Controversial Issues

[JTornado1]

The LCMS has been talking a lot about abortion and gay marriage lately. The entire January issue of The Lutheran Witness is about abortion and Woe Vs. Wade.

Is the LCMS in danger of becoming a political force and forgetting the Gospel? Some churches have left the Gospel and embraced social issues a long time ago.

On the other hand, some people say that it's good that churches get involved in politics. The United Methodist Church, for example, advocates gun control.

Should the LCMS become more involved in politics and would it be a good thing?

 

[QuiltAngel]

You do realize that this month marks the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade? You do realize that the LCMS has been involved in the ProLife movement from about that time forward? We even have this organization of Lutherans for Life which has been around for much of those 40 years.

We are about educating others about an abortion as well as seeking to overturn Roe v Wade or to work for legislation restricting abortions.

Education and helping those who have had an abortion with Law and Gospel is a start in healing from having had an abortion OR to assist a woman in making the decision for life.

It is not nor has been the practice to get involved in every political issue that comes up. Life for the unborn is an important issue. God knew us even before we were conceived.

 

[DaRev]

Is the LCMS in danger of becoming a political force and forgetting the Gospel?

Really?

 

[Aibrean]

No, I believe this is an example of practicing what we preach! You can't preach about life being sacred and be pro-abortion. You can't preach about sin (and Law) without addressing that certain behavior is sinful.

It's not politics. It's applying the Bible to our society. It shows how lost the world is and how greatly in need of a savior they are.

 

[boomlakelady]

55 million unborn children have been murdered since '73. How can we keep silent?

 

[Aibrean]

55 million unborn children have been murdered since '73. How can we keep silent?

It's more tragic than that. 50 million are aborted EVERY YEAR globally.

 

[Sword of the Lord]

I'm against abortion and all, and this may make me sound insensitive, in which case I apologize, but if 50 million are aborted globally each year, could you imagine how overrun and over populated we would be right now had they not been aborted? Still, abortion isn't acceptable, but that number is staggering, and thinking about it adding up over the years to reach 1,125,000,000 just in my lifetime alone. Wow.

 

[Lizabth]

I'm against abortion and all, and this may make me sound insensitive, in which case I apologize, but if 50 million are aborted globally each year, could you imagine how overrun and over populated we would be right now had they not been aborted? Still, abortion isn't acceptable, but that number is staggering, and thinking about it adding up over the years to reach 1,125,000,000 just in my lifetime alone. Wow.

You could also consider that is abortion wasn't readily available, people would be quite a bit more cautious about sex, and not so many babies would be casually conceived.

I don't worry about over-population. God is sovereign over all.

 

[Rion]

Not really. Often times, issues are brought to us, rather than the other way around.

Editing God's word to suit yourself is usually not a good idea.

 

[QuiltAngel]

I'm against abortion and all, and this may make me sound insensitive, in which case I apologize, but if 50 million are aborted globally each year, could you imagine how overrun and over populated we would be right now had they not been aborted? Still, abortion isn't acceptable, but that number is staggering, and thinking about it adding up over the years to reach 1,125,000,000 just in my lifetime alone. Wow.

That makes abortion right, how?

 

[Aibrean]

I'm against abortion and all, and this may make me sound insensitive, in which case I apologize, but if 50 million are aborted globally each year, could you imagine how overrun and over populated we would be right now had they not been aborted? Still, abortion isn't acceptable, but that number is staggering, and thinking about it adding up over the years to reach 1,125,000,000 just in my lifetime alone. Wow.

As if God didn't make a sustainable planet...or one of those aborted children couldn't help solve many issues regarding sustainability...

Murdering an innocent is never justifiable.

 

[Sword of the Lord]

I said I'm against abortion and that it's unacceptable. Taking the time to read and not skim is beneficial for everyone.

But just in my lifetime over 1 billion people have been aborted. That's 22 years. The world has 7 or 8 billion people and we're already crowded. Add another billion, and then that billions' children, and so on and so forth. It's staggering to think about. Being "wowed" by the number doesn't mean I agree with the killing of babies.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

The entire January issue of The Lutheran Witness is about abortion and Woe Vs. Wade.

