New Pro-Abortion Christian Group Forms, Abortion Hurts Presbyterians

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 21, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

New Pro-Abortion Christian Group Forms, Abortion Hurts Presbyterians Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 21, 2005

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new Christian political group is forming and will take a position in favor of abortion. However, the Presbyterian Church, with a pastor helping lead the new organization, is seeing membership decline because it backs abortion.

Seeking to counteract the strong conservative and pro-life views of most Christian organizations, liberal and pro-abortion Christians have formed the Christian Alliance for Progress.

The group announce its plans on Tuesday and said it wants to go up against pro-life organizations such as the Christian Coalition.

"The religious right has been extremely successful at taking control of the language of our faith and using it to promote an extreme and divisive political agenda,” said Rev. Timothy Simpson, director of religion affairs for the new political group.

Simpson, a pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA, told AP that, "We think that most Americans, especially people of faith, are ready to hear from Americans who are tolerant."

However, the Presbyterian Church lost over 43,000 members during 2004, in part because of conservative churchgoers frustration with the Presbyterian Church (USA), which backs legal abortion.

The church, which has even opposed a ban on partial-birth abortions, has lost more than 40,000 members for the third straight year. It’s lost 12.9 percent of its total membership since 1983 and nearly half of its membership since 1965.

In the last two years, the percentage of members leaving the Presbyterian Church is at its highest since the early 1980s.

The head of the Christian Coalition told the Associated Press she’s ready for the debate and flattered that the new pro-abrotion Christian group chose to emulate her organization.

"That just shows we’ve been effective for the last 13 years," Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, said.

Related web sites:
Christian Alliance for Progress – https://www.christianalliance.org
Christian Coalition – https://www.cc.org