The heresy of the United Church of Christ continues to rear its un-Christlike head, and now it is making headlines with a stunning announcement about abortion
Months after a progressive UCC pastor in Michigan announced that he wasn’t sure if the Resurrection of Jesus ever happened and that because God’s love is unconditional, that people don’t need salvation, the church body itself has announced that it overwhelmingly has passed a resolution calling on member congregations to help “pregnant people” get abortions.
During its UCC General Synod earlier this month, UCC officials passed a measure that denounced last year’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision from the Supreme Court and unabashedly proclaimed the procedure of abortion as “healthcare.” The denomination called for the support of abortion access by an overwhelming vote of 611 in favor, 24 opposed and 13 abstentions.
Last June, the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, in effect since 1973, by a 6-3 margin and handed the decision to make laws about abortion to the individual states.
The UCC continues to cling to its heretical values despite the fact of a rapid decline in membership. According to its 2022 National Eleven Year Report released in June, the denomination reported 712,000 members, down 280,000 members from 2012. The average weekly attendance in UCC churches declined from more than 378,000 people in 2012 to just over 225,000 last year.
The UCC resolution claimed that “a majority of Americans support legal abortions in all or most cases.” It also claimed that state abortion bans can “threaten the lives of pregnant people in their time of grief,” as well as “deepen unequal access to comprehensive reproductive care” for minority communities.
“Whereas people of lower socioeconomic status and people of color are more likely to receive abortion care, due to systemic factors including poverty, lack of access to contraception and distrust of the medical system … with insufficient access mostly affecting rural communities and Black and Brown communities and negative reproductive health outcomes disproportionately affecting people of color …
“Therefore, be it resolved that the Thirty-Fourth General Synod of the United Church of Christ affirms the right of all people to access reproductive healthcare including contraception and abortion.”
The measure passed by the UCC recommends the following actions, in part, from the church:
- Proclaims that forced birth is an act of sexual violence and the choice to have and care of children is a sacred decision that should not be forced upon anyone.
- Proclaims that every person seeking an abortion is a beloved child of God, our neighbor, a person we love.
- Affirms the morality of resisting by peaceful means, including civil disobedience, any laws banning abortions, and calls upon every setting of the United Church of Christ to use Just Peace practices to confront abortion bans and restrictions on reproductive healthcare.
- Calls upon the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and the Conferences to explore and pursue all avenues for legal challenges to abortion bans.
- Directs the United Church of Christ Board to explore creation of a Bail Fund, as necessary, for UCC members arrested for participation in civil disobedience or other acts of non-violent Christian witness that promote social, racial, economic, environmental, gender, and reproductive justice; the UCC Board shall report on their progress of this exploration by General Synod 35.
During a town hall discussion, Elaina Ramsey, executive director of Faith Choice Ohio, said there was “no silver bullet strategy to fix this mess, this crisis that we are in,” a crisis she said had been “manufactured” by opponents over the past 50 years. “We are not going to legislate our way out of this crisis; we’re not going to elect our way out of it and we sure are not going to message our way [out]. We are going to have to love our way through it.”
Kate Tilton took another avenue in a Facebook post on UCC’s page: “I strongly disagree. We MUST legislate our way out of this mess, and it MUST be codified, mere court decisions will not serve our needs. ‘Love our way out’ is dangerously close to ‘thoughts and prayers.'”
Lifenews.com reported that the Rev. Dakota Roberts, an Indiana pastor who helped develop the resolution, said UCC churches should become “sanctuaries” for abortion seekers.
“As sanctuary churches house refugees and immigrants from deportation, so now, too, the United Church of Christ encourages churches to love, support and exist as a sanctuary for individuals seeking access to safe abortions,” Roberts said.
But Micaiah Bilger, a staff writer at Life News, referred to the resolution and other UCC efforts against pro-life laws as “radical pro-abortion actions that contradict Scripture and millennia of Judeo-Christian teachings.
“Christianity has always taught that every human life is valuable,” she wrote. “And killing innocent people is evil. But some churches, including a number of shrinking Protestant denominations like the UCC, have abandoned this teaching in recent years.”
Also during the General Synod, the UCC proclaimed a war on “the sin of centering whiteness.” Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer apologized for “our complicity in the manifestations of white privilege that motivated some of us to set this table without you (African Americans).” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma News.
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