In Light of the Gospel

Well, my previous post linked to a lecture by an Episcopal priest named Katherine Hancock Ragsdale who has a blog of her sermons here. She posted her lecture “Our Work is Not Done” on August 13, 2008. The speech was given in Birmingham, AL, on July 21, 2007. That was the speech where she called abortion a blessing. This is how she introduced it:

The Democrats have removed “safe, legal, and rare” language about abortion from the platform. About time! I was reminded of a speech from last year that never made it onto this site.

Better late than never, perhaps …

Or maybe not. Now she has deleted the post. I guess part of it is because of the attention she has received this week. On Monday, March 30, 2009, the Midwest Conservative Journal explained that the Episcopal Divinity School appointed Ragsdale as the school’s sixth president and dean:

EDS is pleased to announce the appointment of Katherine Hancock Ragsdale as the school’s sixth president and dean. In making this announcement, EDS trustee chair Brett Donham said, “The Search Committee presented to the Board of Trustees The Reverend Katherine Ragsdale as its unanimous recommendation for president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School. Katherine’s gifts, skills, and experience are an excellent match with the criteria established by the Search Committee, both in terms of the current challenges and opportunities at EDS and the personal attributes we were looking for in a new leader.” Ragsdale will join EDS full time beginning July 1, 2009.

After posting this, several bloggers picked up the story: Amy Welborn, Rod Dreher, the Corner, and the Point (I am sure others did, but I didn’t see it). Sometime yesterday on her blog I read her speech on abortion being a blessing, but by today, she has deleted it.

Now here is the thing about the Internet and feed readers. Even if you delete something, Google keeps a record of it. I guess it is similar to the very biblical idea that you cannot hide from your sins. I have her post, but you can read the whole thing too.

Subscribe to her blog via Google Reader. Once you do that, click on the “all items” button. You will be able to go back and find her post, even though she deleted it. I copied it to a Word doc.

If she is so convicted about her belief that abortion is a blessing, why did she delete her post?

UPDATE: Now it looks like she has closed the comments for all her posts.