wfn.org | Church holds ambiguous stand on abortion, speakers say

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Jan. 24, 2002   News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71BP{019}

NOTE: A photograph is available.

By Melissa Lauber*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- On the 29th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe
v. Wade decision, a group of United Methodists gathered in the nation's
capital to voice opposition to legalized abortion and commit themselves to
changing the church's position.

About 50 people attended a Jan. 22 worship service in the United Methodist
Building on Capitol Hill sponsored by Lifewatch, an unofficial task force of
United Methodists.

The United Methodist Church, in its official position in the Social
Principles, recognizes and respects the sanctity of unborn human life and
the sacredness of the life of the mother. In limited situations, it supports
the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures. The
denomination opposes late-term or partial-birth abortions.

Lifewatch, and many of those attending the worship service, believe that the
United Methodist stance is ambiguous and inconsistent with the
denomination's position on other issues such as cloning, stem cell research,
physician-assisted suicide and the death penalty.

"We're speaking out of both sides of our mouth," said Michael Gorman of
Nichols-Bethel United Methodist Church in Odenton, Md., who attended the
service with his son. "It's time to reconsider this issue in light of the
bigger picture."

The Rev. Paul Stallsworth, pastor of St. Peter's Broad Creek United
Methodist Church in Morehead City, N.C., and editor of the Lifewatch
newsletter, preached at the worship service. He called on United Methodists
to respect and protect unborn children and their mothers.

"Throughout the ages, the church has maintained a stop sign in front of
abortion," Stallsworth said. "The church maintained that sign, kept it up,
kept it painted, kept it visible, gave reasons for the sign being there."

But in recent years, Stallsworth said, even those who oppose abortion have
been silent. "As millions of unborn children are lost to abortion and their
mothers are damaged in countless ways, most United Methodists remain quiet
about it," he said.

If the church shrugs off its complacency, Stallsworth said he is confident
that the General Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking body, will
continue to revise the official stance on abortion, stated in Paragraph 161J
of the Social Principles. 

"For the past 20 years, every General Conference has revised the church's
position in the pro-life direction," he said. "In 2000, it added the ban on
partial-birth abortion."

Lifewatch also hopes that the Women's Division of the United Methodist Board
of Global Ministries will end its support of the Religious Coalition for
Reproductive Choice, Stallsworth said.

Following the worship service, members of Lifewatch joined an estimated
100,000 people, on both sides of the abortion issue, in a march to the
Supreme Court. 

The pro-life demonstrators gathered for the march at the base of the
Washington Monument, many of them waving crosses and "Stop Abortion Now"
placards. 

Speaking via telephone from West Virginia, President George Bush told the
crowd that his administration opposes partial-birth abortion and public
funding for abortion. Bush is a United Methodist.

"Our society has a responsibility to defend the vulnerable and weak, the
imperfect and even the unwanted," he said. "Our nation should set a great
goal that unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law."

# # #

*Lauber is associate editor of the UMConnection, the newspaper of the United
Methodist Church's Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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