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Showing posts with the label Gender-Queer

Is the UMC an Old Car?

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When I was in graduate school in the mid-90s, I drove a 1980 Toyota Corolla. It had a standard transmission, manually-operated windows, and no air conditioning. But it was fairly dependable for the decade I drove it. During graduate school, it got me between Salem, Oregon, and Berkeley, California, at least once a month, as I returned home to see my family. The drive North and South could be a trial during the Summer months, especially in the Central Valley when the temperatures reached 115°. Not having air conditioning was a problem, so I figured out a system wherein I wrapped an ice cube in a bandana and wrapped it around my forehead, and drove with the windows down. The rapidly-evaporating ice cube cooled my head, but I had to add a new ice cube every rest stop. But it worked. It was not a glorious or glamorous car, but it got me dependably between Point A and Point B. I used it to take my German student friends to experience the Redwoods and to drive down H...

Shaking the Dust

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On February 25th, United Methodist delegates to our General Conference Special Session voted to preserve the status quo of our Book of Discipline's current bans on ordaining LGBTQ clergy and officiating at or hosting same-sex marriages. While I am not surprised, I am deeply disappointed. There was strong support for a plan (called the One Church Plan) that would not force any pastor or church to perform same-sex marriages, nor did it force anyone to change what they believe about the Bible, but would allow individual conferences to decide if they would ordain LGBTQ pastors, as well as allowing churches to host and pastors to officiate at same-sex marriages. In other words, instead of allowing for theological differences around 4-5 verses in the Bible ( the only references to homosexuality found in the Bible , and two of those are disputed as to whether they refer to homosexuality at all), the theological and political right wing of the church muscled its way to force ...