Ryan Report: March 2005

Sacred Work comments

In February 2005, a book written by the Reverend Tom Davis, a minister with the United Church of Christ, was released. The book is titled Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances. Tom Davis is the head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Clergy Council. In April 2005, PPFA honored Davis with a Maggie Award for his book.

Sacred Work tells the story of how Planned Parenthood used clergy alliances to overcome objections to its programs in the early days of the organization. Davis says that, at its heights, clergy who publicly supported Planned Parenthood's efforts numbered 4,000. Davis goes on to state that Planned Parenthood is, once again, under fire and that the number of clergy actively defending the organization has fallen to 1,400. His conclusion is that PP needs to remember its past and again work to increase its clergy support and emphasize its support among the churches and religious communities.

Interesting items:

1. The book admits that Planned Parenthood is a Secular Humanist organization. This allows STOPP to use the Humanist Manifestos even more in our battle. Here are some quotes from the book:
   1. On page x, in the forward by Rev. Carlton Veazey, he specifically states: "Planned Parenthood, a secular humanist organization..."
   2. On page 17, author Tom Davis writes: "The character of [Planned Parenthood's] involvement [in social action] can be seen in the secular humanism expressed in its statement of beliefs..."

2. The book further documents the moral relativism of Planned Parenthood. It directly ties PP in to the ethics statement in Humanist Manifesto II that reads: "Ethics in autonomous and situational needing no ideological or theological sanction." Once again, this admission is useful to STOPP:
   1. On page 110, Davis writes:
      While resistance [against Planned Parenthood] remained strong throughout the forties and fifties, so did clergy support. One of the best examples of such support came in February 1949, when the Reverend James Clark, minister of the Second Presbyterian Church of St. Louis, prepared a radio talk that generated many requests for copies. It was called "The Ethics of Planned Parenthood." He linked Planned Parenthood directly to the situational ethics of Jesus: "Planned Parenthood is a Christian idea because it is helpful to the spiritual happiness and physical well-being of both parents and children. It emphasizes the sacredness of personality as Jesus did. He declared that to judge whether a thing was right or wrong its effects on human beings would reveal its nature. If it lifted them up, it was good; if it degraded them, it was bad." (Underlining added.)
   2. On page 190, is the following statement:
      Clergy supporters of the Federation have a great appreciation for the role of human experience in the forming of a humane theology. While respecting scripture as the original source of any authentic Christian or Jewish theology, they believe it must be supplemented by the truth God reveals in the experience of living a human life... When, from the thirties to the seventies, clergy started listening to Margaret Sanger, to Planned Parenthood, and to women who spoke about their situations, they stopped telling them how to live and instead offered support... These clergy believe that a theology of knowledge, experience, and responsibility is a theology of justice that helps real women in the real world.

3. The book is based on the premise that Planned Parenthood's work is all about achieving "social justice" for women. On page 7 the author states: "In the biblical view, sacred work is love, and in practical social realities, sacred work is justice."

4. The twisted logic by which abortion is about social justice and not killing human beings is given on page 169. After a several paragraph treatise on how churches failed to aggressively fight against illegal abortion, the author writes: Given this historical disconnect, many pro-choice clergy have come to the conclusion that the "abortion issue" is not ultimately about abortion. It is about the role of women. The churches who complain most bitterly about Roe v. Wade are the very denominations that bar women from their ministry and priesthood. It is hard to escape the conclusion that these anti-abortion churches only became truly outraged when women gained the legal right to decide on abortion. Illegal abortion was given mostly verbal condemnation. But when women gained a power they had never had before, then legal abortion was seen as the crime of the century.

   As this understanding of the situation became more common among clergy activists on social justice issues, more of them became supportive of Planned Parenthood. Regardless of the complexities of the abortion issue, some clergy saw that this current political struggle was about justice. One could not disconnect the other rights of women from their reproductive rights. The right to control one's own body made all the other rights possible.

   Ultimately, then, despite all the rhetoric about the "right to life," it remains a question of social justice. What Planned Parenthood clinics faced in the 1980s was different in intensity, but no different in form from the conflicts of the past-it was a struggle against those who would limit the rights of women in the name of natural law, scripture, fetal rights, or God.

5. The degree to which this book documents the refusal of Planned Parenthood to see the sacredness and humanity of the preborn child can be seen in the following quote from page 176:

   The Reverend Roger Buchanan used the most traditional biblical images to critique the right-to-life-movement's refusal to take responsibility for the consequences of its position and - above all - its lack of concern for the moral agency of women. He said:

   The Biblical tradition also acknowledges that we human beings find it difficult to restrain ourselves from making idols that represent the divine. One of the early stories of conflict in this regard is that of the Golden Calf... I suggest that the sacred fetus is the modern equivalent of the Golden Calf. The sacred fetus has become an absolute around which a host of decisions are made. And these decisions become progressively more destructive. If the fetus is sacred, the mother is subservient, a view that is destructive to women. (Underlining added.)

6. Much of the book is about the fight Planned Parenthood had against the Roman Catholic Church. In community after community, he documents the struggle and describes the tactics used by PP to gain the support of non-Catholic clergy and succeed. In many instances, Davis documents that PP victories came because Catholic leadership (e.g. Cardinal Ritter in St. Louis, see pages 112-14) REFUSED TO UPHOLD Catholic teaching. In one telling sentence on page 85, Davis also offers the following observation concerning the Catholic Church's recognition of Natural Family Planning: Margaret Sanger had recognized the profound human need for birth control, and in the end, despite years of bitter opposition, the Catholic Church had had to follow her lead and find a method of birth control it could sanction.

