How To Persuade Pastors
to Build a Ministry for Life
By Kathleen Sweeney
Outreach Department
"Why is my pastor silent on abortion?"
This exclamation is heard over and over in the pro-life movement. We know that many pastors are active and outspoken on abortion and euthanasia. Yet too many still are not.
To address this pastoral problem, prominent religious and pro- life leaders will gather in Fairfax, Virginia, this fall to present the conference Building a Ministry for Life, sponsored by the National Pro-Life Religious Council. It will take place at Truro Episcopal Church, Fairfax, VA, on October 21-23. (See ad, page 20.)
Speakers include Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier, Dr. Carl Braaten, Dr. John Kilner, Pastor Leonard Klein, Dr. Richard Land, Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, and Dr. David Reardon.
This will be an outstanding opportunity for pastors to explore in depth the challenges of pro-life ministry with the inspiration and guidance of eminent leaders experienced in the theological and pastoral questions involved.
Dr. Achtemeier has taught for 38 years at Lancaster Theological Seminary and Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and is a well- known writer and lecturer. Pastor Klein, editor of Lutheran Forum, writes regularly on contemporary challenges to faithfulness and orthodoxy. Dr. Braaten is executive director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology in Minnesota and co-edits the magazine ProEcclesia.
Dr. Land, a graduate of Princeton and Oxford universities, is president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention and has been instrumental in leading the convention in strong pro-life advocacy. Rev. Neuhaus, president of the Institute on Religion in Public Life and editor-in-chief of First Things, has been an intellectual leader on the central ethical issues of our time. Dr. Kilner, director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity in Illinois, is an international Christian educator on contemporary ethical issues. Dr. Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, is a leading researcher, educator, and author on post- abortion syndrome.
Workshops will provide pastors with input and discussion of practical concerns and approaches.
Pastors who have been hesitant about how to raise these issues with their congregations should be invited to this conference by actively pro-life pastors, or sponsored by lay members of their congregations. The encouragement and practical input of the conference will, hopefully, enable all pastors to increase or improve their ministry on life issues.
The reasons pastors hesitate to preach on pro-life issues vary. Often there seems to be a misunderstanding that this is only a " political" issue, or a "woman's issue."
Yet we know that abortion and euthanasia are in reality the deliberate taking of innocent human life. Christians acknowledge that all life belongs to God and every human person is destined for eternal glory. The moral and spiritual imperative is clear. Christian pastors must provide spiritual leadership on this greatest of moral evils of our time.
Women in the pews are hurting spiritually, emotionally, and sometimes physically from past abortions. Expectant mothers, in doubt and unsupported, are tempted by abortion. Fathers, parents, siblings, and friends are all involved in anguish, denial, and guilt. Every congregation includes or has connections to these hurting families. The pastor does not know them because abortion is a secret sin, its victim hidden.
But one in four pregnancies ends in abortion. About 37% of women having abortions identify themselves as Protestant and another 31% as Catholic.* It is inevitable that each congregation is affected by this enormous tragedy in our society.
Additional moral complexities challenge pastors today in the issues of eugenics, fetal tissue research, infanticide, and assisted suicide. How are church leaders to respond? What must pastors do to lead their people to a culture of life? Building a Ministry for Life is the conference pastors need to grapple with these challenges.
*Family Planning Perspectives, AGI, Aug. 1996.