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News, Views, and Uproars

Women’s Division supports abortion march

At the Fall 2003 Board of Directors meeting of the UM Women’s Division, the group voted to send $5,000 in support of an April 25 march in Washington, D.C. to support abortion-on-demand. The money from local UMW units was sent in order to be a co-sponsor of the “March for Women’s Lives” with abortion enthusiasts such as The Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women, National Abortion Federation, and Planned Parenthood.

Interestingly enough, an uncharacteristic debate ensued. The board of the Women’s Division usually rubber stamps proposals made by the staff, but on this particular issue there was vocal resistance. When the proposal came to the floor for a vote in a plenary session, one director rose to the microphone and shared that she had a problem with supporting this recommendation and she indicated that many women she represented would as well. She went on to share that she had been an “unacceptable” pregnancy who would have been aborted if the option had been open to her mother. She felt that the women of the church should work for other alternatives. Another director also voiced concern about this recommendation. While it is unusual for directors to publicly question recommendations, the women of the church can appreciate this public stand by these two directors.

Following these statements, a spokesperson that works with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC)—an abortion-rights lobby in Washington, D.C.—said that they prefer to use the term “unintended” rather than “unacceptable pregnancy.” She went on to say that RCRC presents all options impartially to women who face the problem of pregnancy. This laughable assertion is most certainly contradicted in the RCRC booklet Words of Choice which is a primer on countering pro-life arguments. Bias against adoption and Crisis Pregnancy Counseling Centers is very clear. Language choice, which includes calling an unborn child a “fetus” and claiming that life begins at birth, shows a bias favoring abortion.

Our denomination reflects our nation’s schizophrenia regarding this heart-rending issue—it both supports and rejects abortion. Although the United Methodist Church is America’s largest religious body supporting legalized abortion, it also recognizes “the sanctity of unborn human life” and states: “We cannot affirm abortion as an acceptable means of birth control, and we unconditionally reject it as a means of gender selection.” At the 2000 General Conference, United Methodism overwhelmingly voted to oppose the late-term procedure known as dilation and extraction (partial-birth abortion).

United Methodism opposes birth control abortions, the March for Women’s Lives does not. United Methodism opposes gender selection abortions, the March for Women’s Lives does not. United Methodism opposes partial birth abortions, the March for Women’s Lives does not.

Despite United Methodism’s opposition to the vast majority of abortions being performed in the United States, the Women’s Division has chosen to drag our denomination into a narrow, rancorous, and divisive political agenda. It would be fair to say that local UMW units are not raising money to send to New York in order to support this kind of activity.

—Renew and Good News editorial teams

 

Time to plan prayer vigils

Now is the time to get a one-day prayer vigil for General Conference 2004 in Pittsburgh on your church calendar. The United Methodist General Conference Prayer Ministry team requests every conference to schedule a conference-wide prayer vigil. This involves asking churches to choose a day for their local vigil prior to or during the quadrennial meetings of the denomination.

Every aspect of GC 2004 needs covered with prayer. Gary Bowen, Deputy General Secretary of General Conference, says, “The only way General Conference works is through prayer. Pray arrangements turn out in such a way that they allow delegates to do the best job they possibly can as they do that which God calls them to do.”

Visit the gcprayerministry.org website for details on prayer vigils and other aspects of this prayer ministry. Local churches are asked to chose a day for their prayer vigil soon, to allow ample time to organize and plan the vigil, to gather materials and to get word out.

A prayer vigil consists of inviting people to take an hour to pray for needs of General Conference and praising God for Jesus as Lord. Needs include: God’s presence to guide General Conference; discernment, unity and holy conferencing for delegates, bishops and all attending; enough volunteers to care for delegates’ needs; blessings on the Convention Center, hotels and other places of accommodations; and traveling mercies for all. 

Following a biblical pattern, the host Western Pennsylvania Conference plans its own prayer vigil to run 40 days prior to General Conference, beginning March 18, and also running through General Conference, April 27- May 7. 

To volunteer to assist with the Prayer Ministry plan for General Conference, visit the website or call Harmony Zelienople United Methodist Church at 724-452-7670.

By Jan Woodard, staff writer for the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference and communications chairperson for GC’04 Prayer Ministry.

 

Judas

Capitalizing on the swirl of attention devoted to The Passion of the Christ, ABC will be airing a provocative two-hour, made-for-TV movie called Judas on March 8. The network wisely chose one of the more interesting dramatic New Testament storylines, exploring how Judas came to a place in his life where betraying Jesus seemed to make sense. The movie attempts to show how the political zealotry of Judas clashed with the “turn the other cheek” philosophy of Jesus.

In the opening scene, we find an eight-year-old Judas witnessing the crucifixion of his father, an event that will obviously leave an indelible mark on the rest of his life. He has grown to hate the way that the religious elite collaborate with the political leaders to suppress the Jews and looks for a political messiah to drive out the “Roman bloodsuckers.”

He first encounters Jesus confronting the moneychangers in the temple and quickly is drawn to believe that Jesus is the man who will lead the Jews. As a disciple, however, it does not take long for Judas to be troubled by Jesus’ declaration that his kingdom is “not of this world.” Though the apostles are beginning to distrust Judas, Jesus continues to love him and even gives him a position of authority as the keeper of the purse.

Judas is certainly not The Passion of the Christ, but it is an interesting attempt to tap into the Jesus buzz coming out of Hollywood. There are plenty of aspects of the production that will cause some Christians to raise an eyebrow or two. The Jesus character, for example, comes across more as a hippy-trippy 1970s peacenik as he talks about his regret for disrupting the moneychangers in the temple. Nevertheless, while Passion focuses solely on the final 12 hours of Christ’s life, Judas attempts to fill in the gaps about why Jesus was considered such a divisive, controversial, and polemical personality.

By Steve Beard, editor of Good News.

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