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P. O. Box 306
Cottleville, MO 63338

636-294-2344 office
cindy@lifewatch.org

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December 2009 Newsletter

Lifewatch Appeal

Sen. Nelson, Health Care Reform, and Abortion

The Honorable Ben Nelson
United States Senate
720 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

18 January 2010

Dear Senator Nelson:

New Year's greetings to your staff and to you.

As fellow United Methodists and as leaders of the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality (TUMAS), we write to you. Also known as Lifewatch , this pro-life witness within The United Methodist Church has, for over 22 years, advanced and defended the God-given dignity of each human person. From the beginnings of Lifewatch until the present, our Advisory Board has included prominent bishops and distinguished seminary professors.

We have been very proud of your public association with Democrats for Life of America, your principled pro-life positions, and, until recently, your courageous attempts to remove taxpayer funding of abortion from the proposed reform of health care, against intense pressure from the White House and from other Democratic Party leaders. Also, we applaud your success in attaching to the US Senate's health care bill additional support for pregnancy, adoption, and parenting.

However, we are disappointed by your final negotiations on abortion, in the Senate's health care bill, late last month. The new abortion provisions fall short of offering strong, permanent guarantees that no taxpayer funds will be used to directly or indirectly subsidize medically unnecessary abortions. The abortion provisions now in the Senate's bill include circuitous accounting procedures that can be used to (falsely) claim that taxpayers will not be forced to directly pay for other people's abortions.

The Senate's health care bill is unacceptable -- to us, to many if not most United Methodists, and to the clear majority of Americans -- since it would have the effect of facilitating, and thus increasing, the incidence of abortion in our society. Furthermore, we are very concerned about the Senate bill's failure to include the House bill's conscience protections for health care providers who do not want to be coerced into participation in abortion. Finally, we are disturbed to read reports that your office "shut out" input from pro-life leaders during final negotiations on the final abortion language.

We understand that, in recent weeks, you have been the target of lobbying efforts by some United Methodist clergy and laity urging you to support the health care reform bill even if it means compromising your pro-life principles. While these individuals are certainly free to express their opinions to you, you should know that they do not speak for all United Methodists. Through our extensive experience in United Methodist congregations and organizations, we can assure you that many, if not most, United Methodists in Nebraska and in the United States share our concerns.

We understand the need to address the problem of the deplorably high number of people in our nation without health insurance. However, the first principle of the General Rules of The United Methodist Church, given by John W esley to the early Methodists, is "Do no harm."

With this principle in mind, as negotiations and votes on health care reform continue, we strongly urge you to reconsider your position and to work with pro-life leaders, including Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), to ensure that the health care bill that is passed will: (1) exclude any direct or indirect federal support for elective abortions; (2) exclude any provisions that may otherwise encourage or facilitate abortions; and (3) include strong conscience protections.

We respectfully urge you to apply this principle, "Do no harm," to your pivotal work in the shaping of health care reform. If you do, we are ready, willing, and eager to offer whatever moral, prayerful, or other support we can.

In Christ,

Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth
Lifewatch President, and Pastor
St. Peter's United Methodist Church
111 Hodges Street
Morehead City, NC 28557

252.726.2175
paulstallsworth@nccumc.org

Mr. John Lomperis
Lifewatch Advisory Board
Harvard Divinity School
28 Forest Street
Somerville , MA 02143

202.494.2565
 johnlomperis@yahoo.com
 

“Theology of the Body”
Paul J. Griffiths, Warren Chair of Catholic Theology,
Duke Divinity School

 

View Study Text


View Video Sessions

Three DVD Set
Available for purchase
 

Presentation to the Study Committee

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for the invitation to address you, the Study Committee on the Worldwide Nature of The United Methodist Church. It is a privilege, an honor, and a rare opportunity to be with you and to work with you.

My name is Paul Stallsworth. An elder in the North Carolina Conference, I pastor St. Peter's United Methodist Church in Morehead City on the coast, serve as the president of the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality, and edit the quarterly newsletter Lifewatch, which many of you receive.

The task before us, this afternoon, is great -- especially so soon after lunch. I trust that this presentation will not facilitate any early afternoon naps...

