General Conference 2008

Why I Love the Quadrilateral

Part of why I love being a Methodist is that we are a dynamic people with dynamic and diverse ways of interpreting scripture, understanding God, and how we as God’s people relate to each other and to God. So, I am grateful for Wesley’s Quadrilateral.

For non-Methodists or those of you who are suspicious of theological frameworks that include within their names geometric shapes (jk), Wesley’s Quadrilateral is a means of ascertaining how we think about God, what it means to be Christian, and how we should act as Christians by reflecting on four things:

    1) Scripture,
    2) Tradition,
    3) Reason, and
    4) Personal Experience

Our Discipline has some beautiful language describing the Quadrilateral:

“Wesley believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason” (Book of Discipline, 2004, p.77).

Revealed. Illumined. Vivified. Confirmed.

At the very least those are some great verbs! But seriously though . . .

As a people of the Book, I find comfort in believing that in Methodism, we are charged to use scripture as the authority and foundation of our work, actions, and interactions. In my opinion, scripture is at the core of our faith as it is through Scripture that we come to know the revelation of God's Word and the prevenient grace of God.

But we are also challenged to consider the scriptures in their entirety – in their clarity and ambiguity as well as their conformity and contradictions. So our faith is augmented when we not only examine our faith through scripture but also tradition, experience, and reason.

For example:

As Christians, we are grounded in a long faith tradition, one that springs forth from the Jewish faith tradition. We believe that the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are revealed in Jesus Christ and expand the circle to whom God chooses as God's chosen people to include both male and female, Jew and Gentile, free and slave, and every human category (Gal. 3:23-29; Mark 3:35; John 1:10-16).

And as ours is a Living God, we believe that God works within us through the Holy Spirit in years past, this very day, and through the ages to come. We can see God in our everyday experience whether through the silence and burning of our hearts (Matt. 6:6; Luke 24:32), the majesty of God's creation, the relationships we build and the people we meet, and through our actions and those of others (Matt. 5:14-16). Our experience also includes the many frames through which we have come to interpret the world based on our gender identity, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, condition of ableness, sexual orientation, economic status, etc.

While we live in a very different world than when God walked the earth in the Garden of Eden and in the flesh as Jesus Christ nearly 2,000 years ago, there are also many things that we share in common with every age of history, including the struggles of war and peace, gross wealth limited to a select few in the midst of pervasive poverty, doing what God would want us to do vs. what we want to do, etc. Ultimately, we know that things change. But we have tradition that carries us through all the changes in our lives and the changes throughout the ages.

Yet, not all of our tradition has stayed the same across the ages. It is through reasoning and reflection on and of the Good News as proclaimed in the Scriptures and of our personal experience and how the Spirit is moving within our hearts that we as Christians determine what we believe to be God's Truth and God's plan for our lives. There was a time when Christians used scripture to justify slavery. There was a time when Christians used scripture to justify structural racism in the form of racial segregation, discrimination, and forbid interracial relationships and marriage. Yet I believe with the exception of some extreme groups, as a Church, we have been able to change our positions on many social issues because the heart of scripture and God's Good News is God's love for the world and for all people. Striving to mirror God's perfect love, we too must show compassion, mercy, and love toward all people – even our enemies and those we do not like (1 John 4:7-21; Matt 5:43-48; Luke 6:32-36; Luke 10:25-37; Rom. 12:9-21).

So as we move ever closer to General Conference, may our hearts and minds be on Jesus the Christ, our eyes on the revealed Word with a vision of the Great Banquet – where all God’s children are invited, our tongues ready to speak the Truth, our hands ready to wash, feed and serve, and our spirits diminished so that the Holy Spirit might dwell in us to invigorate our souls for the greater glory of God and God’s kin-dom.

Commentary at UMC.org: Avoiding issue is not true peace

Steven E. Webster wrote this excellent commentary at UMC.org. He is attending the General Conference with Soulforce.

Many voices from across The United Methodist Church are suggesting there is no way forward in the 36-year-long dialogue about the role and status of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the church. Declaring an impasse, these voices call for an end to this dialogue in the name of peace and unity.

Forty-five years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a now-famous letter from a jail cell in Birmingham, Ala., to a group of white clergy (including two Methodist bishops) who––in the name of "unity" and "peace"––had publicly called on King and his allies to cease their disturbing nonviolent protests against racial segregation.

