April 9, 2008
UPDATED POST: Quote removed from my clueless clergy comments collection
ORIGINAL POST (Updates in comments section): Today I added yet another quote to my growing collection of stupid pastor comments on the LIFE issue. This comes from Pastor Adam Hamilton, Methodist mega-church pastor in Leawood, Kansas. I'm not sure why he's getting called an evangelical. For what it's worth, I have family in his congregation. Hamilton's new book, "Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White," is featured in a Newsweek write up - How Would Jesus Choose?
Hamilton says that as a Christian minister, his job is to try "to support people no matter what decision they make."
Didn't Jesus talk about two paths, one that leads to life and the other that leads to death? And, Pastor Hamilton thinks a minister ought to support people who choose the path to death. So, are we also to support people who choose to use Meth? Or, are we to support a man who chooses to molest his daughter? Or, are we to support a woman who leaves her husband/kids for another man (or woman)? Are we to support people who choose to kill their family members? Why isn't anyone rising up to "support" the men in this Texas polygamist sect who choose to rape and marry 13 year old girls? Who am I to influence "their decision" and take their "choice" away? I should just support people whatever choices they make.
No can do. If not the ministers of America, who will set this nation's moral agenda? Somebody's moral agenda will prevail, the only question is whose. Will the new morality of secular progressives continue to erode our nation's historic moral underpinnings or, will Godly people be able to hold off the tide of secularism? Never again do I want to hear that I, as a minister, am forcing "my morals" on society. It's fully the other way around - ministers today are on defense, and it's late in the game to start speaking up. Hamilton has joined the other team. And, these aren't "my morals." These morals ministers advocate were here first, I mean, in America first - from its founding. The minister's job is to show people the life-path and reveal the death-path for what it is. For sure the world is far from back and white, but, back to the issue of abortion, there's nothing "gray" about the ramifications and consequences of abortion for the unborn or the post-abortive woman.
To clarify, I support post-abortive women, fully - financially, with counseling, prayer, support groups, resources, etc.. Planned Parenthood doesn't, in any way, support women who "choose" abortion. Once a woman leaves Planned Parenthood they have no on-going relationship with the woman, they keep no records, offer no follow-up regarding her well-being - there is no doctor-patient relationship prior to or after the "procedure."
Comments on UPDATED POST: Quote removed from my clueless clergy comments collection »
Clif Guy @ 7:59 pm
The problem with the Newsweek article is that leaves a number of incorrect impressions. The real bottom line is that Adam is pro-life. Newsweek doesn't care that Adam is actually pro life because it doesn't fit the point they were trying to make. You can listen to his most recent sermon about it here:
http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=1&mid=4759
Also, Adam has attempted to clarify the Newsweek article in the following blog post, which includes a link to the chapter in his new book that deals with the full complexity of this issue:
http://adamhamilton.cor.org/2008/04/08/newsweek-and-why-im-pro-life-with-a-heavy-heart/
Steve @ 10:23 am
Big Thanks to Clif Guy at Pastor Hamilton's church for commenting and clarifying the Pastor's statement as quoted in Newsweek. I've been misquoted ample times by the media here so I can appreciate his frustration. Check out the links in Clif Guys comment for yourself and you can even read the chapter on abortion in his book. Here's the context of the statement I took issue with and, based on this answer, I'm removing the out of context statement from my "stupid quotes on the LIFE issue" list. Even so, we have some great testimonies of God doing the miraculous in the case of fetal anomolies and even more of people who had precious few days while their babies were on earth which I'm hopeful will persuade those who struggle on the fetal anomaly issue. Here's just one… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0
Here is Pastor Hamilton's reply regarding the context for the quote in question:
"The context of that quote was my describing persons who I have counseled who discovered that there was severe fetal deformity or that the child was unlikely to live long outside the womb. In these cases I counsel to carry the child to term and describe the children in our own congregation who doctors said would not live, or who were born with deformities. But I also told Lisa that I knew I was not the one who would live with the consequences of this decision, and that if the couple still chose to abort, I would continue to support and care for them, regardless of the decision they made."
I have more to say about the chapter in his book - for now this statement stands out "My assumption is that we will never come to a place in America where we have agreement on this issue." I have much more hope. A hundred years ago same could have been said about slavery - so divided were we then. But today, we have come to the place in America where we have total agreement on this issue. And when South Dakota presses ahead and the Supreme Court revisits this issue of abortion, a national discussion will start and what the South Dakota task force on abortion has uncovered in it's unprecidented report will come to light.
When something is illegal, people think it's right. When something is illegal, they view it as wrong. It will not take a hundred years for the respectability facade over Planned Parenthood to lift and this thing to be disgraced. Once Roe v. Wade is over turned, national opinion will shift. I give examples of this from othre countries in my Aborting Abortion message. The South Dakota task force received testimony from over 2000 women who all said if abortion was illegal they wouldn't have considered it.
What we need are key pastors like Pastor Hamilton to use their voice and great influence to shed light on this thing. We need pastors who look into tomorrow - I have a dream - and prophetically preach what God wants for society.