I visited Adam Hamilton's blog yesterday.
I really respect Adam and although we do not really know each other I feel like he is someone who I could have a conversation with and not feel condemned. However, it was terribly frustrating to read the comments on his blog. Those anonymous commentators and their quick judgements!
Basically two commentators wanted to know how the church could condone "those sinners" and questioned the UMC's understanding of discipleship.
I resisted the urge to reply only because I knew I was too steamed up to be helpful. So while I helped with making dinner in the kitchen I began to wonder what happened to STRE? The Wesleyan Quadrilateral that has been taught for nearly 40 years in the United Methodist Church?
What has happened to reading Scripture with our Tradition, Reason and Experience? Albert Outler did the church a great service when he wrote about the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral." Yet, many of my conservative friends simply want to read Scripture, seemingly to me, in a vacuum. Scripture has always been read in a particular context. In the western world of 2008 our understanding of homosexuality is based on good scientific and psychological research. I know faithful Christian people who give testimony to their religious Experience as GLBT people. Why is it harmful to read scripture the same way Methodists have been reading it for nearly 300 years?
How long, how long must we sing this song?
About Me
- Rev. Bruce Smith
- I am a proud graduate of Washington State University. Following graduation from WSU I attended Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. I am the Pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Yakima, WA. I have served churches in Texas, England and Washington State.
1 comment:
Pastor Bruce:
Thank you for all your thoughtful posts about General Conference. I was there as an observer because I happened to be working in Texas during the month of April. As a gay member of a small UMC congregation in the south, I often question whether my heart can bear any more votes or sanctions against GLBT Christians, especially as I learn more about the teachings of John Wesley.
I knew nothing about the Reconciling Ministries Network (or the need for such a group)when I became a Methodist a couple of years ago. I had gone unchurched for over 30 years because I was raised Baptist and of course in that church there was no place for me to be once I came out in my early 20s. I was overjoyed to see the signs in front and back of the UMC church I attended for several months and then joined. In the front it said "Everyone is welcome." In the back it said "Open hearts - open doors - open minds."
Well, I have since been told by my Sunday School teacher that those are just advertising slogans to make the UMC appealing to the younger generation. Others in the congregation have verified the essential reality that the UMC in the south certainly doesn't ever intend to welcome homosexuals. After all, they had to be forced to accept black people in their congregations and women in their pulpits. But gays will never be accepted, for the Bible verifies, doesn't it, that God hates us and intends to kill us all, or have us kill ourselves, with the help of our churches, which keep telling us, don't they, that our very lives are incompatible with Christianity?
My first experience with a Reconciling Congregation was in the spring of 2007, when I happened to attend a service in Longview after I had flown into the Northwest to work for a few weeks in Oregon and Washington State. It was as if a light bulb had gone off. I caught the first light of hope that what I now know to be the Southern Conferences and Central Conference do not speak for the entire body of the United Methodist Church.
I thank God for the Western Conferences, for the Minnesota Conference, and for the other Conferences who send petitions and delegates to stand up and try to save your gay sisters and brothers in Christ from the despair that comes every four years. I now know from listening to many who have shown lifelong devotion to the United Methodist Church, only to be told again and again that their gay children or friends or they themselves cannot be ordained without lying about themselves and in some cases cannot even become members of a local congregation, if that pastor sees fit to deny them.
For obvious reasons, I have to write this anonymously. I have no doubt that my pastor would be quickly under duress from my church's Sunday School as well as its Deacons if it became known that he had granted me membership soley on my profession of faith, no questions asked.
I just had to write and thank you, after discovering your Blog. In case you don't know it already, your kindness and your service in God's love is a beacon of hope to me, on the other end of the country. I can't tell you how desperately I needed it when God led me to remember that sweet little church in Washington State with the PFLAG Rainbow in the front. I hope you will find a way to share with your congregation that their ministry goes a long way. I hope to visit again some day.
Love and blessings to you, your family, and your flock in the meantime. Please pray for me in this lonely journey and for those few precious souls in my church, one or two every week, who seek me out and give me a hug and tell me that as far as they're concerned, I'm one of them. I'm welcome. It is a constant source of comfort to know that there are more and more congregations like Longview, where welcoming is the standard, not the exception. Longview will always be in my heart and prayers as the first RMN congregation I experienced. I know from talking to people that day that the community has a very personal story of its own journey to that ministry, and it inspires me to keep going as a United Methodist.
Thank you so much, Rev. Bruce, for your lovely writing, your courage in Fort Worth, and for the words that have given me such a lift: CHANGE IS COMING!
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