wfn.org | Worship service prepares anti-abortion demonstrators

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Jan. 26, 2001 News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
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WASHINGTON (UMNS) - United Methodists who gathered in worship, Jan 22, in
the chapel of the United Methodist Building could look out the windows to
the Supreme Court Building, where the historic Roe v. Wade decision was
issued 28 years earlier.

"Since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized unrestricted abortion on Jan. 22,
1973, ... there have been more than 38 million abortions in this country,"
reported the Rev. Harold D. Lewis Sr., minister of Lincoln Park United
Methodist Church in Washington. 

He contrasted the 38 million with American casualty figures for various wars
and traced the early development of an unborn child through a fictional
diary.

Using "I'm a Miracle, not a Mistake" as his sermon title, Lewis asserted
that children are divine gifts from God and should not be aborted. In a
12-page handout, Lewis cited biblical references including the commandment
"Thou shall not kill," and a passage from the book of Psalms that says
children are a heritage from God.

Lewis asserted that every baby is created by God with a divine purpose.

This worship service is held annually by the Taskforce of United Methodists
on Abortion and Sexuality, a network of clergy, laity and churches that
opposes abortion. Participants later joined the March for Life demonstrators
in protesting the Roe v. Wade decision on the steps of the court building
across the street.

The Social Principles of the United Methodist Church support the legal
option of abortion but rejects it as a means of birth control and gender
selection. The church also officially opposes the medical procedure known as
"partial-birth abortion."   

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United Methodist News Service
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