Et tu, UMC?

Now, this week, it's the turn of the United Methodist Church.  At a special conference in St. Louis, the worldwide body voted to specifically exclude LGBTQ+ people from marriage and ministry.  Not only did they not move forward; they took a step back.  They are willing to lose congregations, pastors, members to avoid the taint of "impure" love.

I went to a Methodist seminary, a truly Spirit-filled place where all were welcome (including traditionalists, evangelicals, Pentecostals).  I sat with Methodist friends as they struggled with each conference refusing to include them or those they loved.  But somehow, I thought time would keep marching toward inclusion.  Now, I should know that every action generates reaction; witness the United States in 2019.  I know that the arc of history bends toward justice - or, I choose to stand in that belief.  But ouch.

It would be easy to say, "welcome to the Episcopal Church!" Or the UCC, or the ELCA.  But that's not an answer.  These aren't just places we happen to gather; each denomination, each parish is a culture unto itself.  It confers identity and belonging.  At this moment, we are generating a new wave of refugees.  This is nothing to celebrate or capitalize on.

And yet it is incumbent on me, on us, to reach out and welcome those who have lost their homes.  As surely as people are traumatized by physical dislocation, they are traumatized by rejection and expulsion.   Now is a good time to find a Methodist friend and sit with them, to post a welcome sign on your actual or virtual home, to stand with those deemed outside the tent.

"Jesus bent down and wrote with his finder on the ground.  When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.'  And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.  When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus straightened up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, sir.'  And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.'"  (John 8:6b-11)

Good advice for us all.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/im-a-gay-methodist-minister-the-church-just-turned-its-back-on-me/2019/02/27/4980415c-3ab4-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.623137ac5efb