A Baptist Preacher's Abortion

Donna Schaper says she's a grown-up, a pastor, and a murderer. She claims all three labels, and is not apologizing for any of them.

Rev. Schaper, pastor of Judson Memorial Church in New York City, wrote a recent article for the liberal Jewish monthly Tikkun about the abortion she had nineteen years ago. She says she's "neither bragging nor apologizing."

Schaper says that her abortion was the right choice, since she and her husband had young twins at the time. "Because women are mature sexual beings who make choices," she writes. "Birth control and abortion are positive moral forces in history. They allow sex to be both procreational and recreational, for both men and women." As a matter of fact, as Schaper sees it, abortion doesn't have anything to do with babies. "The drama of the abortion battle is not about unborn babies at all," she writes. "Instead it is about women and sex."

But she doesn't really believe that. Schaper spends most of this article writing about an unborn baby. She even names the aborted child, "Alma," which means soul. She also admits that what she did was the taking of a human life. She even calls it murder:

"I did what was right for me, for my family, for my work, for my husband, and for my three children. I happen to agree that abortion is a form of murder. I think the quarrel about when life begins is disrespectful to the fetus. I know I murdered the life within me. I could have loved that life but chose not to. I did what men do all the time when they take us to war: they choose violence because, while they believe it is bad, it is still better than the alternatives."

It is sad and sobering to read this pastor defend abortion by writing: "When I made my choice to end Alma's life, I was behaving as an adult." It is even sadder to read her conclusion that: "It was a human life. That's why we named her, wanted her, but also knew we did not want her enough." This choice empowered Schaper to be a grownup, and that's why legal abortion is, in her words, "the best policy conceivable for men and women and for mature, moral sexuality."

Judson Memorial is an American Baptist congregation, founded by the son of the most beloved Baptist missionary couple of all time, Ann and Adoniram Judson. The church was funded by Baptist John D. Rockefeller. The church is concerned for justice and fairness and equality, even noting prominently on the website that the coffee, tea, and cocoa is "fair trade."

The man who founded this church saw with his own eyes what it is for a husband and wife to sacrifice everything for the souls of lost sinners across the ocean. And yet, behind the pulpit this Sunday, there will stand a woman with no apologies to make. She will preach to them, baptize them, counsel them, and perhaps she'll even speak to them about the liberating power of safe, legal abortion. She will tell them she's a grown-up, and that she makes her own choices. And it's not about babies, after all. It's not about any particular baby. It's not about a baby whose name means "soul."

Comments

[Dcn. Michael D. Harmon]

Thus, the "choice" in "pro-choice" is the same as it ever was:

1) Serve in Heaven, or

2) Rule in Hell.

[Denny Burk]

Russell,

Thank you for this excellent piece. Abortion propaganda crumbles underneath telling testimonies like this one.

Nevertheless, as a pro-lifer, my first emotion is not one of vindication for my cause, but one of grief and sadness for the millions of women and their babies who have been demolished by the culture of death.

God help us. Maranatha.

Denny Burk

[Tony Esolen]

Notice that in one breath she champions herself for committing murder, which in fact she did commit, and accuses thousands of fighting men of committing murder, which in fact they did not. Thus her initial act of uncharity against her child, herself, her husband, and God, now extends to uncharity against every man who ever fought in a war.

[Bill R]

Dr. Moore, it's hard to recall any story that more perfectly illustrates moral blindness. I have the chills.

[Craig Galer]

Did she really say that abortion was "the best policy conceivable"? Excuse me, Ma'am, but your Freudian slip is showing . . .

[Douglas]

Her argument gets hoisted on its own petard. What is she saying, that women should be empowered to act as sinfully as men?

As cruel as soldiers and their superiors can be, they are at least acting out of a sense of protecting kith and kin from an external enemy, and inflicting the pain in that direction. It's chilling how a woman in a leadership role projects her aggression and vindictiveness inward, in this case, on to her own body and unborn child.

Sick, sick, sick.

[Little Gidding]

They didn't want the baby enough, so they felt justified in killing her? The baby herself would have made a different calculation, I would expect.

[Nick]

One of Luther's goals was to have a better educated clergy. I can hardly see him being thrilled about a woman claiming the role of religious leader who can't tell the difference between murder and killing.

Does anyone know about the reaction from the congregation? Or is it too much to hope that there would be just a wee bit of moral outrage over the comments?

[Douglas]

Nick,

That would be way too much to hope. Here's a small sampling from Judson Memorial's website:

"Spirit of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, Spirit of Jesus and the God beyond our version, let this be a place of peace, of joy, of justice, of calm, of inspiration, of dance, of hilarity, of memory. May a great lightness of being flow here and out of here to the city and state and world. Let what we do here matter to places and people here and beyond here. Amen."

