Washington Post Finds Thriving Anti-Abortion Church and Moribund Mainline

Jeffrey Walton on May 10, 2022

Steps from the U.S. Supreme Court at an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Sunday service, a white, non-binary identifying pastor with the pronouns they/them laments not promoting abortion strongly enough as elderly parishioners uncomfortably shift in sparsely filled pews. Across the Potomac River, a young, ethnic minority mother recalls her Baptist church embraced her amid an unplanned pregnancy as families holding babies and toddlers crowd pews to capacity.

Washington Post reporters Marissa J. Lang and Antonio Olivo couldn’t have found a starker contrast between Washington, D.C.’s mainline Protestant Lutheran Church of the Reformation and Alexandria, Virginia’s Del Ray Baptist Church, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

The paper offers a worthwhile read this week on churches in the aftermath of the leaked Dobbs draft opinion that indicated a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices are prepared to overturn long standing Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey decisions that struck down state level abortion restrictions and expanded a constitutional right to abortion.

Readers of this blog will be unsurprised to learn that mainline Protestant and Evangelical congregations aren’t on the same page on public policy or judicial philosophy. But when the Post interviewed churchgoers about the potential abortion ruling expected in June, they provided a valuable service to readers that challenges some assumed narratives.

The Lutheran ​​congregation’s history “is one of social justice” and the church is known “as a place of welcome” says the Rev. Emily E. Ewing. This contrasts with Post photos of sparsely populated pews (ELCA statistics report the Capitol Hill congregation had an average worship attendance of 140 in 2020 before the pandemic and a 92 percent white membership).

In Alexandria, the Post reporters describe a “packed” Del Ray Baptist Church (the church’s services page prepares visitors with information about an outdoor overflow area) as new mothers cradle their infants and toddlers play in the foyer. An appellate law attorney tells of becoming pregnant with her now six-year-old daughter just as she was about to go to law school. Another woman shares her 10-month-old foster daughter’s story.

In summary: the church that the Post characterizes as “firmly opposed to abortion” has highly educated women, people actively caring for what happens to the children of unplanned pregnancies well after birth, and a congregation that includes and embraces unwed mothers.

There’s also helpful mention of the Assist Pregnancy Center that Del Ray Baptist partners with, “a faith-based nonprofit group in Annandale that counsels women who are potential candidates for abortion.” The church isn’t merely stating an anti-abortion position for its own members, they’re actively channeling resources in support of women in their community.

My IRD colleague Chelsen Vicari interviewed Del Ray Pastor Garrett Kell in 2015 about the successful effort to re-seed the formerly dying Alexandria church (which had between 10-15 congregants in 2012) with families from Capitol Hill Baptist Church. IRD President Mark Tooley interviewed Kell again in 2020 about his ministry among a growing and diverse congregation of mostly young families and why his church is growing in largely non-churchgoing Northern Virginia.

The Post isn’t the only news outlet examining church responses to a potential overturn of the Roe v Wade decision. Religion News Service has a May 4 story leading with a Tennessee Episcopal Church priest planning to drive parishioners to obtain abortions in Illinois. Unmentioned is that her parish of St. Ann’s Nashville lost 45 percent of attendance in the past six years (129 down to 71). I don’t foresee that her dreams of ferrying Episcopalians across state lines in search of abortion reflect an actual demand.

If you suspect that this is another swiftly declining parish tanked by activism, you’re probably correct: the parish website could serve as a checklist of identity politics positions.

“We are a diverse, open and accepting community of faith that seeks and serves Christ in all persons, working for a just and inclusive world,” the parish website reads, apparently oblivious that its membership and attendance records show that their professed inclusion led to including fewer actual persons.

Not to mention that “all persons” should include those born and unborn. The early church’s history is full of stories about Christians taking in infants abandoned to the elements in pagan Rome, and early church documents like the Didache directly command Christians not to engage in abortion.

The story of Del Ray Baptist Church is of a mostly dead church brought back to life through the power of the Holy Spirit working through willing servants. We can celebrate that ministry. Pray that churches that have fallen away will similarly be renewed and proclaim the truth of the Gospel in the communities they will minister among.

  1. Comment by Loren J Golden on May 10, 2022 at 9:28 am

    “The church is known ‘as a place of welcome,’ says the Rev. Emily E. Ewing. … ‘We are a diverse, open and accepting community of faith that seeks and serves Christ in all persons, working for a just and inclusive world,’ the parish website reads.”  And yet, “photos (show) sparsely populated pews, (and) ELCA statistics report the Capitol Hill congregation had an average worship attendance of 140 in 2020 before the pandemic and a 92 percent white membership.”
     
    It seems that the world does not want to be included in a church that purports to represent Christ but preaches a political message thoroughly in tune with the spirit of the age.  And I rather suspect that if one were to calmly, rationally, and winsomely dispute the worldly philosophy underlying the “social justice” message that Ms. Ewing likes to preach, one would not be made to feel welcome.  Churches like Ms. Ewing’s, I have found, are not as “inclusive” as they purport to be.

  2. Comment by Tom on May 10, 2022 at 1:34 pm

    ” apparently oblivious that its membership and attendance records show that their professed inclusion led to including fewer actual persons.”

    You took the words right out of my mouth. Their words say “inclusion,” but they appear in fact to be excluding a whole lot of people!

