Baffled, I went home and started doing a little research on the subject. Turns out, a portion of every Sunday's offering at the Methodist church goes to support an organization they founded in 1973 called the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. This organization employs lobbyists to pass pro-choice legislation and directly funds clinics that provide abortions to women in financial need.
I am not okay with this.
My discovery of this information, combined with other factors, led me to believe that I could not in good conscience continue to support and identify myself with an organization that not only considers itself to be pro-choice, but also directly supports providing abortions out of its weekly Sunday offering. To me, this just seems absurd!
Anyway, we are excited to be visiting a church this Sunday that I have very strong hopes for becoming a part of. I have listened to some of the pastors' sermons online, visited with the director of the children's ministry and the wife of the youth director and thoroughly researched their core beliefs and tenets, all of which fall right in line with ours. As a bonus, they have an AWANA program, which the kids attended for the first time last week and absolutely loved! They also have a Sunday evening service (with child care), so that we will be able to attend even if we are up until 3 in the morning the night before downloading cards after weddings. The lack of an evening worship service has been a big stumbling block for us in the past, because it is really REALLY hard to get 4 kids ready to be anywhere by 10:30 in the morning when you are running on 4 or 5 hours of sleep!
I am very hopeful that we will all feel at home there so that we can become a part of a church community. I want that for us, and I especially want that for our kids. I feel bad that I have not done a very good job of educating them and connecting them in such an important area of our lives over the past couple of years, so I have decided it is high time we get on the ball and get ourselves back where we belong!
Sorry for the long rambling, I am just happy and hopeful! : )
All of that was a little rabbit trail from the original purpose of this blog entry, however, which was to share a short YouTube clip that a friend of mine posted on Facebook. I thought it was really well done, and I hope you enjoy it too! Just click on the picture below to check it out!
For a little personal perspective, here is a picture of our precious Norah when I was just 10 weeks along with her, 3 weeks before the end of the first trimester.
It blows my mind to think that so many people in America would have been totally okay with me wiping out the existence of such an amazing, precious little creature!! I think as more people become educated about the development of life within the womb as babies grow, they will hopefully begin to realize the true nature of even first-trimester abortion.
Thanks for listening, and I hope everyone stays safe in these storms and has a great Wednesday tomorrow! We'll be back to AWANA tomorrow evening. Can't wait! : )
