As Seventh-day Adventists, we know very well that in the end time we will see America coalescing around religious ideas that we need to be right with God, but they will mistake what “right” is, and just follow the Roman Catholic Church’s definition. A large reason for that, is that the RCC is the only big organization with any form of moral compass left.
This is a quote from an article in The Weekly Standard titled “U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops: Obama’s Revised Contraception and Abortion Pill Mandate ‘Unacceptable'”:
First, he has decided to retain HHS’s nationwide mandate of insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some abortifacients. This is both unsupported in the law and remains a grave moral concern. We cannot fail to reiterate this, even as so many would focus exclusively on the question of religious liberty.
It sickens and saddens me to see them getting all the spotlight on standing up against the latest government mandate to provide services to kill the unborn. Everybody with any moral character at all knows deep down that they are doing the right thing in this case. My question is where are our Seventh-day Adventist leaders and hospital administrators??? We should have been the ones to get the large free publicity in this situation, showing that we are standing firm for the word of God. But i hear nothing. In going to the ANN website, i see absolutely nothing regarding this even in communications to our own members, let alone to the world. If we do not stand up for the silent today, we deserve to be silenced in the future.
Isaiah 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].
Yes, our judgment, if we do not repent, will be sure and just.
Today i see our SDA Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department have made an official announcement on this issue:
http://adventistliberty.org/index.php?id=61
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Birth Control and Religious Liberty: An Adventist Perspective
What principles should guide the Adventist Church’s response to the current debate in the United States about government-mandated health insurance coverage for contraception? The Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department, along with the Office of General Counsel, reviews some long-standing values that will help chart our course.
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An Adventist Response to the U.S. Health and Human Services Contraception Insurance Regulation
On January 20, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule mandating that employers including religious employers who provide health insurance to their employees must provide a full range of contraceptive services to women without co-pay, co-insurance or deductible. This will include all Food and Drug Administration approved forms of contraception as well as female sterilization.
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Various religious organizations, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have raised concerns about being required to provide services that they find morally objectionable. While the ultimate impact of the new rule is not yet known, a number of religious organizations that do not object to contraception have also raised religious liberty concerns.
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For the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its institutions the provision of contraceptive services does not impinge on the denomination’s religious liberty. The Adventist Church’s principles do not prohibit the use of contraception. See Birth Control: A Seventh-day Adventist Statement of Consensus. Health insurance offered by most if not all U.S. Adventist institutions currently covers contraceptive services.
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Consistent with its longstanding practice of defending religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is concerned any time government requires a religious organization to violate its religious beliefs. The General Conference Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department and the Office of General Counsel continue to watch this developing issue closely and will do all that is appropriate to defend and protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience.
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Reprinted with permission from theGeneral Conference Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty
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The term “FDA-approved contraceptives” is important. I’ve just spent some time looking at the FDAs site to see what contraceptives they approve. The “Pill” is on the list, along with the after-morning Pill, and other things/drugs.
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Now, my question is, do these approved things include “abortifacients”, or not? The Catholic Church seems to think so, and that looks to be true of the after-morning Pill for example, but i’m not sure about this. Does anyone know?
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Our official SDA church position on birth control regarding abortion is: “Abortion, the intentional termination of an established pregnancy, is not morally acceptable for purposes of birth control.”
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Of course our official church guidelines DO allow for abortion if the mother’s health is at risk, if the baby has a defect, if there is incest or rape etc. etc. etc. We MUST repent for this position if we ever expect to have any favor of God.
In today’s news:
“Bishop William E. Lori, representing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, compared the ruling to a law that would force all food providers, including kosher delicatessens, to serve pork.
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“Does the fact that large majorities in society, even large majorities within the protesting religious community, reject a particular religious belief make it permissible for the government to weigh in on one side of that dispute?” he asked.”
Here’s a great video of a kid born at age 24 weeks, and she made it!
http://www.wcsh6.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=1331057719001&odyssey=mod|tvideo|article
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Now why would my church tell that mother that it is OK for her to kill that baby? Oh, not AFTER it is out, but only BEFORE it is out!
We have a growing culture in the world and Seventh-day Adventist church of “You’re OK, I’m OK”, unless of course the “you’re” believes in absolutes. Then it is: “You’re a fundamentalist who must be quarantined or eliminated, I’m OK”.
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However, leaving the church God established is not the answer, as that will preclude us from receiving the Seal of God in our foreheads. Read Ezekiel chapter 9.