[Bobby Winters]

I remember a sermon I heard as a young man called "A Trip Through Hell." Within the sermon it was described what one would see on a tour of that place. At one point the preacher said, "And there off to the left is Pontius Pilate. He's washing his hands and washing his hands, but he just can't get off the blooood."

It strikes me that this lady is trying to wash the blood off her hands. It won't come off either.

[Andy]

What a horrible, horrible person!!!

[Ethan Cordray]

So, if her child is a person with a soul, and she murdered that person, when the soul of her child cries out before the throne of Christ for justice, what would she expect Him to say?

There will be no forgiveness without repentance.

[Gina]

Reminds me of an interview I saw last week with the young man who wants to disavow his baby daughter so that he won't have to pay her child support, in the name of "male reproductive freedom." He didn't kill her, but the heartlessness, cruelty, and selfishness of so-called sexual freedom obviously blooms in many terrible forms.

[Bobby Winters]

>>>Reminds me of an interview I saw last week with the young man who wants to disavow his baby daughter so that he won't have to pay her child support, in the name of "male reproductive freedom." He didn't kill her, but the heartlessness, cruelty, and selfishness of so-called sexual freedom obviously blooms in many terrible forms.<<<

Which brings to me a bloody minded question. If having a child is a woman's right to choose, from that logic, why should a man be obligated to pay child support? Is that what he argued?

[Little Gidding]

Yes, that's what he's arguing. It's a court case. He says he wasn't consulted about whether to have the baby or not.

[Heather]

This is one of the saddest blog posts I've ever read. ;(

[Christopher Hathaway]

If having a child is a woman's right to choose, from that logic, why should a man be obligated to pay child support?

This has the "virtue" of being logically consistent, but not the virtue of being moral.

I really wonder what form of ethics this woman preaches, and on what basis she can claim that anyone should do anything for others that isn't out of self-interest. Sure I want to help the poor and needy. I just may not want to help them enough.

[MarcV]

Another saddening aspect of this story is that she has 3 other children that happened to slip by her "choice" zone. Does she see the face of Alma when she looks into her children's faces?

I could have loved that life but chose not to.

It's difficult to hear this from a purported pastor, someone who is responsible for Jesus' teachings of loving the unlovable and valuing each life. Jesus still loves Ms. Schaper and we're supposed to as well. She does not make it easy.

[JOhn Mark]

Reproductive freedom was to be ours with the advent of "free love" made possible mostly by the pill. It may have been P. J. O'Rourke, I'm not sure, writing in Rolling Stone, who complained that our right to copulate or fornicate with anyone we chose was taken from us by the threat of AID's. The injustice of it all!
I agree with those who have already said in succinct terms, we want to be God, or a god where our sexual choices are concerned. This dear lady's defiant attitude is a reflection of our larger culture, with all the guilt ignored or stuffed down, and no outward sign of repentance or understanding.

[Don Bosch (evaneco.com)]

"Notice that in one breath she champions herself for committing murder, which in fact she did commit, and accuses thousands of fighting men of committing murder, which in fact they did not."

Thank you, Tony.

David wasn't a murderer by virtue of being king of Israel's armies, but for killing the innocent.

CDR Don Bosch, USN

[Chip Johnson, cj]

It may be, from reading the prayer on their website, that Judson Memorial has fallen into the counter-culture abyss known as wicca (or at least TEC)

[J.D.]

Obviously one reaches a certain point at which debate is impossible. If I understand this Schaper woman correctly, she concedes that she committed murder, but that it was as such still the right thing to do at the time.

The upside I suppose, is that it makes it easier for me to be a little more charitable toward your run-of-the-mill abortion-mill supporter. Schaper's philosophical bubbling about "murder" points to a state in which even the most basic elements of language cease to have any meaning.

What does the Spaniard swordsman say in "A Princess Bride", in reference to the word "inconceivable"?

"You keep usinguh that haword... ah do not think it minns, what you think it minns..."

I suspect a lot of the moral goofiness extant in post-modern American civilization is due to the fact that we are so cushioned by technology and society that we can *afford* to walk around in a haze of incoherence, and opt for fickle, absurd, and fragmented conventions vice thought-out and rooted convictions.

Thanks to all those Christians who have sacrificed and gone before, Ms. Schafer now has the luxury of cranking out rubbish that makes considerably less sense than a dog chasing its own tail.

500 years ago you would not find any pro-abortion vegans running around.

