This does not surprise me... CZ
Black Churches Gather to Promote ‘Reproductive Choice’
Thursday, July 10, 2008
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) – Members and leaders from black churches gathered at Howard University School of Divinity this week to discuss sexuality, including how to make churches inclusive for homosexuals and what they say is the failure of federally funded abstinence-only education programs.
A program of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), a nationwide coalition of religious groups trying to advance abortion rights, the 12th annual National Black Church Summit on Sexuality featured speeches by the majority whip of the U.S. House, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders.
Workshops at the three-day event included “Pastoral Care and Reproductive Health Counseling,” which focused on “engaging women and families confronted with issues related to healthcare and reproductive health choices” – and included an introduction to churches on “how to provide a pregnant woman with all available information about their options – parenthood, adoption and pregnancy termination.”
In the “Speaking Truth to Power” workshop, attendees were taught how to lobby Congress to end funding of abstinence-only programs in favor of funding for “comprehensive sex education.”
The Rev. Carlton W. Veazey, president and CEO of RCRC, told Cybercast News Service that teaching abstinence isn’t enough to help stop the rise of teenage pregnancies in the black community.
“We can teach our young people, ‘Yes, I believe in abstinence only,” but I also believe I have to be realistic enough to tell my young people how to protect themselves and to keep from becoming pregnant,” Veazey said. “Now the critics say you’re encouraging them to have sex, and I say no such thing. I’m trying to save their life, number one, and I’m trying to break this cycle of teen pregnancy, number two. It’s a matter of education.”
Veazey, a Baptist pastor for 47 years, said he was drawn to RCRC because he believes the black church is a catalyst for social change and needs to address issues of human sexuality, including HIV-AIDS, homosexuality, domestic violence and abortion.
“I come from the deep South,” Veazey said. “I’m 72 years old, but I can remember long before Roe v. Wade, when black women and poor women were disproportionately impacted by having back-alley abortions because they could not go into hospitals that white women did.”
When asked by Cybercast News Service, Veazey said he disagrees with statistics cited by black church leaders who oppose abortion, which say that African-Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, but 36 percent of the abortions performed annually.
“They talk about abortion, and I tell them ‘you are the ones who believe in the fetus, you all worship the fetus, and then when the baby really gets here you all abort them,’” Veazey said.
“I say you abort them every time I drive through southeast Washington, where there’s a lack of health care, lack of housing, lack of opportunity. Some of those kids are aborted walking around. And do you know where they go when they are aborted? They go to jail. They go to the criminal justice system. They go to drugs. But these are the same kids that they were so anxious to bring here.
“Now that’s not trying to justify abortion, but it’s trying to say, ‘Let’s put money into education,’” he added. “‘Let’s try to break the cycle of teen pregnancy so we won’t have to have abortions.’”
About 700 people attended the summit, including 200 young people who attended the “Keeping it Real” Teen Leadership Institute. One of the workshops in that program, “Heaven Sent,” focused on missions and goals in life, including the role relationships may or may not have in fulfilling those goals. Participants also learned “skills and techniques for peacefully ending unfulfilling relationships.”
This year’s youth program also included a peer educator workshop where teens from Washington, D.C.’s eighth ward – which has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the District – talked to other teens about sexual issues.
Veazey said he was inspired to join RCRC 12 years ago because he wanted the topic of human sexuality -- long a taboo, he says, in the black church -- to become mainstream.
“I am totally committed to a woman’s right to choose, there’s no question,” Veazey said. “I believe a woman is a moral agent and she should make that decision based on her religious beliefs and conscience without interference from government.”
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