In California some Religious Leaders Mark Roe v. Wade Anniversary

Posted by Kendall Harmon

[The] Rev. Asman, of Santa Barbara’s Trinity Episcopal Church, and Rabbi Gross-Schaefer, of the Community Shul of Montecito and Santa Barbara, annunciated their support for women’s rights and asserted that being religious and being pro-choice are not always mutually exclusive.

Declaring himself a “progressive religious activist,” Asman critiqued the health care bill’s anti-abortion amendment. “God is grieved by this amendment,” he said. Asman went on to say that he feared the “tragic consequences of a pre-Roe world.”

Gross-Schaefer—who for 28 years has been a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, a Catholic institution—was equally supportive of a woman’s right to choose, declaring that abortion was “not a concept of murder whatsoever” given that the “fetus not a separate human being—not until a head emerges.” He said that as “a very religious person, I have to be pro-choice.”

Read the whole thing.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Life Ethics • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches

6 Comments
Posted January 31, 2010 at 5:01 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. MichaelA wrote:

Is it unusual for a Roman Catholic university to have as a professor a Rabbi who supports abortion on demand?

January 31, 6:27 pm | [comment link]
2. Undergroundpewster wrote:

“It was a night of hors d’oeuvre, history, and the health care bill.

The Santa Barbara Pro-Choice Coalition hosted an event January 25, with refreshments aplenty, to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. “

I cannot imagine eating and listening to such shameful talk. I think I am going to be ill because my dinner is being prepared even as I write this comment. I will add an extra prayer before the blessing tonight.

January 31, 6:42 pm | [comment link]
3. Paula Loughlin wrote:

MichaelA,  To God’s own grief unfortunately it is not at all unusual to have teachers in so called Catholic colleges who publicly espouse beliefs in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching.  The only unusual in this story is that the person is a rabbi and not a priest, nun, brother or sister.

January 31, 6:52 pm | [comment link]
4. Katherine wrote:

It is also, sadly, not unusual to have a Rabbi who supports abortion on demand.  I think it is only the Orthodox Jews who consistently maintain the prohibition on abortion.  Many Conservative rabbis have abandoned that teaching, as have almost all Reform rabbis.

January 31, 9:58 pm | [comment link]
5. Texanne wrote:

“fetus not a separate human being- not until a head emerges”

Do they not see how illogical this statement is?  The very thing preventing the head from emerging is the abortion!

February 1, 2:03 pm | [comment link]
6. Sarah wrote:

But what a pleasure to read such profundity—such articulate reasoned wisdom—as this: ““fetus not a separate human being—not until a head emerges.” He said that as “a very religious person, I have to be pro-choice.”

And this: “Declaring himself a “progressive religious activist,” Asman critiqued the health care bill’s anti-abortion amendment. “God is grieved by this amendment,” he said. Asman went on to say that he feared the “tragic consequences of a pre-Roe world.”

Their support for baby killing is like The Joker’s smile in the Batman story—gruesome and grotesque. 

But the rhetoric can’t help but amuse.

And these are the “thinkers” on the “progressive activist” side.

Heh.

February 1, 8:41 pm | [comment link]
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