#311 Methodists Withdraw from Abortion Coalition, Peace Psychology & Abortion - May 20, 2016
Breaking News: The Methodist Church Withdraws from Abortion Coalition The Methodist Church was involved in the early founding, and re-confirmed their commitment as recently as 2008, yet the vote to withdraw now was a solid 425-268. This is therefore a major development. In the U.S, they're the third largest denomination. Here's the submitted text: Withdraw from Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (60837-CB-NonDis-G)
The 2016 General Conference instructs the General Board of Church and Society and the United Methodist Women to withdraw immediately from membership in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC).
Rationale
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.
Just Published: Peace Psychology Perspectives on Abortion
The Feminism & Nonviolence Studies Association, a CL member group, has just published its third book, Peace Psychology Perspectives on Abortion. Especially appealing to readers who want to know what the studies say, the book covers all points of view within peace studies – from “abortion-as-option” to “abortion-as-violence.” What might peace psychology offer to the abortion debate? Is there empirical evidence from psychology to add more light than heat? Can conflict-transformation methods apply? Part 1. The Psychology of Violence against Women: Where Pro-Choice and Pro-Life Conclusions are Almost Indistinguishable (intimate partner violence; coercion or pressure; sexual trafficking and rape; war; and "gendercide" in sex-selection abortions) Part 2. Post-abortion Aftermath (methodology; risk factors; therapy; pro and con on what the aftermath for women is; lost fatherhood; abortion doctors and staff) Part 3. Other Contentious Topics (child abuse; perspectives on specific populations including people with disabilities, racial minorities, people in developing countries, LBGT people, and conscientious objectors; and empirical data on impact of legal regulations) Part 4. The Constructive Program (pregnancy prevention; meeting the needs of pregnant women, new mothers, children and families; transforming the debate over abortion) To request a review copy or give suggestions as to where review copies should go, please send a note to weekly@consistent-life.org, and we'll forward it on. FNSA's other two books are: ProLife Feminism: Yesterday & Today; and Achieving Peace in the Abortion War, which covers the psychological dynamics of the U.S. abortion situation and how they explain why abortion is declining.
The Importance of Letters to the Editor Marilyn Kopp has another fine letter in her local paper, this one directly discussing Consistent Life. Letters to the Editor of local papers is still one of the prime ways to get the word out – making short points, they are among the most read parts of the paper. It used to cost only a postal stamp, but with e-mail now it doesn’t even cost that much! See your local paper’s web page for their information on how to submit, and submit often (generally, most will allow up to one a month from the same author).
Quotation of the Week Ruth Graham, Slate Magazine, May 15, 2016 Can the Christian Left be a Real Political Force? Then there was the issue of abortion, which continues to divide the church’s left wing, while it binds the right together with a righteous fervor. By the 1980s, evangelicals borrowed from Catholicism to promote the idea of a “seamless garment” that linked abortion with the death penalty, nuclear disarmament, assisted suicide, poverty, and other “life” issues. “Life has become cheap at the Pentagon and in abortion clinics, at the headquarters of large corporations and in pornographic movie houses, at missile silos and genetic research laboratories,” the progressive evangelical organization Sojourners lamented to supporters. But the broader progressive movement was becoming as firmly pro-choice as the Christian right was anti-abortion, leaving anti-abortion Christian progressives without a home in either camp.