The easiest way to say it is, vote "No"- on 60, 61, 62, 63 and 101. 

I encourage you to go to the Colorado Council of Churches website, www.COchurches.org, especially for information on 60, 61 and 101, the "Bad Three,"  and to the No on 62 campaign, Protect Families Protect Choices, to learn more about the "personhood" amendment, which is the same concept that was soundly defeated by Colorado voters only two years ago.  

Amendment 63 would put into our state constitution that Colorado would not be part of federal health care reform.  All of these amendments would change our state constitution.

If the Bad Three pass, the state education budget would be cut in half and funding for higher education would be decimated.  73,000 public and private jobs would be lost.  Amendment 60 cuts property taxes and mill levies in half, overturning voter decisions to fund schools.  Amendment 61 would keep the state from seeking bonds or borrowing to finance projects for buildings or infrastructure and cut cities and school districts by 60 percent in what they could finance and require all financing to be paid off in 10 years.  This would make new schools and public buildings almost impossible to build.  Among other reductions, 101 would reduce vehicle registrations to $1 for used cars and $2 for new cars, 1919 rates.

Some of this might sound good, but taxpayers would only save an average of $1,800 in taxes and fees per family a year, which, as a colleague of mine says, would quickly evaporate with childcare expenses alone if schools were forced to a November to March schedule, perhaps with no busing, very real possibilities.

I deeply believe that the government's job is to provide for the common good through public education, higher education, transportation, mental health services and health and human services.  I can't imagine a society without libraries, road maintenance and traffic lights which work.  Yet, already, in Aurora and Colorado Springs, these basic services are being lost or no longer funded.

I also am on the steering committee to defeat Amendment 62 and hope that our state, the first state in the country to allow abortions, will not back down from its position of favoring individual choice and religious freedom.

Amendment 62 would define a fertilized egg as a person (from the beginning of biological development, as the amendment says).  The word "person" is used 20,000 times in the state constitution and laws, so the ramifications of this amendment would be legally staggering, which is why the Colorado State Bar, which rarely weighs in on political matters, has come out against it.

Amendment 62 would outlaw abortion in all instances, including rape, incest and when the mother's life and health is at risk.  It also would jeopardize the use of many forms of birth control and emergency contraception, and make even treating life threatening ectopic pregnancies (those outside the uterus) problematic.

I have been a counselor for many years to women in crisis for many reasons with unexpected pregnancies.  My religion teaches me compassion and my reason tells me that women can be trusted to make the best, most loving decisions for themselves and their families.

I deeply appreciate our church's support for "freedom of the pulpit" and our tradition's historical activism which allow me to share with you my beliefs on these important issues.