ABORTION PROTESTS IN THE SOUTHLAND : Clerics’ Views Differ Over Militant Action

The militant Operation Rescue anti-abortion movement has divided the ranks of Southern California Christians and stirred moderate opposition from pro-choice clergy.

But the vast majority of religious leaders--already immersed in Holy Week activities--stayed on the sidelines, in part because of disagreement over the protesters’ tactics of civil disobedience and fundamentalist rhetoric.

Devout Roman Catholics on both sides of the emotionally charged abortion protest paraded, prayed and held signs with opposing messages Friday outside a Long Beach family planning clinic targeted by Operation Rescue.

“I’m not pro-abortion, I’m pro-choice,” declared Armida Brashears, 54, of Huntington Beach, a Catholic mother of three and a member of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. Brashears was accompanied by her placard-carrying mother, 77, “a pro-choice Catholic who goes to church religiously every week,” in the words of her daughter.

But also marching back and forth in front of the clinic was Maria Famolaro, 15, of Cypress, who prayed loudly and earnestly while fingering her rosary.

“We are praying for the people so they will understand abortion is killing those who can’t speak for themselves,” she said.

Few Catholic priests apparently took part in the demonstrations, and Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony extended only lukewarm support to Operation Rescue, giving its goals his “blessing” but questioning the effectiveness of its methods.

Norbertine Father Leo John Celano of St. Michael’s Abbey in the Diocese of Orange and a member of the Operation Rescue steering committee said he believed that more Catholic priests did not join him in Long Beach Friday because they are “the least available” just before Easter.

Clergy leadership in Operation Rescue, both nationally and in Southern California, is largely made up of theologically conservative Protestants.

The Rev. Randy Adler, 43, pastor of the nondenominational Stone Mountain Church in Laguna Hills, stressed God’s judgment upon a disobedient nation--a theme heard often in fundamentalist and charismatic church groups.

“The babies are secondary,” Adler, who was arrested during Thursday’s Operation Rescue sit-in in Cypress, said in a brief interview Friday.

“God has always judged nations that have destroyed classes of people. . . . (Abortionists) are brutally murdering the defenseless and innocent. . . . We’ve got their blood on our hands.”

But not all conservative Protestants agree with that interpretation of Scripture.

Grace Community Church in Panorama City, whose senior pastor, John MacArthur, is influential among evangelicals and fundamentalists, explained its opposition to Operation Rescue and civil disobedience in general in an article distributed to its nearly 10,000 churchgoers.

The statement noted that no government authority is requiring abortions to be performed and that the Apostle Paul said that civil law must be obeyed.

While opposing all forms of abortion, MacArthur’s church facetiously chided Operation Rescue for not preventing gays from going into bathhouses, parents from abusing children or otherwise stepping into other situations where “any of God’s laws (are) being broken.”

“The church has never been called to prevent sin by force or intrusion but to proclaim the Gospel to sinners,” the church statement said.

Operation Rescue’s approach provoked opposite responses from two popular Southern California evangelical talk-show hosts.

Rich Buhler of KBRT participated in Friday’s Long Beach demonstration and said he saw nothing wrong with Rescue’s civil disobedience.

“If we really believe it’s a human life in the womb, then we have to do more than print pamphlets and march in front of clinics,” he said.

However, KKLA’s John Stewart said in an interview he remains convinced that day-to-day “sidewalk counseling” by anti-abortion workers outside clinics is much more effective than the dramatic attempts to close down clinics for a day or two.

“God bless the people putting themselves on the line, but this seems almost like a frustrated reaction to the fact that abortion laws have not changed,” Stewart said.

Meanwhile, in a Friday morning news conference at Hollywood United Methodist Church, several pro-choice religious leaders emphasized that religious people within all denominations have differing views on abortion.

“But we disagree in a friendly way . . . rather than this circus attitude that Operation Rescue has brought to Los Angeles,” said the Rev. Ignacio Castuera, pastor of the Hollywood church.

Two Reform Jewish rabbis and Lisa Desposito, the six-months-pregnant state director of Catholics for Free Choice, challenged the tactics of Operation Rescue and defended the “choice” stance on abortion as morally justified.

Judaism has always recognized that when pregnancy threatens the life of the mother, an abortion is permissible, but rabbinical opinion differs on other difficulties surrounding giving birth, said Rabbi Janet Marder, assistant regional director for Reform Jewish congregations in Southern California.

Referring to the protesters, Desposito said: “I don’t see Martin Luther Kings. . . . I see bigots, moral absolutists.”

The Rev. E .V. Hill of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles disagreed. In a telephone interview, the pastor said there is a valid comparison between the Rescue operation and the arrest-drawing civil rights movement led by King.

However, Hill and most other prominent Southern California ministers have neither been involved in Operation Rescue nor issued public statements about it.

But on Good Friday, some clergy who did take a stand appealed to the scriptural model of Jesus for support.

“We would honor (Jesus) most this day by following his example,” said the Rev. Martha Siegel, who chairs the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese Commission on Theology and Human Sexuality.

“In this holy season, we remember Jesus Christ, who did not coerce belief or intimidate people into improper behavior but drew them through his example of self-giving love,” Siegel said at the Hollywood news conference.

And in the crowd Friday, the Rev. Dusty Pruett, 42, pastor of the homosexual-oriented Metropolitan Community Church in Long Beach, declared:

“I think Jesus would be here for women holding up a sign saying, ‘I’m for pro-choice.’ He had a heart for the oppressed.”

The Rev. Joseph Foreman, 34, of the Presbyterian Church in America and national field director of Operation Rescue, also thought that Christ would have been in Long Beach.

“This is Good Friday, when Jesus led the first ‘rescue,’ ” he said, referring to the Christian belief that Jesus saved humanity from sin by his death on the cross.

At least one banner-carrying demonstrator Friday thought the uproar over abortion was beside the point. Premarital sex, insisted Stephen Christian of Los Angeles, is the culprit making abortions necessary.