Friday, November 04, 2005

I am a blogging slowpoke

It's true; I thought I'd post a lot more, but have been a very slow slowpoke indeed. Posting here today to ask for continued prayers for Reverend Mommy's younger daughter who has rheumatic fever. If you want to send the little one a word of encouragement, her blog is http://revmommysentropy.blogspot.com and you can feed Maggie, her cyber-puppy while you are there.

Have got to switch out a load of laundry, scoop the back yard, and head over to the coffee shop to spend about an hour working on my Sunday Project. (For anyone who doesn't hang out on Saturday evenings in RLP chat, the Sunday Project is that word that has six letters, starts with 's', ends with 'n', and has an 'rm' in the middle). I am taking two texts from Ruth, and we will talk about Traditional Family Values as found in the Bible. Amazing what one finds in Ruth: abiding friendship between people from completely different cultures (including religious traditions); unshakeable loyalty; concern for the poor and vulnerable; bold and transgressive sexual invitation; promises kept;and the birth of new life. Traditional family values, eh? It's all there.

Ah, the United Methodists, God bless them. Their nine-member Judicial Council has affirmed the removal of credentials from Beth Stroud, who publicly outed herself to her congregation--that one wasn't much of a surprise to me. The one that *was* a surprise was the decision to overturn disciplinary actions against a pastor who had refused membership in his congregation to a man solely because the man is gay. Many find this a dangerous precedent, for a number of reasons: the idea that a local pastor can determine who will be able to join a church strictly on the basis of the pastor's personal beliefs certainly opens the possibility of segregation on racial or political grounds. Or any others. Many Methodists, including the body of Methodist bishops, feel that the church should live up to its promise of open membership. Some feel the Judicial Board did not correctly follow the Book of Discipline. Supporters of the decision point to use of language like "may" instead of "shall" in the Discipline's discussion of membership.

It is a sad time. Even though I'm not a member or aspiring member of a Methodist church, it is still chilling and hurtful to hear an organization take such a posture. But we live in a time where this is tolerated, and I don't see that changing soon.

On another note, Hi Tim and Liz!!!!! And to all a happy weekend.

1 Comments:

Blogger see-through faith said...

praying for entrophy and it's so good to do it too isn't it?

as for UMC sigh
I am a member and I'm with revmommy on this one.

we love into the kingdom and ask questions later - if indeed we ask at all :)

1:54 AM  

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