Freudian slip?

On the other hand, some people say that it's good that churches get involved in politics. The United Methodist Church, for example, advocates gun control.

Should the LCMS become more involved in politics and would it be a good thing?

This isn't about politics. Just because a topic is a hot political topic doesn't mean the church is getting into politics. If we preach our message based on politics, we're losing sight of the balance of law and gospel.

Our message can certainly reflect our politics, but that doesn't mean the message is political.

I'm against abortion and all, and this may make me sound insensitive, in which case I apologize, but if 50 million are aborted globally each year, could you imagine how overrun and over populated we would be right now had they not been aborted? Still, abortion isn't acceptable, but that number is staggering, and thinking about it adding up over the years to reach 1,125,000,000 just in my lifetime alone. Wow.

I said I'm against abortion and that it's unacceptable. Taking the time to read and not skim is beneficial for everyone.

But just in my lifetime over 1 billion people have been aborted. That's 22 years. The world has 7 or 8 billion people and we're already crowded. Add another billion, and then that billions' children, and so on and so forth. It's staggering to think about. Being "wowed" by the number doesn't mean I agree with the killing of babies.

You say you're against abortion but that if we didn't have it the planet would be overrun. I didn't skim, I had to read your post twice to make sure I was actually reading what I was reading. If you didn't mean to say that abortion was okay, you did a poor job of conveying that.

Do you not trust that God would take care of us in His fashion?

 

[Sword of the Lord]

I am saying that if those babies hadn't been aborted we'd be overrun. Yep. I sure did. That doesn't make it okay. It's a "what if" scenerio. What if they had been born? We'd be even more crowded. It sounds like I'm saying those murderers did us a favor, but I'm definitely not. The world as we know it is full or wars, murder, rape, violence, destruction, adultery, homosexuality, lies, etc. We're already crowded. Being MORE crowded is the least of my worries compared to everything else I mentioned. Obviously God would take care of his children. But he does allow all of these atrocities I mentioned above. Allowing us to become more over populated isn't exactly the end of the world, but it does have a "wow" factor in thinking about that number.

 

[Sword of the Lord]

I'm not interested in having a snippy little argument over my words, though. If you understand what I'm saying, great; if not, that's unfortunate. At the end of the day abortion is terrible.

 

[Lizabth]

I understand what you are saying, but without abortion as birth control, people would be more sensible in their rutting. Without abortion, women would actually have to bear the consequences of pregnancy, and to a lesser extent so would men(through support and such).

All of those babies wouldn't be conceived without the ease of abortion. No abortion option=fewer babies conceived because of the reality of pregnancy.

 

[QuiltAngel]

I have to agree that there would not be that many babies conceived if it weren't for Roe v Wade.

I was a Junior in High School when the Supreme Court made the ruling they did regarding abortion. My High School was 10th, 11th and 12th grade and had about 1,000 students. We would have at most 2 young women get pregnant a year and you rarely saw or knew of teens being pregnant. Very few were willing to chance a pregnancy.

Now, all you have to do is go to any high school, mall or eatery and you see young women pregnant everywhere and these are the ones not aborting.

So, when some of us say that there would not be the pregnancies that there are now, we are speaking from what we have witnessed in the last 40+ years.

 

[Shane R]

This is what I know about abortion:
I know that a lot of Navy women use it to get out of deployment. They get pregnant, get transferred off the ship, go over to Planned Parenthood and get 'it' 'taken care of', and miss the deployment. But most of them don't feel good in the aftermath.
I know that my wife is appalled by it. It's a kind of slap in the face to her, because we want a child but she has not able to carry to term.
I know that many of these women regret the decision they made and it haunts them for a long time, and I know that the church can be insensitive to their suffering because most of us are so appalled by what they did.

I understand the concern that the church can get too involved in society's issues and lose the savor of the gospel salt. However, I don't think the LCMS is becoming the AME yet.