General Conference opens with hope
Personal ministry makes disciples
UMC formally admits Ivory Coast
Madam President, Mama President
Church retains stance on human sexuality
Pain and protest: A Good News response
Young people: a church to call home
Doubts arise following cellphone gifts
Sometimes a cellphone is just a cellphone
Deeds, not words, make disciples
Former abortion clinic owner shares story
U.S. Christians don’t feel persecution pain
Moved by the “water and the Spirit”
Church key to fighting AIDS crisis
Episcopal address focuses on hope
General Conference tackles global issues
Points of order, points of grace
CONFERENCE COMMENTARY
United Methodist teambuilding: Acevedo
Looking to the future with hope: Hamilton
Priorities transcend differences: McCurry
The dilemma of 3 Simple Rules: Reisman
COLUMNS
Editorial Reflections on the 2008 General Conference
RENEW Women’s Network Aftermath
Culture in View To Be a Friend of Caspian
Next Generation Responding to Speakaphobia
The Great Commission Brokenness
From the Hear Prison Praise
“I sold abortions,” Carol Everett confessed to a group of United Methodists attending a luncheon sponsored by Lifewatch for General Conference delegates and visitors. Everett, a former abortion clinic owner in the Dallas area, gave a perspective from inside the abortion industry, which she served for more than six years.
“When we opened, we did 45 abortions the first month. The last month (we were open), we did 545 abortions,” said Everett, who was paid $25 per abortion. Everett left the industry and founded the Heidi Group in 1995, a group of pregnancy centers in inner-city Dallas, where she serves women in impoverished communities with high rates of unplanned pregnancies.
Everett aborted her third child in 1973, hoping to save her marriage. As a part of her healing process, she named the child Heidi. The nonprofit organization honors Everett’s unborn child. The Heidi Group partners with the Salvation Army to provide bilingual parenting classes, Bible studies, counseling and prenatal medical care for the uninsured mother-to-be. Everett wants to bring hope and healing to women in the situation she faced so many years ago.
“We are an injured nation, for many of us are unwilling to admit or deal with our pain,” Everett said. She recognizes the emotional complexity of the abortion issue and advised luncheon attendees to talk less and listen more. “I have never changed a mind by debate,” she said.
The first of its kind, the Lifewatch luncheon intended to give people some information about the topic of abortions and the abortion industry, according to Lifewatch administrator Cindy Evans.
“It’s a difficult subject but it’s a lot more complex than we make it. It’s more complex than a sound bite or bumper-sticker saying,” Evans said. Lifewatch, also known as the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality, advocates on behalf of abortion opponents.
Ciona D. Rouse is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee.
Initiatives for the unborn
The United Methodist Book of Discipline 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 voted overwhelmingly to oppose partial-birth abortion by a vote of 622-275.
This year, an attempt to end our 35-year membership with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice lost in a very close vote of 416-384. This affirmation continued the membership of the denomination’s Board of Church and Society and the Women’s Division of the Board of Global Ministries in the organization.
Nevertheless, there were important developments to United Methodism’s position on abortion in Para.161J. Delegates voted to:
• Add the statement that “we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being … of the unborn child.”
• Officially support parental notification and consent for underage girls receiving abortions.
• State that abortion providers “should be required to offer women the option of anesthesia” (for the unborn child).
• “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.”
• Amend Resolution 25 on Responsible Parenthood by deleting the provision that “contraceptive or human failure” might be sufficient cause to consider abortion.
• Added a sentence encouraging the church to support parents who are experiencing hardship in pregnancy.
In related news, a resolution on stem-cell research was passed, which will provide resources on the Board of Church and Society’s website.
• Sadly, resolutions calling for increased ministry to prostitutes and opposing the legalization of prostitution were rejected. However, Resolution 285 on combating sex trafficking was readopted.
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