{"id":701,"date":"2018-03-23T17:53:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T17:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/menandabortion.net\/?p=701"},"modified":"2018-03-23T17:57:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T17:57:27","slug":"abortion-and-the-clergy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/menandabortion.net\/index.php\/2018\/03\/23\/abortion-and-the-clergy\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion and the Clergy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent article<\/a> published by Focus on the Family<\/em>, Pastor Shane Idleman candidly shares his regret over a past abortion. Twenty-two years later, Pastor Shane stills wonders if his child was a boy or a girl, what his lost child would have looked like, and about all of the missed memories with that child. While his story is heartbreaking, it is also encouraging for all those who have shared a loss through abortion as he reminds them of God\u2019s great mercy and His promise of forgiveness.<\/p>\n

In addition, Pastor Shane\u2019s message to his fellow pastors is especially thought-provoking.\u00a0 Past research has shown us that many men do not share their abortion experience with others (Reich & Brindis, 2006) which may well put them \u201cat risk for prolonged and unresolved grief,\u201d\u00a0 (White-van Mourik, Connor & Ferguson-Smith, 1992, p. 200).\u00a0 Coyle and Rue (2015a) found that of those men who did choose to disclose their abortion experience, most of them did so to a friend.\u00a0 Only about one-half confided in a clergyperson.\u00a0 Yet, in another published report by these same authors (Coyle & Rue, 2015b), it was observed that men who had found healing after abortion did not describe that healing in psychological terms such as \u201cI was able to resolve my grief\u201d or \u201cI effectively processed the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead they consistently used spiritual terminology indicative of a Christian worldview.\u00a0 Authors stated that the men\u2019s \u201cChristian faith was an important source of healing, specifically the mandates to love one\u2019s self and one\u2019s neighbor and to forgive, tenets that are common to a number of world religions. Both receiving forgiveness from a higher power and self-forgiveness seemed to be significant features of their healing.\u201d\u00a0 This suggests that Christianity is at least one effective path by which men may find healing.\u00a0 It further suggests that Christian leaders, particularly pastors, are in a unique and effective position to help men in the process of restoration after abortion.<\/p>\n

So then why is it that we rarely hear our pastors preach on the subject of abortion or even mention the word \u201cabortion\u201d in their sermons?\u00a0 Pastor Shane speculates that too many pastors may want to \u201cbuild a church rather than break a heart; be politically correct rather than biblically correct; coddle and comfort rather than stir and convict.\u201d\u00a0 Pastors need to know that:<\/p>\n