Can "Pro-Choicers" Be Christian Brethren?

I tuned in to Glenn Beck during his 10:am hour today and heard something that shouldn’t surprise me in today’s day and age, but horrified me nonetheless. He reported on a story out of the U.K. where a hospital is incinerating aborted fetuses along with the rest of their medical refuse. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, he quoted a woman who received an abortion from there:

I am furious and very hurt. Imagine my horror when I discovered that my baby was incinerated in the same furnace as the hospital rubbish.

(Okay, so I don’t need to waste my time stating the obvious hypocrisy of what this woman is saying.)

I don’t want to exhaust my time and energy on something we’ve been debating since last century; it should be obvious what side I’m on in this battle. I expect something as evil as abortion to exist in a world where Satan is constantly on the prowl. But why do so many of our Christian brethren turn a blind eye to it? I just don’t understand when I hear the following phrase by a self-proclaimed Christian: I don’t think abortion is right and I would never have one, but I don’t think we should deny those who want an abortion the right to have one. Why not? Women can be arrested for prostitution or doing drugs. Heck, they can even be arrested for smoking a cigarette in Omaha!

I expect those kinds of comments from the people of this world, not from followers of Christ. The other day I was chatting with my neighbor—an LCMS pastor’s wife—about some emails I had sent out to her and others regarding the stem cell issue we’ll be voting on here in Missouri. We were talking about our friends that have very differing opinions from us (I’m staunchly opposed to the amendment, in case I had to clear that up for anyone). When talking about one of my friends, she asked “is she a Christian”? “Well, yeah…but, I guess so…sure she is…I mean, I think of her as one…but…” and I started wondering why all of a sudden I had to try to defend my friend’s faith for her because her beliefs fall so short of what I would expect a follower of Christ to believe and promote. I came back with a comment like, but our salvation is secured by Christ’s death and resurrection—by God’s grace, through faith in Christ Jesus—not whether we’re pro-life or pro-choice, right?

So I ask you, who else has struggled with these questions:

Can you be pro-choice and still be a Christian?

Should pro-life Christians cease fellowship with pro-choice Christians?

Can we make exceptions for our moral beliefs if it infringes on our rights as Americans?

Now, deep down I know the answers to all of these. I know what scripture says about them (the second I had to look up because I couldn’t remember—1 Cor. 5), so shouldn’t that settle it? It should, but too often I find that I want outside input, too. Horrible, I know. I can imagine that if you’re Reformed you’d say I shouldn’t be friends with a pro-choicer; if you’re Baptist, you’d say what an awesome opportunity to evangelize; if you’re Methodist, you’d tell me to welcome diversity of opinions with open arms, doors, minds, whatever. I’d like responses to my first question of who else has struggled/is struggling with these questions and how they overcame it or hope to overcome it. And from a Christian homeschooling parent’s point of view: how in the world do you explain abortion and pro-choicers in the Church to your kids? The abortion part isn’t that hard—you teach your kids about sin, Satan, and the evil that exists in the world. But how do you explain why some Christians accept it the way they do?

...you should not associate with a person who calls himself a brother but is immoral or greedy or worships idols or is a slanderer or a drunkard or a thief. Don't even sit down to eat with such a person. After all, it is none of my business to judge outsiders. God will judge them. But should you not judge the members of your own fellowship? As the scripture says, "Remove the evil man from your group". 1 Cor. 5:11-13 (TEV)