King wrote that the "great stumbling block" in the African-American struggle for equality was not blatant bigotry, "but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice, who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."

I embrace our Wesleyan Christian vision of "making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world" and applaud the General Conference for seeking to build unity around four focus areas: 1) developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world; 2) reaching new people in new places by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones; 3) engaging in ministry with the poor; and 4) stamping out killer diseases by improving health globally.

Yet we undercut these same goals when we continue to: 1) reject the gifts and graces of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and their allies; 2) turn off a younger generation that views the Christian faith as "anti-homosexual;" 3) push LGBT youth into poverty and homelessness as families reject them because church and society stigmatizes LGBT persons; and 4) fail to address the role that ignorance and stigmatization of homosexuality (and other sexualities) play in the global AIDS epidemic.

Biblical peace

The United Methodist Church cannot enjoy true peace and unity while it engages in injustice and spiritual violence against some of its members. Biblical peace does not refer to the apparent absence of conflict, and still less to the suppression of dialogue. In the Bible, "peace" ("shalom" in Hebrew) is a holistic concept that includes justice and total well-being.

To fail to address the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the church now would leave in place the status quo in church law that includes Judicial Council Decision 1032, which normalizes the exclusion of LGBT persons from membership in the church. Decision 1032 has never yet been the subject of discussion at a General Conference and runs counter to a (non-binding) plea in our Social Principles that "we implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends."

Even if lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are allowed to attend or join the membership of The United Methodist Church, Decision 1032 further legitimates the widespread practice of "shunning" such persons as unworthy to serve in any of the ministries of the local church. This is spiritual violence, the misuse of religious authority to demean and diminish LGBT Christians.

I know LGBT persons who have been denied the opportunity to serve in the church as leaders of adult education classes, choir members, committee members, or readers of Scripture in worship. It is not unheard of for committed same-gender couples to be denied baptism for their babies and gay youth to be shunned from youth groups in The United Methodist Church.

These acts, justified by labeling LGBT people as "unrepentant sinners" inferior to all the "repentant sinners" in the church, are acts of spiritual violence, harming the souls of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. It is tragic that being from a devout Christian family has been identified as a risk factor for suicide among LGBT youths.
A thorn in the flesh

Some have described the church’s long dialogue over these issues as "a thorn in the flesh." Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 that he endured a painful "thorn in the flesh" that would not leave him even though he pleaded with God to remove it. God’s answer to Paul applies to us: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."

We feel weary and weakened by this long dialogue over homosexuality, a dialogue in which I have actively participated in many ways these past 36 years. The faith that sustains me is that God intends to perfect us through these trials, and we, the people of The United Methodist Church, look forward to a real peace which is, in King’s words, the presence of justice and not merely the absence of tension.

*Webster is chair of the church council of University United Methodist Church in Madison, Wis., and has attended the 2000 and 2004 General Conferences as a volunteer with Soulforce, an organization that describes itself as working for freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from religious and political oppression. He legally married Jim Dietrich, his partner of 27 years, in a civil ceremony in Toronto in 2006.

Full story:
Commentary: Avoiding issue is not true peace
Click here

Another Perspective:
Commentary: It’s time for a new set of priorities
Click here

Oh For A Thousand Delegates

The RMN office recently pulled this old chestnut out from our archives. I wrote this during General Conference 04 on the first night I arrived in Pittsburgh.

I hope you enjoy it but remember, sing lustily! Be no more ashamed to sing this song then when you sang the songs of the devil! (Sorry, that's a Methodist joke, check out the "tips for singing" in the front of our hymnal if you don't get the reference... someone should post them in the comments for us. I apologize for suggesting that you ever sang songs of the devil, or of mentioning him at all. For the record, I am comfortable using gendered language in this instance)  CUE THE ORGAN!

                               Oh for a Thousand Delegates

Oh for a thousand delegates to open up the doors,
To bring God’s reconciling love to the General Conference floor.

Our church has failed God times before, legitimized its sin
We learned repentance and reform, may we now let people in.

Our common witness shows God’s love and answers Jesus’ call
To liberate our family and reclaim our church for all.

