Glenn Beck got a lot of flak for his August 28 spiritual rallyat the Lincoln Memorial from some who alleged he was usurping thememory of Martin Luther King's iconic 1963 "I Have a Dream" speechthere.
But equally as noteworthy was a religious pro-abortioncoalition, including several Mainline denominations, which lashedout at another speaker at the Beck Rally, King's niece AlvedaKing, for her pro-life advocacy.
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC)held a press conference in Washington on August 26 with severalAfrican-American clergy seeking to discredit Alveda King as part ofa conservative effort to "hijack the civil rights movement for itsown political agenda," according to Reverend Dr. Walter Fauntroy,chief Washington, D.C. organizer of the 1963 March onWashington.
While RCRC is comprised exclusively of nearly all-whiteMainline denominations and liberal activist groups, among themCatholics for a Free Choice, the group has an extensive outreach toAfrican Americans through its National Black Church Initiative.Among its programs has been the National Black Religious Summit onSexuality, held annually at Washington's Howard University, andwhich has tried subtly to promote pro-abortion themes in churchcurricula and to liberalize church teaching about sexualethics.
King directs the African-American outreach for Priests forLife and has spearheaded a campaign to raise awareness aboutabortion's impact on the black population. "The 'Religious Right'billboard campaign asserting that African American children are an'endangered species' and Alveda King's comparison of anti-abortionactivists to 'Freedom Riders' have sparked outrage in the AfricanAmerican community," charged RCRC President CarltonVeazey.
RCRC was founded in 1973 by primarily white MainlineProtestants to defend Roe v. Wade against Roman Catholicand other pro-life religious voices. Unwilling to grant thedesirability of any restriction on abortion, RCRC over the yearshas even defended the legality of partial-birth abortions and oftransporting minors across state lines for abortions. Agencies ofthe United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), UnitedChurch of Christ, and the Episcopal Church are RCRC's leadingmembers.
Responding to RCRC, King was unapologetic in defending herpro-life views and participation in the Beck rally. "It isabsolutely ludicrous that abortion supporters would accuse a bloodrelative of Dr. King of hijacking the King legacy. Uncle Martin andmy father, Rev. A. D. King were blood brothers," King said in astatement. "How can I hijack something that belongs to me? I am anheir to the King Family legacy."Â Not unreasonably, sheinsisted: "I have a right to stand at the Lincoln Memorial on the47th Anniversary of my Uncle's 'I Have A Dream' speech."
Dr. Timothy McDonald, Pastor of First Iconium BaptistChurch in Atlanta and a past member of the RCRC Board, insistedthat King was attempting to "rewrite history" and that the elderKing and his wife Coretta Scott King "supported family planningservices."
But the younger King insisted: "The Dream has yet to berealized." And she asserted: "That Dream is in my genes and I carryforward in the fight for equality and justice for all blacks,including those in the womb." King said that her father and unclegave their lives to ensure that the day would come when blackswould be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content oftheir character: "If they were here, I know they would stand withme in this fight for the lives of those most vulnerable amongus."
Priests for Life reports that 78 percent of PlannedParenthood clinics are in minority communities. While blacks makeup 12 percent of the population they account for 35 percent of allabortions in the United States. King and pro-life black clergy havealleged that the disproportionate impact of abortion upon the blackcommunity has been a targeted effort. Noting that 50 percent ofpregnancies within the black community end in abortion, theseleaders charge it is the result of campaigns originally instigatedby racially motivated eugenicists early in the 20th century.Foremost among their examples is Margaret Sanger, founder ofPlanned Parenthood, who wrote of eliminating "undesirablepopulations."
RCRC sought to refute the charge in a statement availableon its website from Jill Morrison, senior counsel in reproductivehealth and rights at the National Women's Law Center. Shecharacterized claims that abortion in the African-Americancommunity amounts to genocide as an "attempt to infantilize,dehumanize and objectify black women under the guise of protectingthe race." Loretta Ross, national coordinator of SisterSong Womenof Color Reproductive Health Collective called claims of genocide"racist, sexist and anti-Semitic" and an affront to the millionswho died in the Nazi Holocaust.
Several black pro-life leaders backed King in theirdisagreement with RCRC. "More and more of Black Americansunderstand the eugenics agenda of Planned Parenthood and otherabortion providers to control the black birth rate throughabortion. And because we understand, we are standing with AlvedaKing in solidarity, continuing the fight for black life from itsearliest beginnings," Catherine Davis of Georgia Right to Life toldLifeNews, a pro-life news service.
Although RCRC has several African-American officers,including Veazey and RCRC Chairman Alton B. Pollard III, Dean ofHoward University School of Divinity, none of the historicallyblack denominations is affiliated with RCRC. Typically socially andtheologically conservative, especially compared to white Mainlinechurches, most black churches are probably closer to Alveda Kingthan RCRC on abortion. Maybe this explains why RCRC is tryingto target black churches, and why Alveda King's pro-life advocacy,especially at the high profile Beck rally, so enraged groups likeRCRC.
Letter to the Editor
Jeff Walton directs the Anglican program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C.
I have often wondered how anyone that calls themselves aChristian and/or a believer in God, can think it is alright to killbabies in the womb. The people who push this scummy thinking areevil.
I prefer to use Luke 1:41-44 just for such occasions.
Denial of the person within the womb is denial of theIncarnation.Anathema sit.
Every intelligent human being who cares about human sufferingand the future of the human race is for abortion if the baby isunwanted by it's natural parents.
The only people who are against it are religious creeps who havesold themselves to the gigantic pantomime of judaeo-christian fairytales out of a fundamental cowardice about death and lack of moralfibre to face life as a free individual.
The day will come when religious people will be regarded in thesame way as paedophiles or schitzophrenics - incurably mad and adanger to themselves and others.
Anyone who honors life can not worship at the church of secularhumanism and pray to the Gods of collectivism.
Ooo, very good!
Well done - you get a star for cutting and pasting.
Can you explain for what reason secular humanism is incompatiblewith honoring life?
No you can't. Not without an awful lot more cutting andpasting.
The eagerness of the pro-abortion troops in and out of the Blackchurches to abort their future reminds me of the habit the Blackshave of rioting, looting and burning in their own neighbourhoodsand then standing in the ruins crying that they need HEP.
When they have aborted their future, and alienated the whitefolks, who will provide that HEP?
Al Sharpton, Charlie Rangle and Maxine H2Os
At the rate whites are aborting, there will be none them to HEPanyone.By the way, living in cities like LA can turn anyone (any color)into looters, etc...
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