Blessing Abortion Clinics? “You Can’t Call Upon God to Destroy Human Life”

1 Kings 18 tells the story of the Prophet Elijah and the false prophets of Baal and Asherah. Elijah challenged the idolaters to a spiritual contest: they would each attempt to offer a sacrifice on Mount Carmel, to see whose offerings might be accepted with a supernatural manifestation. Elijah won the challenge, as the true God sent down fire from heaven on his sacrifice; the blasphemous invocations of the false prophets brought only empty silence. (Image: Albert Joseph Moore, “Elijah's Sacrifice”, 1863)
1 Kings 18 tells the story of the Prophet Elijah and the false prophets of Baal and Asherah. Elijah challenged the idolaters to a spiritual contest: they would each attempt to offer a sacrifice on Mount Carmel, to see whose offerings might be accepted with a supernatural manifestation. Elijah won the challenge, as the true God sent down fire from heaven on his sacrifice; the blasphemous invocations of the false prophets brought only empty silence. (Image: Albert Joseph Moore, “Elijah's Sacrifice”, 1863) (photo: Public Domain)

Radical feminists and female pastors may be able to assert their will here on earth, but no amount of ranting is going to get God to bless mortal sin.  Last October, the women who called down God's blessing for abortion in front of the Cleveland, Ohio abortion facility Preterm, did more than just waste their time, they made a mockery out of prayer.  United Methodist Church pastor, Reverend Laura Young and her entourage of  pastors and radicals gave a blessing to the Preterm facility. It was the very place that was involved in the abortion-related death of Lakisha Wilson.

Young accused pro-life advocates of judgment and hate. The self-proclaimed “progressive religious leader,” said she hopes her “blessing” will protect Preterm from “preachy protesters, as well as encourage the strength and bravery of those providing and relying on its services.” I personally hope her unprofitable blessing will boomerang back and knock some sense into her before she follows through on the threat to do the same at other abortion facilities.

Young claims to be religious, just not that kind of religious—the kind that respects all human life.  She heads up the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, where promoting “reproductive justice” will one day come before God’s justice, since killing babies was already covered in the Ten Commandments. One of her big concerns is that women are sitting in pews feeling shame and fearing hell.  Seriously, those women should become Catholic where we want no shame in our pews. Nor do we want anyone traipsing off to hell. No, we want them to go to confession, repent, and be free to start a new life in Christ. God too wants reconciliation with his beloved children, which cannot be gained by rewriting his commands or blessing abortion facilities.

Where Do Those Blessings Go?

I asked Fr. Vincent Lampert, the designated exorcist for the archdiocese of Indianapolis—who knows about blessings, and right and wrong—what happens to those blessings placed upon abortion facilities?

“I don’t think anything comes of them because they are contrary to God,” Fr. Lampert said. “You are asking him to go against everything he stands for; you can’t call upon God to destroy human life.”

Fr. Lampert wondered whom those people thought they were calling upon when they imagined they were putting a blessing on a place that advocates killing unborn babies.  “God is Prolife,” he said. The notion that we have the power to manipulate God is ridiculous. When we pray, God changes us; we don’t change him.”

Fr. Lampert said those people are confused about God. “I think a lot of times people say and do things in the name of God, but just because we say something is of God, doesn’t mean it is,” he said. “Remember, Cain [in the Old Testament] killed in name of God.”

When I asked Fr. Mitch Pacwa S.J., Bible scholar, President/Founder of Ignatius Productions and TV/radio host of EWTN Live, what he thought about the blasphemous blessings, he recalled a similar event.  On April 15, 2005, the U.S. Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop spoke at Planned Parenthood's fifth annual "Prayer Breakfast" to promote abortion and sex education among "people of faith." She had claimed that “if women were in charge, abortion would be a sacrament, an occasion of deep and serious and sacred meaning."

Fr. Pacwa said that this kind of contorted thinking is addressed in the Gospels. “Consider the extremely important words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 8:44,” he said. “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

According to him, people should ask: Who is the murderer from the beginning and the father of lies? “If these pastors bless a site for the ongoing murder of innocents and pray for the continued murder of these innocents, whom are they serving?” he said. “If they hold an imitation of prayer in order to promote evil, then they belong to the father of lies. Their blessings and prayers are as much dedicated to the lying murderer "from the beginning" as were the Canaanites praying to Moloch or the Carthaginians praying to Baal Hammon before they sacrificed their own children in fire.”

Any "blessing" designed to protect the killing of innocents, Fr. Pacwa explained, comes from the evil one. “One spiritual effect may be likened to spells and curses performed by practitioners of witchcraft and Satanism,” he said. “Recall the scene at the Texas legislature, when pro-abortion protesters yelled ‘Hail Satan’ as pro-lifers sang Amazing Grace. Which protesters needed protection from whom?”

As Fr. Lampert said, real prayer changes us. I pray for those confused women, that their misguided attempts at prayer spark a real communion with God. May they come to know the one they think they are calling on, conform themselves to his will and grow in the knowledge of his truth.