Jesus, the name that’s been abused and used for hate and fear
We know that Christ transforms the world and can start to change things here.

As baptized children we were claimed and we will not be torn
United to participate, water washed and spirit born.

We live our lives with truth and grace, which makes our Maker proud
We cannot hide what God has made, and of this we’re self-avowed.

Prayer for Harmony

God the Father, source of everything divine, you are good surpassing everything good and just surpassing everything just. In you is tranquility, as well as peace and harmony. Heal our divisions and restore us to the unity of love, which is similar to your divine nature. Let the bond of love and the ties of divine affection make us one in the Spirit by your peace which renders everything peaceful. We ask this through the grace, mercy, and compassion of your only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

St Dionysius of Alexandria, Bishop and Educator

Conversion

When I was running to be a delegate for General Conference, I was distraught by all of the politics involved. I guess I somehow forgot that as a nearly 300 year-old institution within a 2,000 year-old tradition and institution, even the Methodist church is not immune from politics. Call me naïve …

There was a moment, sometime after the 15th round of balloting and after numerous caucusing of the Common Witness strategy team, I felt immensely dejected. And it wasn’t because I hadn’t been elected but I felt sick to my stomach that this - OUR Church - conducts business in such a way that so frighteningly parallels partisan politics within secular government. Are we not the Church? Are we not called to a higher order of business and conduct? To this so-called practice of “holy conferencing?”

I apparently wasn’t the only one annoyed at the conference. Seated to my left was a charming woman, not quite middle-aged – still young with a husband and young children. This was my first annual conference and the conference was trying to help guide “newbies” like me through the process by partnering us up with veterans or at least those who had been to conference before. This woman had attended several annual conferences and was partnered up with another newbie but I still chatted with her throughout the conference.

We talked about our experiences in the church. I talked about coming from a conservative Christian background, longing for progressive social justice but also my deep desire for progressive Christians to reclaim the name of Jesus, reclaim the Bible, and spread the Good News that Jesus came for all people to transform all lives so that we could also transform others.

At some point there was a proposed petition requesting our conference to support secular legislative efforts to amend the Illinois State Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman and go even further by prohibiting the creation of institutions such as civil unions.

Trembling, I walked to a microphone and waited for the Bishop to call on me. Thankfully, I had a friend in the Conference Secretary, Harriet McCabe, a woman of good Christian faith who reminds me of my grandmother. I told her that if I were to ever speak before the assembly that I would be looking to her for strength and prayer.

When the Bishop announced, “Microphone 4, are you in favor or opposed to this petition?” all I remember is looking at Harriet in the eyes. With a smile and glow on her face, my hands and arms were trembling, but my voice and the words exited my mouth with assurance and strength. I spoke something of my faith and journey as a gay man and what it would mean for me to one day be able to walk down the aisle of my church and swear before God, my family and faith community, that my partner and I dedicate our lives to each other and to God. And at some point I sat down.

At the very end of the conference, as we all prepared to leave the convention center and head home, the woman next to me pulled me aside and said she had to tell me a story. She told me that for all of her life she had been on the other side of the fence pertaining to homosexuality. Everything she had been taught and from her own reading and thoughtful interpretation of the Bible told her that homosexuality was wrong. She felt that she was still called to love homosexuals but that the Bible was unequivocal about homosexual acts.

Then she told me that she had had a conversation with her brother about homosexuality immediately before leaving to come to annual conference. In that conversation, she told her brother that she knew that homosexuality would come up yet again in legislation this year and she still struggled with it. She confessed to her brother that the only way she could imagine ever changing her mind and ideas about homosexuality would be for her to meet a homosexual. And here, for four days, she sat next to a gay man who she saw no difference in orthodoxy, we shared a belief in the centrality and power of Christ to transform lives, and how after four days she had gone from believing all homosexuality to be immoral to now believing that there could be something loving and something having to do with God in gay and lesbian relationships. She didn’t know what to do next or have everything sorted out about what she did and did not believe. But we both hugged and cried in each other’s arms.

During the 20th Laity Ballot, I was elected as an Alternate Delegate to Jurisdictional Conference. But it didn’t matter to me. I had experienced a conversion that day.

