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November 01, 2005
What Has Become of the Methodist Church?
A long time ago, in what seems like a different life, I was ordained a Methodist Deacon. I have buried dead, baptized babies and married young (and not so young) lovers. And while my life's pilgrimage has taken me far from those times, my eyes still open when I hear anything about the Methodist Church.
I usually think of the Methodist Church as being on the cutting edge of social issues and I still think that it once was. But recent events are causing me to rethink my position. I read in Boston Globe online,
The highest court in the Methodist Church yesterday defrocked a lesbian minister in Philadelphia, and reinstated a Virginia pastor who had been suspended for denying congregation membership to a gay man.
The court also voided a declaration by Methodists in the Pacific Northwest that there was a ''difference of opinion among faithful Christians regarding sexual orientation and practice." The Judicial Council said it was only a historical statement without force in church law.
Somehow, I thought it was exactly historical statements that were the legal force of the church.
One of my concerns about all organized religion, no matter how progressive, is that it tends to provide a seeming legitimate context for all the crazies that want to propagate every form of hatred and nonsense known to its right. In other words, the core beliefs of moderate and progressive religions provide some measure of intellectual protection to those that are far from moderate. Now it seems that one of the most "progressive" of Churches has joined those that they have previously only protected.
Via AMERICANBlog
Posted by DuaneSmith at November 1, 2005 01:34 PM | Read more on Religion |
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