Methodists attack Bush on funding cutoff

Washington The social issues agency of the United Methodist Church has strongly criticized the Bush administration’s decision last week to withhold $34 million from the United Nations Population Fund.

The State Department said it acted because the fund’s involvement in China aids a government program of forced abortion. The $34 million will be shifted to programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Jim Winkler, leader of the Methodists’ Board of Church and Society, charged that the action was “a frontal assault on women and the United Nations” and that “the administration is caving in to extremist forces.” He said the cutoff would harm thousands of women, cause more abortions and worsen the HIV-AIDS problem.

President Bush is an adult convert to the United Methodist Church. Conservative groups have long maintained that the United Nations fund tolerates forced abortions and sterilizations in China.

Evangelical Lutheran Church loses members

Chicago The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America announced a drop of 26,042 baptized members to 5,099,877 as of Dec. 31, partly due to “roll cleaning” and the disbanding of 37 congregations.

Since 1991, membership in the fifth-largest U.S. Protestant denomination has declined by 150,706.

The church said that, because expected income from bequests and investments is dropping, national program spending in the current fiscal year that began Feb. 1 will be reduced by $2.4 million.

Agencies also will be asked to propose cuts for next year and consider leaving staff vacancies unfilled.