Susan Wright on the Right
There’s a real problem in the American church today, and it is damaging the witness of American Christians in the world.
We have evangelicals, who have given away the moral high ground for the sake of political gains.
In record numbers, they rejected a host of qualified, Christian candidates in the 2016 primaries, in order to chase after the adulteries and abuses of Donald Trump, a man who had openly rejected the need for God in his life.
Even powerful evangelical voices, such as Franklin Graham have blown off concerns of others, regarding Trump’s vile behavior, saying recently of the revelation of Trump’s affair with porn star, Stormy Daniels, that it’s “nobody’s business.”
And through it all, none seem to understand (or care) that the world outside, still lost, still in need of grace, need them to be a light.
How do we spread the Good News, if they look and see only hypocrisy?
With all that being said, there’s another, ugly side of American “Christianity,” and it needs to be addressed, as well.
These counterfeit “holy men” who sanction and approve of those things that are hateful in the eyes of God.
Case in point would be the Presbyterian minister from Maine, Reverend Marvin Ellison.
Ellison serves as a volunteer chaplain at the Planned Parenthood facility in Portland, Maine – not there to speak against the evils of abortion or to offer an option for forgiveness and grace to the women who come through the doors.
No, Ellison was there recently to “bless” a facility that performs abortions on babies up to nearly 19 weeks of gestation, at a time when the child has a heartbeat, fingers, toes, and other discernible features have formed.
Ellison’s attitude towards abortion is abominable.
“We’re proud to be part of a highly professional and highly caring health care team,” he said of himself and four other volunteer chaplains. “Along with our Planned Parenthood colleagues, we’re committed to showing care and respect for the whole person, including her (or his) physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.”
What may be worse is that Ellison feels his witness to the world confirms God’s will, based on what is said to him inside the facility.
“… I’ve now heard more than a few patients say to me, ‘Well, I didn’t expect to find a clergyperson inside the health center, but if Planned Parenthood says you’re OK, then you’re OK with me,’” he wrote.
What about if God says you’re OK? For any clergy, that should be the first and most important opinion.
How is giving legitimacy to such a horrific practice as abortion pleasing to God?
Ellison is part of desperately twisted “new breed” of the church, more interested in appealing to the world than seeing the world saved. They seek to make friends with the world over being Biblically faithful, which means giving a nod of approval to those things God’s Word condemns.
I’m not suggesting that there be no outreach to those lost in the world. There absolutely should be, but taking on the task does not mean we cater to that sin.
Galatians 6:1 AMP – “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness], keeping a watchful eye on yourself, so that you are not tempted as well.”
You can only cater to the world, so long, before you’re polluted by it.
In praising Planned Parenthood, Ellison said:
We believe in its mission and applaud its life-affirming values. As we said during the blessing, “We thank God for Planned Parenthood and for the amazing work you do, day in and day out, with passion, courage, wisdom and grace.”
As chaplains, we recognize that Planned Parenthood is called many names. Some of those names are hate-filled, disrespectful and terribly misguided. At the blessing, we concluded the event by saying, “Hear this loud and clear: In the name of all that is holy and good, Planned Parenthood your name is blessed. Each staff member is a blessing to this community and to those for whom you provide health care, education and advocacy. You are the blessing, and we thank God for you.”
What we know about Planned Parenthood is that they offer no prenatal services, so they’re not really providing for full women’s services. Abortion is what they’re known for, for a reason.
Around 320,000 unborn children are aborted each year by Planned Parenthood – that’s almost 1,000 a day.
For these atrocities, Planned Parenthood are paid nearly half a billion dollars from American taxpayers, and recently recorded income of $1.46 billion.
How Ellison and his fellow liberal chaplains square up their support and blessings of Planned Parenthood with the Word of God is beyond me. How do they line it up with the fact that the Word describes unborn life as life, known to God?
Psalm 139:13,16 NIV – “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. ”
Either Ellison and his ilk believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God (it is) or they don’t, but if they’re putting their support behind the ungodly, for the sake of “tolerance,” they are in error, and their witness is meaningless.
There is forgiveness and there is grace, new life for everyone from the woman who allows her child to be aborted, to the doctor who bears the instruments of destruction, but there must be repentance, a change of heart.
Ellison is not offering that, and there are no words that can be said that will ever make Planned Parenthood a “blessing.” To suggest otherwise is repulsive.
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