Good Advice for NCC & WCC

The former prime minister of Norway has a message for various Christian organizations that want to be heard on public policy matters: try speaking as Christians rather than politicians. According to Ecumenical News International:

Former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik says that when international Christian groups such as the World Council of Churches make statements about political issues they should ensure they are rooted in faith.

“What I often experienced was that we received statements from church bodies, domestic and international, and they were almost like statements from other organizations and NGOs,” Bondevik told the main governing body of the World Council of Churches, its central committee, during its 13-20 February meeting in Geneva.

“Very often my colleagues ask ‘Why is this statement coming from church bodies?’” noted Bondevik, an ordained Lutheran priest who served as prime minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000 and from 2001 to 2005. He now serves as the moderator of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs.

This is a cautionary word that I hope the new NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon, and whoever succeeds Samuel Kobia at the WCC, will heed. The Christian churches have nothing unique to bring to the world except the gospel, and the ability to see the world and its problems through the lens of the gospel. That means, among other things, that the churches should generally avoid talking about means to solve problems (about which it generally has no expertise to bring to bear or unique ideas to offer) and focus instead on ends (for instance, keeping the world’s attention focused on  protecting and helping the least among us, rather than prescribing specific economic policies about which we have no revelation from God but may have political opinions in abundance).

Abortion By Ethical Fiat

At Redeemer, we are honored to have a member of the medical profession as one of our occasional visitors. An Ob/Gyn, this person has asked us to pray for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is trying to force doctors to perform or at least refer for abortions. A press release from a pro-life group within the ACOG, which I found today on Christian Newswire, makes clear how serious the situation is:

In Nov 07, the (ACOG) American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Ethics Committee issued a formal Opinion titled “The Limits of Conscientious Refusal In Reproductive Medicine.” This Opinion warns Ob/Gyn doctors that their practice pattern can be considered “unethical” by ACOG standards if they do not either do abortions, or refer patients desiring an abortion to an abortion provider. The Opinion goes so far as to suggest that pro-life doctors should locate their office in proximity to an abortion provider, for the convenience of such patients. The American Board of Ob/Gyn in January 08, published revised standards for doctors seeking recertification (which maintains their professional reputation in good standing). The revised standards are tied to ACOG Ethics compliance. This is a raw power play to cripple, and ultimately eliminate from practice, those doctors who hold a conscience conviction on the sanctity of human life, and refuse to have a part in doing, or referring for, the elective, deliberate taking of an unborn human life.

The full statement by the pro-life group, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, can be found here. The is a move that may drive a large number of pro-life doctors out of the field (the person visiting our congregation has indicated that the question of whether to be re-certified in the specialty will be an agonizing one if this standard remains in force), and is as naked an exercise in pure politics in medicine as any since the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973. Please pray for the Lord’s intervention, and don’t hesitate to voice your support for pro-life doctors, both directly to them and to the ACOG (which doesn’t have a way of reaching the Ethics Committee directly, so I’d suggest you contact the Communications Office at communications@acog.org).

(Via Alliance Defense Fund.)