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NIC VOICE News Update – 01-29-2005 UMC Bishop Whitaker Denounces Abortion – “Unique UMC Moment”

Other news of interest across the UMC included in NIC VOICE  news updates are now being posted in the NIC VOICE forum at Faithful Christian Laity Discussion Forum. 

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NIC VOICE encourages each of you to contact him and express your appreciation for his willingness to speak biblical truth on this very important issue and to encourage him to continue to take action. 

EPISCOPAL AREA:        FLORIDA

Bishop:                                Timothy  W. Whitaker

Conferences Served:    FLORIDA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Mailing  Address             PO Box 1747
Lakeland, FL 33802-1747

Location Address           1122 East McDonald Street
Lakeland, FL 33801-5641

Phone:                                 863 688-4427

Fax:                                       863 687-0568

Email:                                   bishop@flumc.org

 

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PRESS REPORTS and Press Releases

Background: 

Pro-Life Activists March To End Abortion
 By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
January 25, 2005

 

Bush Phones In Support at Anti-Abortion Rally

Fox News

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

 

Abortion more prevalent for birth control
While teen numbers decline, those having procedure multiple times on rise

World New Daily

January 24, 2005

  

Reports & Commentary on Bishop Whitaker’s Sermon at LifeWatch 

Agape Press:  Commentary and News Briefs, January 25, 2005

...The United Methodist bishop for the Florida Annual Conference has publicly denounced abortion as a "moral horror" -- and one Methodist activist calls that a "historic moment" for the denomination. Speaking on Monday (January 24) to a UMC pro-life group in Washington, DC, Bishop Timothy Whitaker said he regretted that some United Methodist agencies are members of the pro-abortion Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). The bishop stated his denomination has fallen in step with the culture's preoccupation with "private rights." But Christianity, he said, believes in both rights and responsibilities. "We cannot endorse a woman's right to abort an unborn child as a morally neutral decision," Whitaker said, "because we understand that the child also has a right to live and the community has a responsibility to care for this child if the mother is unable to rear it." Mark Tooley, director of the UM Action committee of The Institute on Religion and Democracy, likes what he heard. "Bishop Whitaker's public espousal of a pro-life position is a historic moment for the 8.3-million-member United Methodist Church in the U.S., and for all mainline denominations whose leaders have defended restricted abortion rights for 30 years," he says. The United Methodist Board of Church and Society, a founding member of the RCRC, owns the building where Whitaker spoke. The pro-life group Lifewatch hosted Bishop Whitaker's sermon as part of the March for Life events in and around the nation's capital. [Jody Brown]

AUDIO of SERMON:  THE ANNUAL LIFEWATCH SERVICE OF WORSHIP

Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
The Florida Area of
The United Methodist Church

January 24, 2005 - Washington, DC

United Methodist Bishop Denounces Abortion

Contact: Mark Tooley

January 25, 2005 

For possibly the first time since abortion was widely legalized by a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, a United Methodist bishop has publicly denounced abortion as a “moral horror.”  

Speaking to a United Methodist pro-life group in Washington, D.C., Bishop Timothy Whitaker of Florida regretted that United Methodist agencies belong to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which defends abortion rights.   

“Bishop Whitaker’s public espousal of a pro-life position is a historic moment for the 8.3 million member United Methodist Church in the U.S., and for all mainline denominations, whose leaders have defended restricted abortion rights for 30 years,” noted Mark Tooley, who directs IRD’s United Methodist committee. 

Agencies of the United Methodist, Presbyterian (U.S.A.), Episcopal Churches, among others, all belong to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), which has been defending abortion’s legal availability since the Supreme Court struck down state restrictions on abortion.  This week marks the 32nd anniversary of the controversial Roe versus Wade ruling.   

The United Methodist Board of Church and Society, which owns the Capitol Hill United Methodist Building in which Bishop Whitaker spoke, is a founding member of RCRC and lobbies against restrictions on abortion. 

Bishop Whitaker lamented that the United Methodist Church, America’s third largest religious body, has succumbed to American culture’s preoccupation with “private rights.”  Christianity believes in both rights and responsibilities, he said.     

“Therefore, we cannot endorse a woman’s right to abort an unborn child as a morally neutral decision because we understand that the child also has a right to live and the community has a responsibility to care for this child if the mother is unable to rear it,” according to the bishop.    

Quoting Pope John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical “The Gospel of Life,” Bishop Whitaker called upon United Methodists to “apply our theological reflection, our pastoral guidance and our public witness against the violence of abortion in the name of the God of peace.”

Bishop Whitaker surmised that some United Methodists do not oppose abortion because that would align them with the Republican Party.  But he insisted that Christians cannot let ideology or partisan loyalties “constrain our witness to the living God.”  A full text of his speech can be found at www.ird-renew.org and www.lifewatch.org, the pro-life group that hosted the bishop’s sermon. 

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The Institute on Religion and Democracy

1110 Vermont Avenue, NW

Suite 1180

Washington, DC 20005

Phone: 202-969-8430

Fax: 202-969-8429

 

Editor’s Note:  This IRD Press release was also published in The Layman Online, the online magazine of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, similar to renewal groups within the UMC.

United Methodist bishop: Abortion is a 'moral horror' - 1/25/05

 

LIFE DIGEST: Hillary Clinton softens abortion stance; FDA delays pill decision; Dutch doctors widen euthanasia; Unique UMC Moment
Baptist Press

Jan 27, 2005
By Tom Strode 

UNIQUE UMC MOMENT -- United Methodist Bishop Timothy Whitaker of Florida decried abortion as a "moral horror" Jan. 24 in what The Institute on Religion and Democracy described as possibly the first time a UMC bishop has denounced abortion publicly since it was legalized in 1973.

Speaking to a pro-life Methodist group at the United Methodist Building in Washington on the occasion of the annual March for Life, Whitaker said, "Can there be any doubt that there is silence and passivity about abortion in our church?"

He expressed regret Methodist agencies are members of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, an interfaith organization that promotes abortion rights.

"In the United Methodist Church, we ought to apply our theological reflection, our pastoral guidance and our public witness against the violence of abortion in the name of the God of peace," Whitaker said.

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NIC VOICE web site resources: 

Abortion issues in the UMC

..The hope is that the march will raise the awareness of people and it will remind people that women can be trusted with the decisions they need to make regarding their reproductive health,” said Julie Taylor, a Women’s Division staff executive.

 United Methodist Social Principles sanction abortion when an “unacceptable” pregnancy may cause “devastating damage” to the mother. But the church opposes partial-birth abortion, a late-term procedure now banned by legislation President Bush signed into law last November.

That law, and other measures aimed at limiting women’s access to reproductive choice, cause concern, according to Taylor. “Where will we go? Will there be a list of procedures you can’t do and a list of procedures you can?” she asked.  Read More
 

Sunday's pro-abortion "March for Women's Lives" may not generate the huge crowds its organizers and the mainstream media are predicting.  Several pro-life groups are saying that's because support for abortion is on the decline.  Perhaps someone should share that information with several mainline denominations who are aligned with the abortion-rights movement.   What do the American Civil Liberties Union, the Episcopal Church USA, Planned Parenthood of America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Organization for Women, and the United Methodist Board of Church and Society all have in common? Answer: Each is either an organizer or an endorser of Sunday's pro-abortion rights "March for Women's Lives" in Washington, DC.  Read More
   

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