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writing it down : how two sides see homosexuality & church

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update: what ended up happening is that the minority report got voted as the majority for the delegate floor. then, while rules were suspended, there was no debate and the minority report (which just became majority) went to vote and got a very slim approval, keeping, and somewhat recessing back our not-so-inclusive language. steve rankin has a nice perspective and history.

update 2: noticed that blake huggins has put together as accurate as he could the new stance on human sexuality.

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currently our church is in debate over our next four years of church doctrine dealing homosexuality & the church. this is the particular petition. in there it is just remarkable to see the differences in legislative majority and minority.

the majority from legislative committee.
Legislativereportgc2008

then there is the minority report.. see the small differences? &:~)
Minorityreportgc2008

this will get beat up as it is currently on the floor. so it will be interesting to see how all this turns out. i pray for some idea of recognizing all people as faithful witnesses. for me, the debate of homosexuality is not so clear cut. i’m okay with claiming confusion. it’s a okay place to be.

Liberia President Sirleaf addresses united methodists : general conference video

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yesterday the president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is the first african woman president, who just happens to be a united methodist came all the way from africa to address the church body. what a powerful moment. i pieced together some of the snippet videos that were made available from the address. she’s amazing!

   

in other thoughts, bill brought this up as well. we know that president Bush is also a united methodist. wonder why he can’t come to his home state to talk to his church body? not that we call him a leader of the church. but it would be nice if he actually talked with his faith expression. come around to today, from what i was told, the pres sent a letter.. not the same value, but i suppose it is something.

what bugs me about this? : general conference blog reflection & challenge

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Youthblog2
so i’ve been doing a lot of general conference blog reading. mostly cause i have to keep up with the methoblog while jay is out of town. one blog added to the mix was/is the ird’s blog for conference. they’ve got some folks who are teaming up to post, so ideas and topics cover a wide range. this is the most recent posting and it doesn’t ring right with me.

On the Sunday before
General Conference, my pastor mentioned the Conference in the morning
announcements. He added his hope that the “special interests” that have
besieged past General Conferences would be set aside along with
divisive issues like abortion, human sexuality, the environment, and
immigration. Indeed the Rev. Tom Berlin, the lead clergy delegate for Virginia,
mentioned the same hope in a commentary for UM News Service. “The
curtain may be rising on a new act in our story as a Christian
movement—unless forces of the past conspire to jam it shut.”

Sadly,
the hope expressed by my pastor and Rev. Berlin have not been exhibited
at this General Conference. There is little agreement on social issues
like human sexuality, abortion or the war in Iraq. Each
day there are anti-war protests, pro-homosexuality demonstrations,
immigration reform rallies, one anti-Bush Library protester, and over a
dozen daily leaflets available from various caucus groups. 

There
is little theological agreement either. On a quick walk through the
official UMC bookstore, Cokesbury, one can find monographs by radical
Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, Jesus Seminar author Marcus Borg,
and “dissenting” United Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague. One can also
find a few evangelical authors like orthodox Oxford don Alistair McGrath, Jesus Seminar critic and New Testament scholar
N.T. Wright, and Mere Christianity’s C.S. Lewis. And there are those
from the so-called “extreme center” like UM Bishop Scott Jones (who, by
the way, has a curious habit of avoiding taking all leaflets offered to
GC delegates and visitors each morning—as a former professor, perhaps
he’s already read enough).

my thought.. "hi pot, meet kettle" is it odd that someone as a voice for the ird is calling others divisive? i’m on the mailing list, i read your newsletters and emails. their stuff is divisive. sure it covers itself in saving the conservative values of the church.. whatever that means.. does that make you more righteous? thus right? if you actually think that then you are much too proud to see your lack of humility.

also, how do so many people come  together and not have disagreement? that is unrealistic to expect that. i read borg and nt wright.. so am i in your good graces one day and not the other?

the ird folks do have a collection of some of the slamming cartoons that people have done of them. that’s a pretty funny post.

other than that, i encourage all at gc get a pic of the bush library protester. we will make a full photo post of submitted pics with the lone protester at the methoblog. why? because i think that would be funny.