High level fanfare has been given to the "Nothing But Nets" campaign in the September 28, 2007 issue of the WPAUMC InterLink, biweekly publication of the W. PA Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. At the recent session of the conference in June the color orange was prominent as youth wore tee shirts of that color with the caption on the back as noted in above photo --
SEND A NET, SAVE A LIFE
Bishop Thomas Bickerton is to be commended for his zealous leadership in this campaign in which it has been reported that the denomination is more than half way toward its $3 million dollar goal of providing netting for families in parts of Africa where as many as 1 million children die from malaria each year. Bishop Bickerton has heavily stressed these mortality rates.
All well and good -- a worthy project in any man's language which has had an enthusiastic reponse by groups of all ages. High profile press coverage has helped immensely. Many lives will be saved in the times ahead because of this endeavor.
BUT the bishop, along with all his colleagues, is totally silent about the fact that about 1 million unborn children are brutally mutilated and murdered in this country each year. Tally at this point in time is over 48 million victims of the United States' tailor made version of "Holocaust!"
United Methodist bishops are quite notorious regarding their silence on the destruction of thousands of unborn children every week of the year. They will issue joint statements on all kind of social and moral matters ranging from the war in Iraq, gambling, the death penalty, concern for children (the born ones, that is), etc.
The bishops clearly expressed their displeasure that a practicing homosexual was denied church membership by a pastor who was attempting to counsel the man to repent of his sins. The homosexual refused to repent. But the way the bishops put it, if a guy is practicing sodomy regularly with his "lover" and wants to become a member of the United Methodist Church no pastor should stand in the way of granting that desire! Whew! It gets pretty deep sometimes, doesn't it?
One bishop told me in written communication that she agrees with the position of the UMC on abortion which is really one that gives a "green light" to abortion on demand. So for her, whatever shifting the denomination does in taking positions on issues at its General Conference gatherings, she will go along every time. The logic of this says that if the UMC delegates voted that we should all jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, then we should do so and not question the action! This is what you call "marching in lockstep, no questions to be asked!"
Fortunately, there are still a few folks around the denomination (pastors and laity) who refuse to buy in to this philosophy. They usually are not popular people and often are branded as being fanatical, narrow-minded, unloving, and even unChristian!
Alas, I digress a bit again -- if you want to see how many unborn children have been murdered since Bishop Bickerton took over as bishop in the W. PA Conference, go to A Quick Look At the United States' Massacre Tally! Scroll down a ways and you will come to mention of Bishop Bickerton. Go further to see what the number of victims has been since other bishops have been elevated to their present positions in the UMC.
Remember, we will be told that we need to do all we can to prevent malaria deaths in Africa, but not a syllable coming from those fellows and girls that make up a special group known as the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church!
How about a tee shirt with this inscription on the back for starters --
WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT?
Don't look for one in any United Methodist Church annual conference session anytime soon -- just maybe when God makes His response, as He surely will, to this abomination of slaughtering the innocents in their mothers' wombs there might be the formation of special "committees" to study the issue and then report back to the next annual conference session -- if there is one!
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, "Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!'" Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying, 'The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.' For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'?" --- Jeremiah 7:1-10
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