Bridgefolk Board member Darrin Snyder Belousek helped lead a “Pro-life, Pro-peace” seminar earlier this month at the 2009 convention of Mennonite Church USA, together with Ann Graber Hershberger of Eastern Mennonite University. The seminar sought to identify “faithful responses to abortion presented in the framework of a consistent life ethic.”
Snyder Belousek focused on what he called “the contradictions/equivocations in the MC USA stance, the inadequacies of the Catholic-Evangelical ethic, and what a gospel-rooted, Christ-centered ethic of life and peace would look like.” Hershberger talked about the social causes of abortion–the social conditions that increase or decrease abortion numbers, how congregations can respond to these conditions as well as to crisis pregnancies.
“We got a good response from the standing-room only audience,” reports Snyder Belousek, “and our questions generated some good discussion.” The event was organized by Vicki Sairs at Rosedale College and Sherry Thackery, who also organized a youth seminar and an information booth.