Mississippi religious leaders are split on a “personhood” initiative on next Tuesday’s ballot.
Rabbi Debra Kassoff expresses her opposition to the proposed "personhood" amendment during a news conference called by religious leaders representing a number of faiths and churches at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. Emissaries from local United Methodist and Episcopal bishops read statements opposing the state ballot initiative that declares life begins when a human egg is fertilized.
Initiative 26 would amend the state constitution to declare life begins at fertilization.
The state’s largest religious group, the Mississippi Baptist Convention, supports the proposal, as does the Tupelo-based American Family Association.
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The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, the Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray III, says he is “gravely concerned about the unintended consequences” of the initiative.
The General Conference of the United Methodist Church has not addressed “personhood” initiatives, and the church’s Mississippi bishop, the Rev. Hope Morgan Ward, says she doesn’t support the ballot measure.
Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson says individual Catholics “may vote as they so choose.”
Rabbi Deborah Kassoff of Greenville’s Hebrew Union Congregation opposes the initiative.
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