United Methodist General Conference Takes Steps to Affirm Life

Christian Newswire ^ | 5/3/08 | Christian Newswire

[wagglebee]

Contact: Loralei Coyle, 202-905-6852 cell, lcoyle@TheIRD.org; Radio Interviews: Jeff Walton, 202-413-5639 cell, jwalton@TheIRD.org; both with the Institute on Religion and Democracy

FT. WORTH, Texas, May 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- The United Methodist General Conference, the Church's governing body that meets every 4 years, overwhelmingly adopted several petitions affirming the sanctity of life during its quadrennial meeting in Fort Worth.

Conference delegates voted to:

• "Affirm and encourage the Church to assist the ministry of crisis pregnancy centers and pregnancy resource centers that compassionately help women find feasible alternatives to abortion."

• "Respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother and the unborn child."

• Support for adult "notification and consent" when a minor is seeking an abortion.

• "Reject euthanasia and pressure upon the dying to end their lives."

• Delete language from a previous United Methodist statement that had been used to support abortion as a means of back-up birth control.

• Decrying the international problem of gender-selective abortions, while describing abortion as "violent" and opposing "trivial reasons" for abortion.

Mark Tooley, Executive Director of IRD's UMAction Committee, commented:

"These incremental steps continue a trend from the last several General Conferences towards an increased acknowledgement of the sanctity of all human life."

"The United Methodist Church is slowly moving towards the historic Christian concern for the most vulnerable."

"These latest moves continue this positive trend."

[wagglebee]

"The United Methodist Church is slowly moving towards the historic Christian concern for the most vulnerable.

And it is LONG overdue.

[wagglebee]

Pro-Life Ping

[wagglebee]

Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]

[wagglebee]

Good news!

[markomalley]

Wow.

[Kolokotronis]

This is encouraging!

[Our man in washington]

I’m a Methodist. I like my local church, but I just assumed that the higher-ups were a bunch of narcissistic self-congratulatory leftists. It’s good to read something like this.

[paltz]

UMC must be losing members these days.

[chesley]

Sorta like gas prices, sudden leaps in the wrong direction, and slow, incremental steps back.

[MacombBob]

I can only attribute this to the stopped clock syndrome.

[cpforlife.org]

Pro-Life PING

Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[rodguy911]

Is this the same Methodist Church that sent a plane over,courtesy of their favorite Methodist, Hillary Clinton, to take Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba? If so I still want little or nothing to do with them.

[rodguy911]

I too have been Methodist all my life but when you think about it this is a rather easy issue to glom on to. What religion would be for baby killing.

When they send the plane back to pick Elian up and bring him back to the US I will be impressed. Probably not until than.

[xzins]

This General Conference took us in more Christian directions regarding life and sexuality. In many ways it is hamstrung by its insistence on meeting only once every four years and that for only 10 days. With thousands of petitions to deal with, there is no way that can be done in 10 days no matter the amount assigned to various committees.

Many petitions never saw the light of day. A few were vigorously debated for hours. Too many were just packaged in bundles and voted on in an ill-advised desire to get things done.

The Africans were a true blessing.

[Revelation 911]

Thanks x

[Deut28]

Yes, I left the UMC last fall, but remain dear friends with several of the members. That local church has seen dramatic drop offs in attendance.

I spoke with my Minister about my concerns a couple times before leaving, and received less than encouraging answers. That’s what ultimately led me on a search for a new church.

There are many, many great Methodists out there, and many great Methodist Congregations. But all to often they’re not the onese getting the headlines.

[Deut28]

xzins - months ago you predicted to me that the African delegates would be the saving grace.

Good call, and I’m glad to see you were correct.

[xzins]

Thanks for your kind words, D28.

We will continue to pray for the UMC to head back in the right direction.