As you know well, the summer of 2008 placed a denominational- reorganizational plan -- in the form of twenty-three (23) constitutional amendments, pertaining to the worldwide nature of The United Methodist Church -- before all the Annual Conferences across the church. Based on the reported votes to date, that plan will apparently not be ratified.

It is important for you, the Study Committee, to step back, consider why the Annual Conferences voted as they apparently voted, gather additional information, and set out on a new course for denominational reorganization. In other words, this committee should not simply rewrite the constitutional amendments that were placed before the Annual Conferences in 2008. To simply edit the presumably rejected amendments, and return them to the 2012 General Conference and perhaps the Annual Conferences, would squander the attention, time, and money of The United Methodist Church. Something more faithful to God and the Gospel, more thoughtful, and more courageous is required of this Study Committee.

In what follows, I will: (I) place my proposal for this Study Committee on the table; (II) explain what, in The United Methodist Church, makes this proposal necessary; and (III) revisit the proposal ....Read more>>

 DYK “Extra” Mr. Obama has promised for months that the health care overhaul would not provide federal money to pay for elective abortions, but White House officials have declined to spell out what he means. …. At least 31 House Democrats have signed various recent letters to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, urging her to allow a vote on a measure to restrict use of the subsidies to pay for abortion, including 25 who joined more than 100 Republicans on a letter delivered Monday.”

Call 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator or Representative by name.

Source: “Abortion Fight Complicates Debate on Health Care,” by David D. Kirkpatrick, Sept. 29, 2009

Silent No More
Awareness Campaign


video below

What Does God Think
About America’s Health Care Debate?

"Silent No More" Video

Silent No More Awareness Campaign Website

 

Where Can I Go For Help And Healing?

(UPDATED - downloadable brochure available)


No Need For Embryonic Stem Cells!



Our Mission:

Out of obedience to Jesus Christ, the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality (TUMAS) will work to create in church and society esteem for human life at its most vulnerable, specifically for the unborn child and for the Woman who contemplates abortion.  Therefore, TUMAS's first goal is to win the hearts and minds of United Methodists, to engage in abortion-prevention through theological, pastoral and social emphases that support human life."


Contact Information

bullet Cindy Evans
Administrator
Lifewatch/TUMAS
P. O. Box 306
Cottleville, MO 63338

phone number:  636-294-2344
email: cindy@lifewatch.org

bullet Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth*
Lifewatch Editor
111 Hodges Street
Morehead City, NC 28557

Phone 252-726-2175
* Paul is also President of the TUMAS Board of Directors.

bullet Advisory Board of the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality (TUMAS)

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(02/02/10) “Conducted by Marist Institute for Public Opinion in late December and early January, [a] new poll finds Americans of all generations are pro-life on abortion. But it is Americans who are under the age of 44 who oppose abortion more than older Americans. The survey, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, finds Baby Boomers (those aged 45-64) are the least pro-life, with 51 percent saying abortion is ‘morally wrong.’"

Source: “Poll Shows Youngest Americans More Pro-Life on Abortion Than Baby Boomers,” by Steven Ertelt, 1/22/10


(01/27/10) “The abortion provisions now in the Senate’s bill include circuitous accounting procedures that can be used to (falsely) claim that taxpayers will not be forced to directly pay for other people’s abortions.”

 Source: January 18, 2010 letter from Rev. Paul Stallsworth and John Lomperis, members of the Lifewatch/TUMAS board, to Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), a pro-life United Methodist who voted for the Senate health care bill in exchange for political favors for his state. (Read the entire letter HERE)


(01/20/10) A December 2009 nationwide survey released by Girl Scouts of the USA found that … “one third of teenagers say they intend to wait until they are married to have sex compared to less than a quarter (24 percent) in 1989.” The same poll found that “girls are less likely than boys to say they would have sex (18 percent vs. 38 percent) or advise an abortion (6 percent vs. 12 percent)….”

Source:“Nationwide Study Finds More Youth Today Say They Would Make Responsible Choices than Predecessors 20 Years Ago, Press release of Harris Interactive poll done for the Girl Scouts of the USA, Dec. 2, 2009


(01/13/10) “When the calendar reads January, the majority of Americans who consider themselves pro-life according to several 2009 polls can count on one thing. That's the annual March for Life that sees hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates heading to the nation's capital. They gather for the event -- which sees a 20-30-person-wide sea of people for block after block parading down the main streets of Washington -- to mark their opposition to abortion.”

