during a mental break yesterday during work. i checked out the messageboards at the umc.org website. i started reading a string about the Rev. Beth Stroud. she was serving at First United Methodist Church at Germantown (section of philadelphia). FUMCAG was highlighted in "the congregation" a documentary of a church congregations dynamics. note: i've ordered a copy of the documentary, so i'll give my commentary sometime later. short story is that Rev. Beth Stroud declared that she was gay and lived in a homosexual relationship. She has since been stripped of her ministerial rights. and that is where i found myself reading this messageboard string. here's my post regarding homosexuality in the church at this time. i'd have to claim that i am really hoping for those who are wiser than i to help give me some direction. right now, with the pushing of a decision till the next general conference i have to rest in these thoughts.
within this string of comments i am constantly reminded of the diversity of opinion in our connected church. with this said, i present some thoughts.
1. is the debate about sexual orientation in the church solely based around sex? seriously, Rev Stroud we could have considered a great mininster, but once it became known who she had sex with, it became an issue. my thinking is this, we argue this point not with a clear theological understanding, but only on the merits of how we feel about homosexuality, pro or con. i charge that we not throw out random scriptures and say that biblically it says this or that, we know "biblically" we can make a case for the the arian racist movements. let's not be so immature. we should charge our church with having our theologians bring together what the scriptures mean for our society today in perspective to these issues. to paraphrase stan grenz, it is wrong to only use the bible for theologic perspective. this promotes a "folk" theology.
2. in a discussion with one of the highest ranking ministers in the diocese that i live in (that's equal to our conference for those who didn't know). we talked about the impact of their voting of an openly homosexual bishop and the subsequent ramifications for their church. his words, in what was a most humble moment, were to the effect; i wished we had as much foresight to not make a rash decision like the methodist church. to go on further, he felt many bowed to pressures to make something happen without any spiritual perpective drawn & the church could not show why it was done this way.
i am torn with this issue personally, i see both sides. i am not necessarily proud, but repectful of my churches decision to uphold it's current discipline.
check out the “WORK-IN-PROGRESS-CHURCH” an Inclusive Ecclesiology for the United Methodist Church is an paper written by jonathon for one of his theology classes. it's a bit more comprehensive than my messageboard posting and worth a read.
