CLR’s Official Positions and Thoughts to Ponder on Life and Family Issues

December 5, 2012

Abortion

Human life exists already at conception. It is a gift from God. He also reserves for himself the authority to take human life. Aborting an unborn child for any reason, other than to preserve a human life, is a practice condemned by the Word of God and therefore is wrong.¹

Euthanasia

Any practice of euthanasia, the intent of which is to shorten one’s own life or the life of another person, is a practice condemned by the Word of God and therefore is wrong. All people are to protect life and carry the burdens of others. Apart from God’s expressed permission, it is wrong to take human life, even when we do not like the quality of that life.²

Conscientious Objection

There is a place for government to respect the religious convictions of people. But if the conscience is only sensitive about oneself and not about others, then we fail miserably… If we who know better do not speak up – who will? Don’t settle for the easy way out.³

Our Eternal Perspective

The ultimate goal for pro-life Christians is more than saving bodies and lives for this life. It also means that we want to preserve lives to enjoy the resurrection and everlasting life.⁴

Conception

Scripture supports “conception” to mean life is created and exists at fertilization.⁵

Abortion Takes a Human Life, According to Abortion Advocates

“‘Abortion stops a beating heart,’ is incontrovertibly true.”⁶

“I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue.” ⁷

“We must end the fiction that an abortion at 26 weeks is no different from one at six weeks… The fetus is more visible than ever before, and the abortion-rights movement needs to accept its existence and its value. It may not have a right to life, and its value may not be equal to that of the pregnant woman, but ending the life of a fetus is not a morally insignificant event.” ⁸

A “New” Kind of Love

The kind of love that comes as a “new” command is the unconditional and sacrificial commitment to others without the need or expectation that it will be returned… When we learn to understand this kind of love and practice this kind of commitment, it shapes our approach with the dying, the struggling, the unborn and the needy. We love, care and sacrifice not because it is easy, it is fun or we are rewarded for it. We do this because we know what it means to be the object of this kind of love.⁹

Stem Cell Debate

Unfortunately, the stem cell debate has been characterized as a conflict between science (as though science is always right) and religious “kooks” (as though religious folks are never right).¹⁰

Churches Which Favor Sin

Every church body that permits or advocates today’s modern slide in life issues (i.e., abortion, homosexuality, assisted suicide, cohabitation, etc.) also rejects the Bible as the inerrant Word of God. In a perverse way that makes sense. Scripture is so clear on these issues you have no choice but to reject parts of it to do these things.¹¹

Children with Down Syndrome

In this so-called “enlightened generation” Sarah Palin did the most “unthinkable thing” – she let her child live.¹²

Eugenics

When it comes to deafness, I agree that it is difficult for a deaf person to get along in a hearing world. But it is also difficult, I have learned, for a hearing person to get along in the deaf world. I consider my sense of hearing valuable, but I do not consider myself more valuable than a deaf person.¹³

Adoption

Even though I like drama, I generally do not tell my personal story too dramatically. So I was stunned when my daughter wrote recently for her Lutheran elementary school teacher: “I am thankful that my Dad’s birth mother did not get an abortion. Then I wouldn’t have been born!” ¹⁴

Lifestyle of Hope

(Comment on 1 Peter 3:15-18) People will not ask a believer for the reason of the hope in his or her life if that hope is not displayed. They also will not ask for the reason for the hope in one’s life if they only do good things comparable to unbelievers. The world should see Christ in us – our sacrifice, our determination, our deep compassion, our strong resolve, our God-like love. Then people will ask why we do it – why we sacrifice; why we come; why we stick with it; and then we can answer that we are imitating the perfect example of Christ’s love for us.¹⁵

¹ Abstract from 3,200+ word document of Christian Life Resources’ official statement on abortion.
2 Abstract from 5,300+ word document of Christian Life Resources’ official statement on euthanasia.
3 Excerpt from article, “Is An Objection on Religious Grounds Enough?” by Pastor Robert Fleischmann, National Director
of Christian Life Resources.
4 Excerpt from article, “Pro-Life Forever” by Rev. Mark Braun, Professor of Theology at Wisconsin Lutheran College in
Milwaukee, WI.
5 Excerpt from Q & A article, “When Does Life Begin?”
6 Statement by Naomi Wolf, author, social critic and abortion advocate, excerpted from article, “Rethinking Pro-Choice
Rhetoric. Our Bodies, Our Souls.” The New Republic. October 16, 1995
7 Statement by Camille Paglia, author, social critic and abortion advocate, excerpted from article, “Fresh blood for the
vampire.” The Salon. September 10, 2008.
8 Statement by Frances Kissling, who retired in 2007 after serving 25 years as president of Catholics for Choice, an
abortion advocacy group, excerpted from article, “Abortion rights are under attack, and pro-choice advocates are
caught in a time warp.” The Washington Post. February 18, 2011.
9 Excerpt from article, “What’s So New About Love?” by Pastor Robert Fleischmann, National Director of Christian Life
Resources.
10 Excerpt from article, “Too Many Eggs” by syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, reprinted with permission.
11 Excerpt from article, “My Body, My Choice – Really?” by Pastor Robert Fleischmann, National Director of Christian
Life Resources.
12 Excerpt from article, “The Lives We Touch” by Pastor Robert Fleischmann, National Director of Christian Life
Resources, about special-needs son of former Alaskan governor and Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Palin’s
son Trig has the chromosomal condition, Down syndrome.
13 Excerpt from article, “The Quality in Life” by Pastor Paul Prange, WELS Administrator for Ministerial Education.
14 Excerpt from article, “An Adopted Child’s Perspective” by Pastor Paul Prange, WELS Administrator for Ministerial
Education.
15 Excerpt from conference paper, “Step Up to the Table or Find Yourself on the Menu” delivered by Pastor Robert
Fleischmann, National Director of Christian Life Resources. Paper available on request from Christian Life Resources.