“But only after the first trimester, and if you’re not an inconvenience”

For those who need a church that doesn’t believe abortions are a sin, while abortions are one of “God’s blessings”, the Episcopal Church is right up your religious alley. According to the blog, Midwest Conservative Journal, Episcopalians are trumpeting the recent addition of the new dean of the Episcopal Divinity School of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Katherine Ragsdale, and her views on abortion as one of God’s “blessings”.

It was Ragsdale’s claims that abortion is one of “God’s blessings” that seemed to cause the most consternation, at least with me. No matter how what one thinks about abortion, calling it one of “God’s blessings” borders on the obscene, especially coming from an official of a Christian church.

I’m not attempting to argue the right of a woman to have an abortion. This is about the issue of abortion within the confines of the Christian faith and the attempt of the Episcopalians to claim abortion is okay and is one of “God’s blessings”.

What liberals such as Rev. Ragsdale fail to realize is that despite all their efforts to try to clinically excise all thoughts and feelings relating to an abortion, women will never rise to the level of “celebrating” the loss of a baby, whether it be from natural causes or from an abortion. Nor would medical providers claim that an abortion was “God’s work”.

Reverend Katherine Ragsdale – Boston Globe

In a recent PR release, the EDS stated that it was “pleased to announce” Ragsdale’s appointment as the school’s newest president and dean. Ragsdale is slated to start her tenure as head EDS honcho on July 1. Citing Ragsdale’s “gifts”, “skills”, and “experience” as well as an “excellent match with the criteria established by the Search Committee, the EDS council was pleased as punch in their selection of Ragsdale.

Part of the “excellent match with the criteria” must have been Rev. Ragsdale’s well known views, sermons, and congressional testimony advocating abortions.

The Midwest Conservative Journal published an excerpt from one of Ragsdale’s previous sermons:

And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion – there is not a tragedy in sight — only blessing. The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing.

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.

I want to thank all of you who protect this blessing – who do this work every day: the health care providers, doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionists, who put your lives on the line to care for others (you are heroes — in my eyes, you are saints); the escorts and the activists; the lobbyists and the clinic defenders; all of you. You’re engaged in holy work.

Before I decided to write about Ragsdale’s “Abortion is a blessing” sermon, I wanted to verify that Ragsdale had preached this particular sermon. MCJ had provided a link which took me to Ragsdale’s “sermon” site where the page “no longer existed”. I then did a google search using the words, “Katherine Ragsdale abortion is a blessing” which resulted in this listing on Google:

Sermons by Katherine Ragsdale: Our Work Is Not Done
Aug 13, 2008 … you can always google me at “Katherine Ragsdale” OR “Katherine …. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. …
ragsdalesermons.blogspot.com/2008/08/our-work-is-not-done.html -

When I clicked on the link, the page no longer “existed”:

Page not found
Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog Sermons by Katherine Ragsdale does not exist.

Funny, how God works in “mysterious ways”. Unfortunately, for those who performed the miracle of wiping the page’s contents off the google map, the google seach link contained these key words, “you can always google me at “Katherine Ragsdale” OR “Katherine …. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. …”

This verified for me that Katherine Ragsdale, did indeed, perform this particular sermon and later published it for temporary posterity on her sermon blog. I also found another piece of information regarding Ragsdale and her penchant for pro-abortion at the blog, Stand Firm in Faith. Greg Griffith published a little snippet from an article, Pro-Abortion Groups Seek to Defeat Bill to Protect Girls. (6/04).

Ragsdale testified on behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. During her testimony, Ragsdale stated she often drove girls to get abortions. Note the distinction, “girls” and not “women”. She also stated that she frequently “drove across state lines” and that she used the time to “counsel” the girls. She also stated that she did it because she “took vows”. So it would seem that Rev. Ragsdale has been operating as a the potential patron saint of abortions, especially in regards to actively transporting “girls”, meaning “minors” and not women who are adults. The Episcopal Church has chosen Ragsdale as their new dean, who will then participate in the curriculum and training of new ministers.

According to the Boston Globe, Ragsdale has been vicar of St. David’s Church in the Boston area for 14 years. She’s also “executive director of Somerville-based Political Research Associates, a liberal think tank that monitors the “intellectual and religious right”.

While some might see the Episcopalian’s claim “abortions are blessings” as an attempt to “justify” abortion, I see it as a matter of “pre-absolution”, a “get out of abortion guilt free” card.

According to Religious Tolerance.org, absolution “involves a person being freed from guilt or sin. In the Roman Catholic Church, a priest can declare the sins of a penitent person to be forgiven if they sincerely plan to avoid such behavior in the future.”