  3. Comment by April user on May 10, 2022 at 10:08 pm

    Unless I’m mistaken, the Lutheran church’s website indicates an interim pastor. Am I looking at the wrong church?

  4. Comment by Jeffrey Walton on May 11, 2022 at 11:20 am

    April, it’s the correct church, the service leaflet for that Sunday can be accessed here: https://www.reformationdc.org/_files/ugd/40329f_8657fca117ad47a78cdd5548cc5772a4.pdf

    Ewing is either guest preaching or serving as non-stipendiary associate clergy, she’s not the current pastor in charge of Church of the Reformation – her LinkedIn profile lists her as a church consultant and most recently as a hospital chaplain.

  5. Comment by John on May 10, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    The ELCA thinks it has to keep moving the goalposts on what counts as sin to become more progressive in an attempt to stay relevant. My message to all progressive ELCA pastors out there. The progressive movement hates you. They wish you didn’t exist. They don’t want you walking with them at protests as representatives of Christs wearing your collar. They hate God and they hate you. So stop bending to their will. Recognize their sin and preach the true gospel.

  6. Comment by Diane on May 11, 2022 at 12:00 am

    We have a good many former Lutherans in our Open and Afirming UCC congregation. But counting folks that aren’t in pews doesn’t tell the story. My maternal side of the family was very close and still is, though our parents and a couple siblings are deceased. Our parents were faithful church members, raising their children in either large evangelical or mainline congregations. Those children are now adults…some are grandparents, great aunts and/or great uncles. Ninety-five percent of us who descend from our now-deceased parents no longer participate in organized religion, though all of us identify as Christian. Most of us find churches to be rigid and judgmental. We prefer to love and serve all our neighbors, following the way of Jesus.

    I’m sure there are many more citizens just like us. Faith has not disappeared, but organized religion just isn’t a draw. How many are in pews isn’t a reliable predictor of gain or loss, except as numbers apply to church membership.

  7. Comment by Jeffrey Walton on May 11, 2022 at 11:47 am

    Diane, that’s a valid point that the unchurched or “nones” often continue in religious practices, including belief and prayer. But as for membership and attendance, those are the metrics that the ELCA provides that can be viewed objectively. You are welcome to argue that they don’t matter, but the denomination we’re reporting on here — the ELCA — believes that they do matter, otherwise they wouldn’t track this data across decades.

  8. Comment by td on May 11, 2022 at 7:40 pm

    Diane- For christianity, institutional religion does matter, because our religion was revealed by god himself at a specific known time in history. His disciples organized the religion into an institution after his resurrection. Even a brief perusal of Acts reveals that the church run by the apostles was deeply concerned about having an institution because that is the only way to ensure that the faith remains christian. They also stressed the need to get together weekly to partake of the word and the body of christ.

    Yes. I understand that many people are Christian who do not participate in organized christianity. But this is by their own confession, and we have no idea what they believe in. They could be pagans. With elca we know what they officially believe and how many members they have. It is an important metric., and christians that don’t assemble together are not fulfilling one of the most basic instructions we have received.

  9. Comment by David S. on May 12, 2022 at 10:23 pm

    “The Lutheran ​​congregation’s history “is one of social justice” and the church is known “as a place of welcome” says the Rev. Emily E. Ewing.”

    Not necessarily saying this is the case with this specific congregation, but I find the whole welcoming and inclusive line of the mainline denominations rather hilarious, because if you hold to a theologically orthodox/traditional/conservative position and express it, then you are no longer truly welcome as evidence by the, at best, passive aggressive responses.

  10. Comment by David on May 13, 2022 at 5:53 am

    I would love to see this sign outside a church:

    “We are an open and affirming church. We open the Scriptures and affirm their teaching.”

  11. Comment by David Gingrich on May 14, 2022 at 7:51 am

    Diane, your comment and experience are common today. But they are not Christian. Christ clearly wants us to be a church – HIS church – in fellowship with other Christians. The book of John, read from cover to cover, may be helpful in this. We are ALL hypocrites in one way or another. But that is no excuse for not joining humbly in worship of our Creator. God bless you and your family.

  12. Comment by April User on May 14, 2022 at 10:07 am

    Diane, the problem with the notion that I can worship at home, be kind to people around me and that suffices as being a Christian is manifold. I grew up in the Assemblies of God, transferred to the UMC as my husband was clergy in both the AG and the UMC. Just nine years ago he retired from active parish ministry. In our search for a new church, we ended up being a part of the ACNA. He is now a priest and serving a new Anglican church. My understanding of worship now includes opportunity of having Eucharist weekly. Impossible to do while sitting at home. Every Sunday I am invited to examine my relationship with Christ in the hearing of the Word and examine my relationship with others as I commune with my brothers and sisters. That is just one of many reasons that worship is corporate and not just an individual act.

  13. Comment by Stephanie Jenkins on May 14, 2022 at 11:29 am

    As to the Episcopal Church, their leaning toward social justice when it is deemed acceptable by the leaders, over comes any Biblical standards. People with common sense have had enough.

  14. Comment by Rev. Dr. Lee D Cary (ret. UM clergy) on May 15, 2022 at 10:52 am

    Mr. Walton, this is the IRD article I’ve been hoping to see posted. But have not – until just now. Well done, sir.

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