Power & Persuasion

I have been giving

a lot of thought

lately

To the notion of

Moral Persuasion –

the idea that we have

We, in this case

Being

primarily

Well-meaning

Privileged

White People

the idea that we have

& organize ourselves around

That people can be persuaded

 

We think

People will be morally persuaded

When

Our cause is righteous enough

Our logic is rational enough

Our argument is strong enough

Our actions consistent enough

Our tone kind enough

Our appeal passionate enough

& so on

 

We fundamentally believe

People will be morally persuaded

To agree with us

And act in accordance

(these are two different steps

& even if we persuade people to agree,

this does not equal

their willingness to act in accord)

 

From what I can tell

this “persuasive” strategy

Has rarely persuaded people

at least

not on slavery;

not on women’s suffrage;

not on war;

not on nuclear arms;

not on the environment;

not on civil rights;

not, so far, on gay rights;

I mean, in 2004

We could not even morally persuade

General Conference

to state that we disagree

 

When people ultimately decide to change their positions on such matters

It is rarely because they have been morally persuaded

But for other reasons

primarily Economic

Sometimes to save face

“evidence” that convinces

or for other political purposes

especially when to make compromise

means to avoid meeting more radical demands

 

Please, persuade me

Give me an example

To persuade me that I am wrong

& I am not talking about individual instances

where someone changed their mind about something

when institutions have changed

under the influence of moral persuasion

 

Moral persuasion.

Why do we keep trying this tactic?

I believe the reason mostly relates to

Our being

mostly Well-Meaning White People

 

Well-Meaning People believe

that hearts change through moral suasion

Well-Meaning People do not want

to examine the power that holds oppression in place

the material and emotional advantages

that moral suasion does not sway

 

Examining power means

we are going to have to talk

about what kind of Action,

Not Talk,

Action,

dislodges power

& that’s too scary

Too risky

for most Well-Meaning Christians

Challenges our assumptions

about what works

& What doesn’t work

Like righteousness,

rationality,

strength,

consistency,

kindness,

passion

The conservative right gets this

What do they do to persuade?

Power, money, threats.

For good reason

We don’t want to play that game

But what game are we playing?

 

One of the reasons

we think these things work

gets at being

primarily

White People (the well-meaning kind)

whose privilege in other arenas

when our whiteness, Christianity, social class

And not queerness

gets to define how these things work

we often do secure the changes or successes we seek

& we think we get these things

Because

We are

righteous,

rational,

strong,

consistent,

kind,

passionate.

When in fact

Our success depends on

The power we have

Because we are

White

Christian

Upper-classed

But we attribute our success to these other attributes

& not to privilege & power

 

But you say,

“I have seen hearts and minds change.”

And, thank God

So have I

But that is not the same thing.

That is individualism

That I can convince you that I am morally right

Has very little to do

with changing the system to reflect that position

White people don’t get things

that they want

because they are morally right

White people get what they want because they have

power

& privilege

& do what it takes to protect & keep it

 

Persuasion &

Power

As a movement

We gotta think about these things some more.

Youth and Young Adults: These Are Our Stories

"These Are Our Stories" is part of the MoSAIC witness to the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church. We will feature a new story at Generalconference2008.org each week leading up to General Conference. Here is Jessica's story:

You may visit MoSAIC's YouTube Channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MosaicRMN

You may visit MoSAIC's Blog at:

http://mosaic.rmnetwork.org

Why Brian Wren is my Favorite Hymnist

I realize this is not directly related to General Conference, but I want to share yet another reason that Brian Wren is worthy of adoration. Of course, he is the writer of two of my favorite hymns, "This is a Day of New Beginnings" in the UMH and "Bring Many Names" in TFWS as well as one of GBGM's global praise booklets, though I can't remember which one at the moment.

If those songs aren't enough, it turns out he has a sense of humor, too. I was doing research about the problematic nature of violent and militaristic images in Christian language for a paper I'm writing. Wren makes a convincing argument about the reasons that militaristic language is problematic, and he concludes it with a song to be sung to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers." To make this topical, I encourage you to think about approaching General Conference as a time of Christian conferencing, not as a battle or a war. Okay, here's the song:

(refrain) Onward Christian Rambos, spoiling for a fight!
Wave the flag of Jesus, knowing that we're right!

