{"id":38419,"date":"2019-12-10T14:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T14:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/silence-of-ministers-on-issue-of-abortion\/"},"modified":"2019-12-10T14:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:05:27","slug":"silence-of-ministers-on-issue-of-abortion","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/silence-of-ministers-on-issue-of-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Silence of Ministers on the Issue of Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Though the following article appeared some 20 years ago, it holds true today. <em>World Magazine<\/em>, in a piece called &ldquo;Silence of the Shepherds,&rdquo; documented the silence of ministers on the issue of abortion using two methods.<\/p>\n\n<p>First, it asked 20 well-known Christian leaders to provide a full sermon they had preached on the topic of abortion. Only six of the 20 were able to do so. Just three more supplied a sermon excerpt that addressed abortion.<\/p>\n\n<p>Second, it used the results of a study conducted by a Regent University student for her master&rsquo;s thesis. She surveyed 104 pastors from evangelical, charismatic, mainline, and fundamentalist churches in the South Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Seventy-six percent of pastors agreed that life begins at conception. Sixty-nine percent said the church should speak out on abortion. Just 39 percent said they had preached a full sermon on abortion. Evangelical ministers had the highest percentage of sermons preached on abortion (58 percent).<\/p>\n\n<p>The conclusion of Regent student Molly Stone: &ldquo;The average clergyman does not actively encourage his church to be involved in pro-life activity.&rdquo; She observed, &ldquo;Even actions that clergy say are highly acceptable are typically not performed.&rdquo; While 70 percent of these ministers said crisis pregnancy centers (CPC) were their preferred pro-life organization, the same number said they did not support a CPC.<\/p>\n\n<p>According to <em>World<\/em> editor Marvin Olasky, &ldquo;Only a third ever encouraged walking in a march for life or ever showed a pro-life film. Only one-sixth had endorsed pickets or prayer at abortion clinics. Rescues had been encouraged by 7 percent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-source\"> <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,410],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3361,3466,3493,3572,3675,3726,4178,4184,4213,4469,4520,4604,4609,4688,4821,4946,4974,5288],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,391],"class_list":["post-38419","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-abortion","tax_ctp_tags-baby","tax_ctp_tags-bioethics","tax_ctp_tags-choice","tax_ctp_tags-consecration","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-human-dignity","tax_ctp_tags-human-worth","tax_ctp_tags-image-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-ministers","tax_ctp_tags-national-sanctity-of-life-day","tax_ctp_tags-pastor","tax_ctp_tags-pastoral-concerns","tax_ctp_tags-preaching","tax_ctp_tags-responsibility","tax_ctp_tags-sermon","tax_ctp_tags-silence","tax_ctp_tags-womens-issues"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Silence of Ministers on the Issue of Abortion - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/silence-of-ministers-on-issue-of-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Silence of Ministers on the Issue of Abortion - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Though the following article appeared some 20 years ago, it holds true today. World Magazine, in a piece called &ldquo;Silence of the Shepherds,&rdquo; documented the silence of ministers on the issue of abortion using two methods. 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