a legal, safe, accessible, affordable option for every woman but where she can take advantage of that option without risking socially imposed guilt.It's time to be angry - be fed up - to refuse to be nice. To eschew conciliation."

The early Church lived through similar examples of apostate leaders who claimed the authority of the Bible and the Church. When the Apostle Paul traveled to Macedonia and Greece he warned the early Christian leaders of such false teachers:

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"I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God. Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them" (Acts 20:28-31)

He cautioned his disciple, Timothy, whom he had installed in leadership over the Church in Ephesus:  "The time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry" (2 Tim. 4:3-5)

We are living in a similar time.

It is urgent that all faithful Christians be fully aware of the truth concerning what the Christian Church has ALWAYS taught about the taking of innocent human life. It is critical the Christian men and women stand up against the subterfuge of errant and apostate leaders who claim to speak with the authority of the Bible - when they have actually rejected the very truth which it affirms.  

"Clergy" who Promote procured Abortion are engaged in overtly evil acts and must be exposed and opposed.

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