Source: “March for Life and White House Protest Part of Pro-Life Events Marking Roe,” by Steven Ertelt , Jan. 11, 2010


(01/06/10) On Friday, January 22 (the day of the 37th Annual “March for Life” in Washington, DC.), the Annual Lifewatch Service of Worship will be held at 9:30 am in the United Methodist Building next door to the US Supreme Court. Bishop Scott Jones, who presides over the Kansas Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church, will deliver the message.

Following the worship service, also in the United Methodist Building, the Annual Lifewatch Board meeting commences at 11:30 am. All are welcome and encouraged to attend the events of the day.


(12/23/2009) “You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas”

Source: Psalm 65:5


(12/16/2009) “The newly fertilized egg contains a staggering amount of genetic information, sufficient to control the individual’s growth and development for an entire lifetime. A single thread of DNA from a human cell contains information equivalent to a library of one thousand volumes, or six hundred thousand printed pages with five hundred words on a page.”

Source: ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments by Randy Alcorn, revised edition c. 2000, ISBN # 1-57673-751-9, page 65.


(12/02/2009) “’We won because [the Democrats] need us,’ says Mr. Stupak [D-MI]. ‘If they are going to summarily dismiss us by taking the pen to that language [abortion funding restrictions in health care bill], there will be hell to pay. I don't say it as a threat, but if they double-cross us, there will be 40 people who won't vote with them the next time they need us—and that could be the final version of this bill.’”

Source: “The Man Who Made Pelosi Cry ‘Uncle,’” Nov. 9, 2009


(11/25/2009) “As Congress remains embroiled in a massive debate over whether to force Americans to pay for abortions through the new government-run health care programs, a new CNN poll finds 61 percent oppose government funding abortions with public dollars. The poll found six in ten Americans favor a ban on using federal funds for abortions, such as the Stupak amendment recently added to the health care bill in the House.”

Source: “CNN Poll: 61% Oppose Tax-Funded Abortions, 63% Oppose All of Most Abortions,” by Steven Ertelt, Nov. 18, 2009


(11/18/2009) “A video describing a first-trimester abortion – produced by Priests for Life and published on YouTube – … has been viewed more than a million times. …Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life plays host as he describes in direct but delicate terms just exactly what happens during an abortion.”

 

Source: “The reality of abortion – YouTube-style”, 11/14/09


[Click for YouTube]


(11/11/2009) On Monday, November 9, Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth, the President and Editor of Lifewatch, made a presentation to the “World Wide Nature of the Church” sub-committee in Lake Junaluska, NC. His presentation is available here...[Click]

(11/03/2009) “We all start as one-celled beings. .... When is it determined that we are going to be human beings? This happens at the moment of conception.”

Source: A Child is Born, published by Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, New York, NY, c.1966; Eighth Printing 1980, p. 50


(10/27/2009) CareNet, a national network of Pregnancy Resource Centers, has introduced a new web site to help encourage young people to become pro life and active in pro life activities. They’re trying to grow and encourage the next generation of pro life activists. Please help spread the word with this web site, InspireLifeNow.org

Source: Christine Mize, Lifewatch member and President of Jackson County (IL) Right-to-Life.


(10/20/2009) “Public opinion on abortion has shifted toward a less liberal attitude in the last year … according to polling done in August by the Pew Research Center. ‘The shift in opinion is broad-based, appearing in most demographic groups in the population,’ Pew said in its analysis of the polling data.”

Source: “Support Abortion? Not So Much, Says Pew,” Oct. 2, 2009

(The poll Overview can be found here)


(10/13/2009) “Abortions raise the risk that a woman’s future babies will be premature or underweight, according to a Canadian medical study. For women who have had more than one abortion, the increased risk of a having a baby with low birth weight is 72 percent, and the risk of a premature birth jumps to 93 percent. In addition, the researchers found that a woman’s number of abortions correlated with the risk of complications during labor.”

Source: “Abortions Raise Risks for Subsequent Babies,” 9/20/09




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