With the strengthening of Democratic congressional majorities,
the election of Barack Obama, and liberal victories on state
ballot initiatives concerning abortion, bioethics, and assisted
suicide, the last two weeks have given little for pro-lifers to
celebrate. Yet pro-lifers have also seen the emergence of more
encouraging trends in unlikely places.
One is the United Methodist Church, our country’s second-largest
Protestant denomination. Like other mainline American Protestant
denominations, United Methodism has for decades been dominated by
a theologically liberal and radical hierarchy that is out-of-step
with the generally much more conservative grassroots membership.
One of the many reflections of this was the official
abortion-friendly positions adopted by such denominations a
generation ago.
At its 1972 General Conference (as the denomination’s quadrennial
policymaking body is called) the United Methodist Church adopted
a lengthy statement of “Social Principles” on various
controversial issues, including a moral defense of abortion and a
call for the practice’s legalization. Ever since, pro-life United
Methodists have been trying to take their church back. In the
last three General Conferences, “death with dignity” rhetoric of
“right-to-die” advocates was officially abandoned in order to
clearly state that the denomination “opposes assisted suicide and
euthanasia” along with “any pressure upon the dying to end their
lives.” At the 1988 General Conference, the Social Principles
statement was amended to oppose abortion “as a means of gender
selection” or as a “means of birth control” — which, the data
shows, applies to most U.S. abortions.
In 1992 and 1996, the denomination passed amendments calling the
church “to provide nurturing ministries” to “those in the midst
of a crisis pregnancy,” including both “those who terminate a
pregnancy” and “those who give birth.” At the 2000 General
Conference, statement was added “oppos[ing] the use of”
partial-birth abortion and “call[ing] for the end of this
practice” in most instances. In 2004, the statement on abortion
was qualified with strong support for adoption. The
denomination’s position was further modified that year to
recognize post-abortion stress and promote counseling for its
victims.
When United Methodists convened this spring, they took quite a
number of pro-life steps. Delegates adopted a supplemental
statement that lengthily denounced the global problem of
gender-selective abortion while describing abortion as “violent”
and something to oppose when chosen for “trivial reasons.”
Opposition to abortion as a means of birth control was
strengthened, and language opposing parental notification
requirements was neutralized while adult “notification and
consent” and family consultation were endorsed for minors’
abortions. The Social Principles now indicate a clear preference
for life with a sentence to “affirm and encourage the Church to
assist the ministry of crisis pregnancy centers … that
compassionately help women find feasible alternatives to
abortion.”
More significantly, this last General Conference removed much of
the pro-abortion language that had remained in place for 36
years. 1972 rhetoric about circumstances that “warrant” abortion,
“unacceptable pregnancy,” and support for abortion being somehow
“[i]n continuity with past Christian teaching” were stricken from
the Social Principles, which now declare that “we are equally
bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the
mother and the unborn child.” Now the abortion problem with the
United Methodist Social Principles has been reduced to a
single sentence, which “supports[s] the legal option of abortion”
during unspecified “tragic conflicts of life with life.”
It is true that the pace of pro-life progress has been
frustratingly slow, and the vagueness of that single sentence has
enabled liberal denominational officials to continue claiming a
mandate for promoting pro-abortion policies in the church’s name.
Yet the encouraging fact remains that for the last 20 years,
every abortion-related change to the denomination’s Social
Principles has been life-affirming. There are now also positive
signs of change in the denominational hierarchy, with at least
three bishops in as many years taking the groundbreaking step of
speaking out against abortion.
The biggest disappointment for the pro-life Methodist cause came
when a margin of just 32 General Conference delegates (out of 800
voting) sustained the denomination’s continued affiliation with
the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), which
stridently opposes any legal restriction or moral disapproval of
abortion. The vote was suspiciously scheduled at a time when more
than 100 of the increasingly international denomination’s
pro-life-leaning African delegates were absent. The vote was also
influenced by a massive and apparently unprecedented effort by
RCRC staff and volunteers before and during the General
Conference to lobby delegates, at several points with blatant
dishonesty about the extent of their uncompromising extremism.
Yet the fact remains that the United Methodist vote on RCRC
affiliation was nevertheless the closest it has ever been.
It is also worth remembering that there is recent precedent for
an abortion-affirming denomination to reverse course. Two other
mainline Protestant denominations, the American Baptist and the
Northern Moravians, have chosen to sever their past ties with
RCRC. America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern
Baptist Convention, adopted a resolution in 1971 that anticipated
the Supreme Court’s reasoning two years later, demanding legal
abortion for reasons as vague as the threat of consequences for
the mother’s emotional health, effectively making any abortion
impossible to prohibit.
In 1974, they adopted a mealy-mouthed resolution calling for “a
middle ground” on abortion without any supporting any concrete
limitation. Among RCRC’s early supporters were several Southern
Baptist seminary professors and Foy Valentine, who remained that
denomination’s chief public spokesman on social issues until
1986. Yet through a struggle of many years, the Southern Baptist
Convention has renounced its support for abortion, adopted a
position in line with historic Christian teaching, and become a
critical institutional bulwark of the pro-life movement.
Many pro-life United Methodists are cautiously optimistic that a
similar change may be underway in their own denomination.