7. Davis documents Planned Parenthood's acceptance of a life of sexual sin as he recounts, on page 102, a 1965 PPFA Clergymen's Advisory Board meeting with the following comment: These clergy saw that unmarried women are no less deserving of access to reproductive services than married people, and this vision helped to diminish the stigma of deeming a woman to be acting improperly and immorally if she chose to be sexually active before marriage.

8. Davis cites an argument, on page 106, in support of Planned Parenthood's work that sounds similar to the argument Satan must have given Eve in the Garden of Eden. He specifically reproduces the following 1960 quote from PP's clergy committee in Denver:

   The responsible choice of parenthood is one of the important areas in which men and women are called upon to make conscientious decisions under God. As a rational being with a capacity for making such decisions, man is able to assess right and wrong, interpret God's will and thereby determine his own actions. To forfeit this ability is to abuse one of God's most precious gifts.

9. Davis documents what he sees as some of the problems internal to Planned Parenthood. Among those cited are:
   1. The prejudices of some of its wealthy supporters.
   2. The preference for philanthropy over social justice.
   3. National office verses local affiliates (page 19):
      Within the organization problems sometimes arise because of the wide variations between the cultures of smaller rural affiliates and those of large metropolitan clinics, with their sophisticated public relations and programming. This leads to some tension, as do the seemingly inevitable conflicts between the interests of the local affiliates and the national Planned Parenthood offices in Manhattan. Such conflicts impair the organization, because energy that could go into development or programs is wasted on battles over turf and rivalries over potential donors.

Planned Parenthood is already beginning to implement the strategy Davis lays out in the book. A strategy of strengthening its bonds with churches and portraying its work as a religious work. Some of the recent events we note are:

• Planned Parenthood hired its first-ever national "chaplain" in 2004.
• In Oregon, Planned Parenthood announced that it has actually opened two new clinics in local churches in early 2005.
• Planned Parenthood sent a team to Europe to learn how to expand sex-education programs among youth. Upon returning, the team prepared a report with an entire section focused on "religious influence." It praised the religious community in Europe for "standing aside" on matters of abortion and contraception, and identified the drastic drop-off in church attendance as one factor that has helped to spread the so-called "safe sex" agenda.
• As noted by Davis in the book, PP has added a prayer breakfast to its annual conferences.
• New York, N.Y. Rev. Peter Laarman, Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC) board member and chair of the PPNYC Clergy Advisory Committee, hosted an event sponsored by PPFA and PPNYC, together with Judson Memorial Church to commemorate the Roe v. Wade decision.
• Philadelphia, Pa. A prayer vigil conducted by the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania (PPSP) Board of Chaplains was one of the many ways that the affiliate marked the 30th anniversary of Roe. The vigil took place late on a chilly afternoon in the PPSP courtyard where members of the clergy blessed the building, honored women and staff, and prayed for the Supreme Court justices and the administration.
• Kalamazoo, Mich. The First Presbyterian Church, the Clergy Advisory Board of Planned Parenthood of South Central Michigan (PPSCM) held an interfaith service of reflection as their way of marking the Roe v. Wade anniversary. Much of the noon service was based on material that Rabbi Cheryl Jacobs, the former vice president for public affairs at Planned Parenthood Hudson/Peconic, developed especially for this anniversary.
• Peoria, Ill. Along with other constituency groups supporting Planned Parenthood Heart of Illinois (PPHOI), the affiliate's Clergy Advisory Board prepared a special statement on abortion for a press conference held on January 22.
• Colorado Springs, Colo. The Colorado Springs People of Faith for Reproductive Choice, which works very closely with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM), invited the community to commemorate Roe at the Voices of Choice Interfaith Service.
• Santa Barbara, Calif. The clergy group of Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties conducted an interfaith service that attracted a large crowd. The service celebrated the pro-choice values of privacy, tolerance, compassion and respect for a woman's right to self-determination. The service provided a sacred setting for personal reflection through music, readings, silence and ritual.
• Fairbanks, Alaska. Rev. Douglas Leggett, pastor of the Midnight Sun United Church in Fairbanks, Alaska, took the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Roe and the opening of a Planned Parenthood of Alaska abortion clinic in Fairbanks to pay tribute to Planned Parenthood at a worship service on Sunday, January 26.

As David Bereit, STOPP's national director, stated in a news conference on April 13:

Frankly, we are not going to allow Planned Parenthood to hijack Christianity. We cannot stand idly by and allow these subtle, but seductive - and secular - messages to creep into the church. We know from experience that when people of faith learn the truth about Planned Parenthood, and see how its philosophies directly contradict scripture and Christian teaching, they will unite together - across denominational, ethnic and socio-economic lines - to remove the organization's influence from their communities. To this end, STOPP will be traveling across the country, speaking to churches and organizations, and providing targeted materials to expose how Planned Parenthood is undermining faith and moral values. Through this ambitious outreach, we are in the process of raising up a new generation of leaders at the community level, and showing them exactly how to build strong local networks to oppose Planned Parenthood.

All STOPP supporters are encouraged to alert their communities and local churches about this renewed threat from Planned Parenthood and to work to stop it.

To schedule a talk in your community by David Bereit or Jim Sedlak, e-mail us or call 540-659-4171.