The Episcopalians have declared the “sin” of abortion a non-sin, which “pre-absolves” Episcopalians” prior to getting an abortion, further “freeing” them any guilt when obtaining an abortion. They’ve then taken it a step further via Ragsdale, that abortion is “one of God’s blessings”.

And yet, this seems to pit two of God’s blessings against one another. While Ragsdale claims abortion is one of “God’s blessings”, she didn’t state the other, very obvious blessing bestowed upon man, of children being another of “God’s blessings”. In fact, in the Bible, where God’s “word” is written, God called children, “one of his gifts to man” that have been “created in his image”. He punctuated this with, “life is sacred”.

Ragsdale “padded” her “feel good about abortion” sermon with this little ditty in order to “justify” it:

“The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing.”

Note how Ragsdale labeled an unborn child as a “compromising” factor, which places the matter of having a child, as that of a “matter of convenience”. Ragsdale preached that God gave us this great sex life to be enjoyed as well as the right to pursue an education, career, or even “God’s work” unfettered by the consequences of a baby in the womb.

While I could care less about Episcopalians, what I do find interesting is that, as Christians, they’ve undertaken the task of circumventing what I consider God’s most basic fundamental principles, that life is sacred, and that children are a gift of God, which has far different consequences than tinkering with issues such as whether women can serve as ministers, or whether priests can marry.

Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in 1973, led to the official government sanctioning of abortion. Episcopalians are attempting persuade their flock that the Christian faith is now ready to “abort” God’s fundamental principle, which has been in place since 400 BC., based upon a decision made by four liberal judges of the Supreme Court, a government entity and wholly separate from the church, and which was made 36 years ago.

The Bible is “an ancient collection of writings, comprised of 66 separate books, written over approximately 1,600 years, by at least 40 distinct authors. The Old Testament contains 39 books written from approximately 1500 to 400 BC, and the New Testament contains 27 books written from approximately 40 to 90 AD. The Jewish Bible (Tanakh) is the same as the Christian Old Testament, except for its book arrangement. The original Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic, while the original New Testament was written in common Greek.”
–All About the Journey.org

After the government officially sanctioned abortion, there are those who have sought to use the Bible as proof that, since the word “abortion” wasn’t included in the bible, Christians cannot claim that it is “wrong” or a “sin”. What we do know is that during the period that the Bible was written, abortions were performed by using herbs or crude methods. Yet, the collections of writings that compose the Bible never specifically condoned abortion, nor does the Bible cite abortion as “one of God’s blessings”.

There are passages and psalms which were fairly specific about God’s creation of man and his gift of children such as:

“God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27)

“Truly children are a gift from the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward”
(Psalm 127:3)

Yet there weren’t any addendum’s added, such as “children are a gift from the Lord, but only after the 90 days past conception”.

There is another source known as the Didache, which dates from the 1st Century AD, and which the Catholic Church cites as “teachings of the twelve apostles” of Jesus, and it does cite abortion:

The Lord’s Teaching to the Heathen by the Twelve Apostles:

1 There are two ways, one of life and one of death; and between the two ways there is a great difference.

2 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. “Do not covet your neighbor’s property; do not commit perjury; do not bear false witness”; do not slander; do not bear grudges. Do not be double-minded or double-tongued, for a double tongue is “a deadly snare.” 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.
–priests for life.org

Since I’m not an “expert” on the Bible, then I know I’ve left myself open to those who are adept at quoting scriptures in order to back up their point of view. My point is simple, underneath the myriad passages and psalms is God’s underlying message and one that is his fundamental principle, that man was made in his own image, that children are a gift from God, and all life is sacred. Which is why I cannot understand how the Episcopalians believe that abortion is okay. Not only that, but I find the “message” that abortions are “God’s blessings” to be, as I wrote before, obscene, and wholly offensive and I don’t even go to church.

The phrase, “God bless you” denotes positive things, or least it used to. As a former member of a church I heard this phrase quite often, now it seems it’s being used within the Episcopalian church in relation to abortions, that those who perform abortions are doing “God’s work”. This is bizarre, but in a way one might not think. For the life of me, I cannot envision medical providers in a clinical setting calling out to one another, “God bless you” before performing an abortion. And I’m not knocking health care providers, they were dragged into this discussion only because of Ragsdale’s sermon. It was she who brought up the medical profession, bestowing her and God’s “blessings”, which I believe, they’ve never sought, nor would care to seek, nor did God ever give.

By LBG

Image – God Bless You