I want you to meet a priest from Greenville, South Carolina named Rev. Jay Scott Newman.
He is the pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in downtown Greenville.
And he has become my personal hero.
In a nutshell, Fr. Newman told his parishioners that if they voted for Barack Obama, they embraced “intrinsic evil” since Obama's opponent was a “plausible pro-life alternative.” And as a result, those Obama voters need to seek forgiveness from God before they receive Holy Communion again.
Does this guy have guts, or what?
Finally, a religious leader comes along and deals with the 800-pound elephant in the room: how do supposedly religious people reject the sanctity of life and support someone who voted against a “Born Alive Infant Protection” law which would protect babies accidentally born alive after a botched abortion?
Frankly, if that's not evil, I'm not sure what is.
And it takes a priest in Greenville, South Carolina to rise up against all the moral relativism we face in the world and speak the truth.
In a letter posted on the church website, Rev. Newman said that Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate should seek penance for their sin before receiving the Holy Sacrament of Communion, “lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.”
Of course, he's not just making this up. He cites the Bible as the basis for his message, quoting from I Corinthians that forbids partaking of the body of Christ “without recognizing the body of the Lord.”
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I'm pleased to report that the response from his congregation has been overwhelmingly positive. According to the priest, church members have approved of his message by a margin of 9 to 1, which leaves me to wonder why those in the minority would see fit to question their pastor.
When discussing this gutsy priest on my radio show this week, a few liberals called in and complained about him “mixing politics with religion.”
It seems to me that life and death issues aren't very political in nature. At least they shouldn't be.
And the fact that the left has managed to turn the issue of abortion into “politics” is simply a deceitful way to try and make the taking of an unborn baby's life something as mundane and ordinary as taxes or fixing potholes.
The Catholic Church has certainly had its hands full in dealing with controversies and ugliness. There is no question that many wish the church would have better handled the terrible scandal of sexually abusive priests over the years.
As a result of that scandal, many Christian- and Catholic-bashers saw fit to condemn the entire Roman Catholic Church with hateful and vicious attacks, despite the fact that millions of loyal, faithful Catholic churchgoers were as appalled by the abusers as anyone else.
But one thing that can be said with clarity and consistency: the Catholic Church has been a beacon in leading the fight against the destruction of the unborn.
Say what you will, but few religious faiths and organizations have had the rock-solid conviction to fight for unborn babies like the Catholic Church has had.
And judging by the actions of this one priest in South Carolina, they're just getting started.
I pray that more priests, ministers, and rabbis follow suit.
How can a spiritual leader stand at the pulpit every week and ignore the slaughter of millions of innocents?
Why would a pastor be inclined to defend an individual, politician or otherwise, who could support partial-birth abortion or the destruction of the life of an unborn baby at any stage?
May a hero like Rev. Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina serve as a wake-up call to sleepy, lazy church leaders who don't want to address this issue, one of the most important issues of our lifetime.
If our church leaders don't fight for the unborn, who will?
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