Anybody know why?

I'll tell you why.

Because 500 years ago, people who placed cute furry animals on the same plane with human beings-- or *above* them, in the case of the unborn-- invariably got themselves *eaten* by bears.

[Daniel C.]

I wonder what this pastor would have to say to Susan Smith, a woman who decided to murder her two boys, 3 year old Michael and 14 month old Alex, because they interfered with Susan's sex life.

[Ethan Cordray]

Daniel C.: Murder is clearly the logical outsome of saying that it's ok to choose whether to love someone or not. I wonder if Mrs. Schaper thinks God gets to choose whom he wishes to love. Is it then godlike to make such a choice ourselves? It makes me furious that the power of Satan can be so strong as to make someone propound such obvious nonsense.

[Marion R.]

"When I made my choice to end Alma's life, I was behaving as an adult."

Indeed, she was.

"Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

[Luthien]

Take her logic just a wee bit farther, and Herod, Hitler, and Stalin are veritable saints for their slaughters of innocents. After all, they were adults who believed they were acting for the best...there are no words to describe such sickness.

[Steve Nicoloso]

Because 500 years ago, people who placed cute furry animals on the same plane with human beings-- or *above* them, in the case of the unborn-- invariably got themselves *eaten* by bears.

Good point J.D... or if not that then, if they persisted in egregious error, got them burned at the stake for edification and entertainment of the masses... a practice the banning of which seems rather regrettable in view of this post.

[Christopher]

"Because 500 years ago, people who placed cute furry animals on the same plane with human beings-- or *above* them, in the case of the unborn-- invariably got themselves *eaten* by bears.

Good point J.D... or if not that then, if they persisted in egregious error, got them burned at the stake for edification and entertainment of the masses... a practice the banning of which seems rather regrettable in view of this post."

lol! I have often thought and on occasion said that given a choice between the "tolerant" society that ours has become, and one with the courage of their convictions and the occasional lapse into such things as burning witches at the stake, I would chose the latter every time...

[Wonders For Oyarsa]

Then again, you might think differently if you were the one being burned at the stake (meditate on how that experience might feel the next time you're around a bonfire). Or if you were an Orthodox Christian under Stalin. Or if you were the baby being aborted.

Personally, I think I prefer the freedom to debate theology with my Catholic neighbor without fear of torture myself.

[Christopher]

"you might think differently if you were the one being burned at the stake (meditate on how that experience might feel the next time you're around a bonfire)"

Too true. However, I DON'T have to imagine how it feels to live in a "tolerant" society where every manner of evil (including the killing of over 1 million unborn children a year) is accepted.

"Or if you were an Orthodox Christian under Stalin. "

Wait a minute - the average "intolerant" medieval (or pre-medieval) village looks nothing like Stalin's society.

"Or if you were the baby being aborted."

Now I am confused - I would choose the society that does not allow such an abomination, even though they burned a few witches.

"Personally, I think I prefer the freedom to debate theology with my Catholic neighbor without fear of torture myself."

Perhaps this is the rub - we have traded in our "fear of torture" and chosen something much worse, the "tolerant" society...

[Pax Christi]

I see where the slippery slope begins for this sadly delusional pastor. It's her view that sex can be recreational. Satan sure has a way of desensitizing her to her gravely immoral actions and thoughts.

[Wonders For Oyarsa]

The point is that our "tolerant" society isn't so much afraid of living by its convictions, as much as it is in the middle of a clash over which convictions we should live under. Abortionists do have the courage to live by their convictions, and we do our best to stop them. I do appreciate (for simple selfish reasons of not having constant fear of death and torture) that this fighting between us is using democratic means.

[LP]

People who write with such disdain for human life sadden me. My wife and I have suffered through two miscarriages in the last 18 months. We loved our unborn children, named them after the miscarriage, and think about them frequently. We would have done almost anything to have our children come to term and be with us now.

To say that you loved your unborn child but not enough to prevent you from killing him or her is sickening.

[Deacon John M. Bresnahan]

I can see how a woman who has fallen for society's brainwashing that it is not a real human life destroyed in an abortion having her attitude.
But to recognize the child's humanity, call killing it murder, and then talk as if it was the right thing to do and showing no real emotional engagement to what she had done except to say in war men kill people betrays a horrendous coldness of soul or supreme ignorance of what a society would be like if everyone had her attitude toward life. Did a Jewish magazine print her story to justify the magazine's liberal attitudes Or to show the chilling mind-set that history proves was in 1930's Germany and is now infecting the secular west laying in wait for more designated targets to exterminate as the Jews were eventually targeted.

