With each email from the Religion Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), I grow more concerned; if the church is standing against the church in the issues of abortion, how then can we stand as one? What’s disturbing me is that there is a contingency of those who claim to name the name of Jesus and stand up for unlimited abortion rights. Some of those are mainstream churches that, in many cases, solid pro-life believers attend and don’t even realize have roots in this organization. (Click this link for a PDF with statements from denominational bodies).

The RCRC website is filled with such resources as prayers and sermons for choice. It offers a “Christian perspective” on abortion that insists true Christians support abortion rights.

On June 16, 1858, President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous "House Divided" speech as he accepted the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Standing against slavery, Lincoln’s speech didn’t make him popular among many. In part he said:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.

Of course, Lincoln’s  is quoting Jesus when the scribes (scholars of the law) accused Jesus of speaking from Satan:

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.” So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.  And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house. (Mark 3:22-27)

As I read the rhetoric from the RCRC, I am continually astounded by the mix of the gospel elements and writings that resemble, sometimes word-for-word, the emails I get from Planned Parenthood. RCRC campaigns in the name of religion to fund abortion in health care, to stand up for religion freedom by supporting abortion. How can we as a church rise up against a modern-day slavery which says we can control our wombs at the destruction of another life when many who call themselves believers divide the house of God by endorsing abortion? Our house divided cannot stand.

Last week the RCRC sent an email to tell us to was National Day of Appreciation of Abortion Providers:

To the countless brave doctors, nurses, clinic escorts, counselors, pharmacists and staff who provide reproductive health care, we at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice say "thank you." Despite harassment, violence, and legislative attacks on clinics and services, you provide critical services that women rely on. Without you, reproductive rights would be no more than a hollow promise.

The sidebar of this email asks reader to take a plate of cookies to abortion clinic workers as a thank you, as well as ask our clergy to preach on the importance of reproductive rights to our religious freedom.

The question I have is where do we get the idea that being a Christian makes us free to do what we want? I Corinthians 6:19 says “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”; Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me….” Paul, James, Peter, and others refer to themselves as bondslaves of Christ. Being a Christian isn’t about expressing our freedoms; it’s about being bound to Jesus and living in Him, which is an ultimate freedom unfounded by the world’s system.

Grief fills me when I see the name of Jesus side by side with encouragements to support abortion. It’s a return to Mark 3, where, essentially, they are saying Jesus aligns with Satan since they justify Christianity with innocent bloodshed, a demonic activity.

God cannot lie. He doesn’t say from Genesis to Revelation that he hates the shedding of innocent blood and then allow it when it’s a difficult situation. He doesn’t vacillate based on culture or circumstances. What is being propagated from this “interfaith” organization is not a faith that is speaking the truth about the issue of abortion. It is spreading a deceitful doctrine.

I Timothy 4:1 says that in the latter days people will give themselves to “doctrine of demons.” The opposite of God is Satan. Demonic doctrine is not some ethereal hyper-spiritual horror story; it is simply going against what God commands to follow what Satan encourages. Shedding innocent blood is never okay with God; a pre-born baby is about as innocent as blood comes.

Anyone who uses the name of God to justify abortion is not speaking from the kingdom of God.