From Mark Hemingway, on NRO's The Corner:
A friend's church in Wisconsin, which is also a polling place, was told to take down a sign that said “Want change? Pray to end abortion.”
The church in question is in Kenosha, Messiah Lutheran Church.
Pastor Todd Peperkorn writes:
Our congregation has been a polling station for several years now. It is a good thing to encourage citizens to vote and to support our government and its regular processes. One of the many blessings of our nation is the relatively peaceful process by which we handle elections. Community and civic centers around the country serve as polling stations. Our congregation is one of those stations.
Last week I asked my “sign guy,” Mr. Bill Dissen to put the above sign up in front of our church. I wanted a sign that clearly was conscious of the upcoming election, but that exhorted parishioners (and others) to do something that was not endorsing a candidate or party. Thus the sign: “Want change? Pray to end abortion.”
This morning our city clerk informed us that the sign needed to be taken down or it would be covered. Apparently it might influence voters on how to vote.
We took the sign down.
But it has raised some very interesting questions for me as a pastor. We are given an opportunity to confess the faith in the midst of an unbelieving world. We can do so in a way that is not bitter or vitriolic. But is it moral for a Church to agree to be used for what is a good, left-hand kingdom purpose (polling station) if it then limits the ability of that same church to be a prophetic voice in the world?
I am supportive of our government and its system. I’m not sure about the wisdom of churches as polling stations, because it may limit the ability of the church to be church in the world.
The sign didn't say, "Vote McCain." It didn't say, "Vote Obama." It didn't endorse any candidate.
In fact, it didn't encourage people to vote at all. It encouraged people to pray.
Does anyone go into that Christian church to vote not realizing that abortion is against its teaching?
Why didn't the city clerk demand that all symbols of Christianity be covered or removed, too?
6 comments:
One thing you are overlooking here Mary is that voting to end a woman's right to choose abortion, is not necessarily a vote to end abortion. Making abortion illegal doesn't reduce the number of abortions, it just makes them less safe. If you really want to end abortion, you need to ensure that all adolosecents and adults receive comprehensive sex ed, access to free or affordable birth control and, in the case of emergency prevention, the morning after pill. But funny thing is, religious groups and the GOP often get in the way of this thereby worsening the situation. So ACTUALLY, a vote for those "leftists" as you like to call them, can be seen as a vote to end abortion. The sign doesn't necessarily support either party. It depends on your understanding of the issue.
but back to the issue..... In this country where we supposedly have separation of church and state, it could be wrong to use churches as polling stations. I would say that churches that cannot keep out of politics should not offer themselves up as polling stations. Plenty of other venues to use.
What so often is overlooked is that overturning Roe v. Wade wouldn't make abortion illegal.
It would throw the issue back to the states where it belongs. It's a legislative matter.
I think it's best not to use churches as polling places.
The practice is probably a throwback to when the church served as a community's backbone and main gathering place, before the separation of church and state became a religion in itself.
That's why the federal government needs to keep abortion legal for the whole country. Leaving it to the states would NOT be a good idea. Look what some of them do about science and sex ed legislation.
You believe in a large centralized national government.
I believe in states' rights.
Too much power in the hands of too few is NOT a good idea.
It is if some states are run by morons!
The problem is that the evidence actually supports that anti-abortion laws work. They make for less abortions.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjIxNzhmOGEyZjY4OTYyZTAyOWJhZjQyNDg1YzY1NmQ=#more
Post a Comment