As noted in my last post, the Commission on a Way Forward (COWF) has completed its work, offering three options for how the United Methodist Church (UMC) may resolve its long-standing division over inclusion of gays and lesbians. Even as the Commission’s report was emerging, conservative United Methodists were already discrediting the process and claiming…
Looking Forward, Looking Back
June is annual conference season, and many conference conversations this year, both formal and informal, address the work of the Commission on a Way Forward (COWF). After wrapping up its work this spring, the Commission submitted to the Council of Bishops three possible plans for addressing the place of gays and lesbians in the United…
A House Divided
The United Methodist Church (UMC) continues to struggle over the place of LGBTQ Christians in our church, and as the Commission on a Way Forward (COWF) resumes its work, the idea of schism lurks around that process. We see how the issue divided other churches, as the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of…
Me Too: A Letter to Anita Hill
Thank you, Anita Hill, for having the courage to speak out about the sexual harassment you had experienced from Clarence Thomas, when he was nominated as a Supreme Court Justice in 1991. Many of us watched aghast at how quickly you became the one on trial by a panel of white male senators who had…
Consuming Violence
Once again dozens of people have been shot by a single gunman, this time in Las Vegas, and we are left wondering why we continue to see this kind of carnage. Those on the political left blame lack of sufficient gun laws to prevent someone from acquiring weapons with the capacity to inflict such devastation….
Gender Roles
The 1956 General Conference (GC) of the Methodist Church approved full clergy rights for women, 76 years after women first petitioned to be ordained. But it was not female GC delegates that swayed the vote, because men far out-numbered them. As Methodist theologian Georgia Harkness explained, the voice and vote of male delegates carried the…
Holding Together
One of Methodism’s strengths has always been its ability to hold within itself diverse beliefs and political views. Whereas many denominations tilt left or right, Methodism includes people across the theological and political spectrum. Overriding beliefs have held us together despite internal differences. Methodist unity is facing its greatest test since the 1840s when the…
The Verdict
Last month’s United Methodist Church’s (UMC) Judicial Council decision that Karen Oliveto’s consecration as bishop was a violation of church law left people on both sides of the issue disappointed, to some respect. To conservatives, the ruling did not go far enough, since it failed to remove Oliveto from office for being legally married to…
Welcome Readers!
This blog will be a forum for ongoing thoughts about religion and social change. While I expect to address a range of interests, the current focus is division within the United Methodist Church (UMC) as it reflects division within Christianity and society itself…