Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth
Lifewatch Editor
111 Hodges Street
Morehead
City, NC 28557
252-726-2175 paulstallsworth@nccumc.org
(01/24/12) “By almost any measure,
issues related to reproductive health and rights at the state
level received unprecedented attention in 2011. …. The 92 new
abortion restrictions enacted in 2011 shattered the previous
record of 34 adopted in 2005.”
Source:
Guttmacher Institute year-end report, January 2, 2012.
[Note: Although the terms used come from the “other side” of the
abortion debate, the results they report are very encouraging to
all pro-life people. Please continue praying and working for
life.]
(01/17/12) “I’ve pointed out that
Canada ’s definition of human being was formulated more than 400
years ago and says that a child is not a human being in Canada
until the moment of complete birth…. Those are the plain words
of Section 223, and no one is allowed fundamental human rights
if they are not a human being. If that isn’t true, prove it.
I’ve concluded that 21st Century modern medical science informs
us that children are certainly human beings before the moment of
complete birth.”
(01/10/12) “Like every other person who reads …, you began your
life’s journey as a small speck about the size of the dot at the
end of this sentence. Your origins came from two microscopic
donations that your parents made to you before your creation to
get you started. Your father’s gift to you was smaller than the
human eye could see. This gift, called a sperm cell, had the
strength, the knowledge and the willingness to launch out into
uncharted waters in order to find fulfillment and new life. ….
Your mother’s gift to you was an entirely different matter. ….
While she was developing as an unborn baby in her mother’s womb
she created a unique collection of egg cells, or ova, within her
tiny body….”
Source:
“What Science and Scripture are saying to us About the Child
Before Birth,” by David Logan, Corner House, Mohill Town ,
County Leitrim , Ireland . c. December, 2011, page 1.
(01/03/12) Plan now to attend the Annual Lifewatch Service of
Worship which will be held at 9:30 am on Monday, January 23,
2012 in the
United Methodist Building in Washington, DC,
located at 100 Maryland Ave. NE, right next door to the US
Supreme Court Building. The sermon will be given by Rev. Dr. James V. Heidinger II,
the President and Publisher Emeritus of “Good News: The Magazine of
United Methodist Renewal,” and
Leader/President/Publisher of Good News for 28
years prior to his 2009 retirement.
(12/22/11) “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.”
Source: Isaiah 9:6 (NIV).
Merry Christmas
from Lifewatch!
(12/15/11) “From the fifth week after conception onward, pain
pathways are running from sensory receptors in the skin to those
in the brain. These nerve endings are at least as dense in the
skin of a newborn as in an adult. Such receptors appear around
the mouth during the fifth week after conception and are present
in the face, palms, and soles of the feet by the ninth week,
spreading to the trunk, arms and legs by the thirteenth weeks
and to all areas of the skin by the eighteenth week.
The development of the neocortex, the largest part of the brain,
begins six weeks after conception and a full complement of nerve
cells is present by the eighteenth week. At this time the pieces
are in place to complete the pain circuitry. The evidence thus
indicates that the child has developed sufficiently to sense
pain late in gestation.”
(12/08/11) “The facts are in now… communities of color have been
targeted and it’s clear now what abortion is and what abortion
does. Genocide by definition is ‘the policy of deliberately
killing a nationality.’ Herman Cain is right, Planned Parenthood
is Planned Genocide and the sooner America wakes up the more
lives will be saved.”
(12/01/11) “A federal judge [heard] oral arguments [November 18,
2011] in a case involving a group of hospital nurses in New
Jersey who were ordered to assist in abortions or be fired. U.S.
District Judge Jose Linares [heard] the lawsuit filed by twelve
nurses employed by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of
New Jersey in Newark .”
Plan
now to attend the Annual Lifewatch Service of
Worship which will be held at 9:30 am on Monday, January
23, 2012 in the
United Methodist Building in Washington, DC,
located at 100 Maryland Ave. NE, right next door to the US
Supreme Court Building. The sermon will be given by Rev. Dr. James V. Heidinger
II, the President and Publisher Emeritus of “Good News: The Magazine of
United Methodist Renewal,” and
Leader/President/Publisher of Good News for 28
years prior to his 2009 retirement.
Petitions and resolutions to be
considered by the 2012 General Conference are currently be accepted. Petitions
submitted digitally or electronically are due September 27, 2011. Written and
mailed petitions are due July 1, 2011 (to allow time for transcription and
translation).
Statement from the United Methodist
Renewal and Reform Coalition
In early February
2011, a group of retired United Methodist bishops issued “A
Statement of Counsel to the Church—2011” in which they
called upon The United Methodist Church to remove statements
in ¶ 304.3 of TheBook of Discipline that
declare “The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with
Christian teaching” and instruct that “self-avowed
practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as
candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in
The United Methodist Church.”
The decision on
our church’s doctrine and polity on these matters is
reserved solely to the delegates to General Conference, and
this group of retired bishops has neither voice nor vote in
such deliberations. We are dismayed that bishops who have
agreed to live within the covenant defined by our Book of
Discipline and who are charged in the Book of
Discipline “to uphold the discipline and order of the
Church” are undercutting that very discipline and order,
encouraging dissension and disunity, and advocating on
behalf of positions which have been repeatedly rejected by
our General Conference after focused prayer, study, and holy
conferencing.
The retired
bishops who have joined in the statement are a minority of
the active and retired bishops who are part of the Council
of Bishops. We call upon the Council of Bishops as a whole
to defend the church’s belief and discipline, and to hold
one another accountable for such defense...
>>> read more
“Theology of the Body”
Paul J. Griffiths,
Warren Chair of
Catholic Theology,
Duke Divinity School
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."
video
below
