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
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.”
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."
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.
Advisory Board of the Taskforce of United Methodists on
Abortion and Sexuality (TUMAS)
(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.’"
(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)….”
(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.”
(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.’”
(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.”
(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.”
(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.”
(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.”
video
below
