Posted on 05/20/2016 8:08:25 AM PDT by The Grammarian
“In contrast to the United Methodist Church, RCRC dismisses the value of unborn human life” -UM Action Director John Lomperis
Portland, OR—United Methodists have voted to require church boards and agencies to withdraw immediately from an organization that advocates for abortion on demand. Delegates from across the 12.1 million-member denomination adopted a proposal concluding affiliation with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) on a vote of 425 to 268 (61 percent to 39 percent) during their quadrennial General Conference meeting in Portland, Oregon.
Two United Methodist agencies, the General Board on Church and Society (GBCS) and United Methodist Women (UMW) are coalition members of RCRC.
The legislation’s rationale states that RCRC “is a one-sided political lobby that opposes all disapproval or limitation of abortion. RCRC’s advocacy often directly contradicts our Social Principles on abortion, but it still uses our Church’s name. Several annual conferences and many United Methodist leaders have urged the Church to end all association with RCRC.”
The General Conference subsequently voted 561-197 (74-26 percent) to delete a previous resolution that had broadly affirmed the work of RCRC.
UM Action Director and Elected General Conference Delegate John Lomperis commented:
“There is nothing moderate or nuanced about RCRC, which has consistently lobbied to defend grisly ‘partial-birth’ abortions, even after our Social Principles included a statement ‘call[ing] for the end of this late-term practice’.
“In contrast to the United Methodist Church, RCRC dismisses the value of unborn human life. RCRC even promotes rituals to bless all the work of elective abortion clinics, describing aborting unborn children as always ‘holy work.’
“This is a necessary and good step towards affirming that the unborn are persons of sacred worth. This also shows the UMC moving away from other liberal, declining, ‘mainline’ denominations to embrace a new faithful, global identity.”
"To flee a church is not to discipline it. Discipline is fostered by patient trust, corrective love and the willingness to live with incremental change insofar as conscience allows. An exit strategy is tempting but self-defeating, since it forgets about the faithful generations who have given sacrificially to build those churches. It would be a dishonor to them to abandon the church to those with aberrant faith." -- Tom Oden, A Change of Heart
All anyone needs to do is look at the Episcopal Church, with its division, lawsuits, members dropping, congregations and whole dioceses leaving, to see where the liberals want to take the Methodists.
The delegates from Africa are ruling the day with the atheists and degenerates who run the UMC!!!
Aborting babies would be a “holy work” only to Satan.
Will the UMC save itself or go the way of other gay friendly (and collapsing) denominations?
The UMC conservatives have brought their strength to bear. Hopefully, they will soon be a pro-life church.
They nearly became a pro-natural relationships church, but the bishops temporarily blocked that with a study commission.
I am stunned, surprised, and grateful to God for His goodness and mercy in keeping the UMC, which was “my” church for the first half of my life, from going the way of all the other Protestant denominations, at least for now.
35 years ago, it was the African bishops who blocked my chance at becoming a UMC missionary to Japan, which was a painful blow to me at the time. I have found it difficult over the years to hear about their influences in the denomination for that reason, but this gives a great boost in my eyes—not that my eyes matter compared to God’s eyes, of course.
Yeah, I’ve been following along on the livestream and twitter, off and on. Had the presiding bishop not ignored the appeal to the body a clergy delegate from Mississippi made, there’s a good chance that commission wouldn’t even exist.
I was also watching the life feed. I think they confused some of the African delegates with the counter-motion to Adam Hamilton’s motion.
Great news to this MO Synod Lutheran brought up Methodist.
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