[Bill R]

Deacon John, this is the other side of the coin. We (the readers of a Christian blog) are all shocked by this woman’s utterly cold attitude toward the life of her own child. But consider what little public attention has given to such an article. Has anyone seen anything about this in the mainstream press? Two or three generations ago, such a woman would have been shunned. She could not have continued in a position of such influence in New York City. It is not merely her attitude that is chilling; it is the seeming lack of concern by any who are not serious Christians.

[YaknYeti]

In all the indignation, please don't forget to pray for Rev. Schaper. She is as human and valuable as her child, after all.

[Christopher]

Wonders,

That makes sense, although I wonder if abortionists would really have much courage if what they did was illegal, and say carried a meaningful penalty. Let's not burn them, but say put them in jail for a couple of years. Also, I begin to question the safe "democratic" process that's allows such a holocaust to continue for so long and with no end in sight. One wonders if a bloody civil war would not have been better - sort of like pulling the band aid off quickly. Of course, this assumes two sides willing to fight (Christians are certainly not ready for many reasons) and one side willing to impose it's will after a "win". This is pure speculation of course, as I am just wondering out loud as this is not even on the radar screen as it were. No doubt some FBI agent is noting my info now ;) I guess what I am driving at is that I am not convinced the democratic process is meaningful without a culture behind it that contains something worth preserving. As my uncle said the other day, "Rome is burning". I wonder what will be salvaged from this decadent society when it collapses (which I believe is sooner than we would really like to admit)

[Steve Nicoloso]

The point, Wonders, is that given the choice between repentance and grizzly death, most people will choose (or at least feign) repentance. Only the wisest, strongest, and bravest will choose the grizzly death. It's win-win! We get the best and bravest heretics spouting off only the most glorious and articulate of heresies... and everybody else (the mere heresy hobbyists and dabblers) will simultaneously shut up and wait for the medieval equivalent of Fear Factor.

[Drusilla]

In the midst of our outrage, let's also pray for Schaper's three children. They are being raised in a poisinous atmosphere and their souls are in great danger. It's terrifying and terribly sad.

And let us also pray for the congregation at Judson. They are being led far astray and that too is terrifying.

[Douglas]

Drusilla,

"And let us also pray for the congregation at Judson. They are being led far astray and that too is terrifying."

Matt. 18:6 But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea.

Yankyeti,

"She is as human and valuable as her child, after all."

No she's not.

[Fallen Sparrow]

"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions." -- G.K. Chesterton

Two things that boggle my mind: a) why have sex if you don't want a child, and b) if you are expecting a child that you do not want or cannot take care of, why not consider adoption? To proudly announce that you are a murderer and to defend the decision as the right one is beyond my feeble powers of comprehension.

I join in the call to pray for her, for her children, and for her congregation. She is still human and her hardness of heart is distressing - pray that she is softened and repentant.

I, for one, will not participate in an auto da fe, though I think her view and her actions are diabolical.

[holmegm]

>and b) if you are expecting a child that you do not want
>or cannot take care of, why not consider adoption?

Particularly when in the U.S., people wait *years* to domesticlly adopt. Well, since the 70's, anyway ...

[J.D.]

"although I wonder if abortionists would really have much courage if what they did was illegal, and say carried a meaningful penalty."

A good point, up to a point... but I think the biggest factor involved in the pro vs. anti abortion stance of most people is the question of what-is-fashionable.

If, among the fast-crowd of flappers and bourgeois-bohemians, abortion carried the same social stigma of, say, being a redneck or a virgin, then the cause of the abortuaries would be swiftly abandoned.

People aren't pro-choice, or on-the-fence ("I wouldn't have one but I wouldn't tell somebody else they couldn't have one") because of convictions. They take those positions because it is *uncool* to be anti-abortion.

Period.

[J.D.]

Well, the vast, vast majority of them, anyhow. I did meet one Jesuit-trained atheist (heh, now there's a redundancy) who was an exception.

[Robert Patenaude]

A. Judson would be turning over in his grave.
Women do not fit the qualifications of 1 Timothy ch. 3 or Titus ch. 1 for the office of the bishop/pastor.
This woman has a reprobate mind.

[gsk]

Drusilla, I was also thinking of her three other children. They have to know this -- whether by osmosis or perhaps her frank family discussion of the matter. I remember reading of a psychiatrist treating a child who was hysterical, knowing that his parents aborted a sibling. He knew that if his status of being "wanted" changed (through becoming a burden to his family somehow) he would likewise be killed. The love he received was not absolute, but fickle. A pure, childlike intuition...