Pineridge Blog

God alone is Lord of the conscience, part 2

As you think and pray, and perhaps have been or currently are forced to make difficult personal decisions, I wanted to share with you these important statements from the ‘What We Believe’ section on the pcusa.org website that have been helpful guidance for me from the 1992 General Assembly on “Areas of Substantial Agreement on the Issue of Abortion”

• “The church ought to be able to maintain within its fellow-ship those who, on the basis of a study of Scripture and prayerful decision, come to diverse conclusions and actions.

• “Problem pregnancies are the result of, and influenced by, so many complicated and insolvable circumstances that we have neither the wisdom nor the authority to address or decide each situation.

• "We affirm the ability and responsibility of women, guided by the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, in the context of their communities of faith, to make good moral choices in regard to problem pregnancies.

•  “We call upon Presbyterians to work for a decrease in the number of problem pregnancies, thereby decreasing the number of abortions.

• The considered decision of a woman to terminate a preg-nancy can be a morally acceptable, though certainly not the only or required, decision. Possible justifying circumstances would include medical indications of severe physical or mental deformity, conception as a result of rape or incest, or conditions under which the physical or mental health of either woman or child would be gravely threatened.

• “We are disturbed by abortions that seem to be elected only as a convenience or ease embarrassment. We affirm that abortion should not be used as a method of birth control.

• “Abortion is not morally acceptable for gender selection only or solely to obtain fetal parts for transplantation.

• “We reject the use of violence and/or abusive language either in protest of or in support of abortion.

• “The strong Christian presumption is that since all life is precious to God, we are to preserve and protect it. Abortion ought to be an option of last resort.

• “The Christian community must be concerned about and address the circumstances that bring a woman to consider abortion as the best available option. Poverty, unjust socie-tal realities, sexism, racism, and inadequate supportive rela-tionships may render a woman virtually powerless to choose freely.