Onward Christian Rambos, spoiling for a fight!
Wave the flag of Jesus, knowing that we're right!
Spread the Gospel nerve gas, throw grenades of prayer,
Blast the Spirit's napalm, evil's over there. (refrain)

Like a panzer army, we shall blitz the foe.
Rugged cross, Old Glory, lead us as we go!
Hail or heil your leader, drilled to do or die,
Under Holy Orders, never asking "why?" (refrain)

Feel the thrill of bloodshed, guns and holy wars,
We don't really mean it, it's all metaphors.
Nuke the Devil's Empire, for in God we trust.
Yes, we'll love our enemies, when they bite the dust (refrain) (p. 15)

Source:

Wren, B. (1987). "Onward Christian rambos? The case against battle symbolism in hymns". The Hymn, 38(3), 13-15.

Evangelism

Evangelism. We progressive Methodists often shudder at the sound of this word. There are many reasons why, many of them good. Yet I believe evangelism is at the core of our faith. In the Great Commissioning, Jesus commands:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28: 19-20).

As Rev. Troy Plummer recently preached, so often we confuse evangelism with saving souls and getting people baptized as if what it means to be a Christian ends there. Yet we come from the Wesleyan tradition and so we must ask ourselves, how has becoming a Christian transformed our lives and how are we transforming the lives of others?

My personality does not lend itself to door knocking or the direct inquiry evangelism of “Have you accepted Jesus into your life?” Thankfully, I think there is a place for this in Methodism but our tradition has a history of evangelism through works of righteousness and relationships. We know that no amount of deeds will make God love us any more or less but often our neighbors notice when we do acts of loving kindness and humility, especially in a world so often devoid of them. I think the best form of evangelism then is when we praise God, follow the commandments, and live as the living sacrifices we proclaim ourselves to be during every celebration of Communion. Thus my form of evangelism is to try to be the man that God wants me to be - a living example of Christ - as well as to tell my story to others.

Telling one’s story, though, is not an easy task and is quite a vulnerable act. You open yourself up to criticism and even harm.

I have the utmost respect for Joey Heath. Joey is a modern day evangelist: he has the courage to preach the Gospel – God’s unfailing love for him as God’s creation. Joey spreads the Good News by telling his own story – his struggles to be the kind of human being God wants him to be, his longing to be accepted by our institutional church which denies him, and his hopes and dreams that the United Methodist Church will soon accept him for whom he is – as God already has – as God’s own and beloved.

My own life story and coming to terms with my sexuality and my faith greatly parallel Joey’s and yet our stories diverge because I come from an extraordinarily privileged position. I live in a Reconciling Annual Conference with a Bishop who in the first years of his episcopacy openly welcomed gay and lesbian folk by name. I have the luxury of attending a Reconciling United Methodist congregation where we openly and regularly affirm the sacred worth of all people. I had the privilege of being able to run as a delegate for General Conference as an out, gay, young adult and more or less unknown candidate and then actually be elected.

This comes with its own dangers as well though. I can comfortably forget that there are many congregations in my own conference that still have not heard the Good News that Christ has opened the invitation to all people of every human category. I can comfortably forget that there are GLBTQ children of God and their allies in my own conference who do not feel like they have the support they need to be and feel fully human. This leads me to regularly question: As a member of a reconciling annual conference and congregation, how can I as an individual and we as a community of faith better nurture those within our own regional community as well as reach out to those like Joey who live in congregations and regions and communities that have yet to recognize their sacred worth? I lift this up as a prayer and hope that God might use me and others to transform it into action.

In all our perplexities, your guidance

I attended a Friday evening lecture by Marcus Borg at First United Methodist Church in Evanston, Illinois. Friday evening was near the time of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination 40 years ago.

Marcus Borg remembered the life of Martin Luther King with a prayer from St. Augustine.

Oh, God, from whom to be turned is to fall; to whom to be turned is to rise; and in whom to stand is to abide forever. Grant us in all our duties thy help; in all our perplexities, your guidance; in all our dangers, thy protection; and in all our sorrows, thy peace.

We remembered Dr. King in God drenched silence and then Marcus Borg read the prayer again.

Oh, God, from whom to be turned is to fall; to whom to be turned is to rise; and in whom to stand is to abide forever. Grant us in all our duties thy help; in all our perplexities, your guidance; in all our dangers, thy protection; and in all our sorrows, thy peace.