Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
GC2019: Sleepless, Grieving Night At The Conservative Takeover

GC2019: Sleepless, Grieving Night At The Conservative Takeover

Last updated on: February 25, 2019 at 12:23 pm by Christy Thomas

GC2019: Sleepless, Grieving Night At The Conservative Takeover 2019-02-25T12:23:33-05:00 Christy Thomas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

My sleepless, grieving night accompanies my fatigue and my frustration as I see yet another conservative takeover. They’ve done a great job taking pages from the Southern Baptist playbook.

As most people who are following the events of yesterday afternoon know, the results of the voting for the order of the petitions to be discussed in the legislative committee ended up with these top five priorities.

1. Wespath Recommendations-pension liabilities and CRS
2. Traditional Plan, except 90042 and 90048) 90032-90040, p. 182-186, 190-194
3. Disaffiliation–Taylor–New Paragraph 2553.
4. Disaffiliation–Boyette–new Par 2549
5. One Church Plan, Except 90015), 9001-90014, 164-168.

The first piece was voted on last night and passed. I’ve seen major criticism that we’d start with pensions before dealing with the complex issues facing the church, but, frankly, this was a routine and absolutely necessary piece of legislation. It clarifies what might happen to clergy pensions should a schism take place and certain clergy either be forced to leave or request to leave The United Methodist Church. It didn’t allocate money or fatten anyone’s pockets. So, lay off, folks. This was no big deal.

The slavery and the gay parallel

The big deal is what we now face: an exceedingly divided church. Think “Civil War” type divisions–and that was another time when the Methodist church split before, something which led to southern (we keep our slaves because God says we can have them) and northern (slavery is wrong in a wider reading of Scripture) branches of the church.

We are now very close to the same situation, but it will read conservative (we keep gays out with a narrow definition of human sexuality because the Bible says we can exclude them) and centrist/progressive (we welcome all because a wider reading of Scripture demands radical hospitality and open arms especially to the marginalized and oppressed and those formerly declared unclean).

At this point, and please remember I am speaking only as an observer here, not as one who sits in the inner circles of delegate discussions, I do not see any real hope of the church holding together. We find ourselves caught now in the most horrific place a church can go: a “winner take all” and “best of luck, losers” moment where it is possible that the difference between “winners” and “losers” could be as little as 1 or 2% of the vote.

Last night, the folks at the Crackers and Grape Juice people and I met and recorded a podcast. Three young clergymen, Jason Michelli, Teer Hardy and Taylor Mertins, along with producer Tommie Marshall (who is going to have one major editing job in front of her as the conversation became a bit too freewheeling) and I opened aching hearts over what is happening. One thing Jason said particularly stuck with me: with a vote clearly this close, no responsible pastor would ever subject his/her congregation to this.

He’s absolutely right. Any wise pastor would never, ever hold this vote in the congregation. When a group shows evidence of differences this great, particularly when our first rule of the church is “do no harm,” it is time to return to Christian conferencing. Otherwise, unquestionable harm will indeed be done.

Sleepless, Grieving Night

As I sought to deal more thoroughly with my emotions last night, I realized the greatest right now is grief. The baby before Solomon is going to be torn to bits, and blood will flow everywhere.

We have a solution that does not bring harm. The developers of the One Church Plan worked carefully to ensure freedom and space for all, but the anti-gays appear to reject it out of hand. I don’t get it, but that is the fact.

this fly on the wall had a sleepless, grieving night Quick note: we just learned that 31 of the delegates are not here because they were denied visas to enter the US. And another of my frustrations just rose to the surface: what were the organizers thinking by not having those things covered long in advance?

Now, the leader just read off two pages of complex instructions about how the committee operates under Roberts Rules of Order differently than the plenary session (tomorrow) will operate. I’m frantically looking for a written copy of those directions, but so far unsuccessfully. I honestly cannot imagine how those who just heard all that gobbledygook talk made sense of it at all.

A few moments ago, a major motion on the floor: to postpone discussion of the separatist punitive traditional plan until the end of the day. Rationale: its negative effect on the US church, generally much more aware of our GLBTQI friends, neighbors, children, family members than the some of the overseas delegates face. Ultimately, the motion failed by about a 60%-40% vote. On we go . . .

Sexuality and Human Existence

Now, back to my role here: I’ve got hobbled feet by the lack of access to the floor. I can’t see faces, sense emotions, watch body language, observe the tensions that were apparently all over the place. So right now, I’m writing my heart.

Time after time, human nature shows us that we’d rather divide than stay together. And I admit that, on occasion, we do face times when a division is the only recourse. I don’t think this is the situation before us.

I don’t get the underlying hatred and horror here of something that has long been a part of human existence, i.e., same-sex partnerships. They may not have been legally recognized as marriages for much of human history, but they have certainly been recognized as part of normal human sexuality.

Now, those partnerships are not procreative. Same-sex couples cannot produce children without some artificial or outside intervention. Right now, with massive human population growth overloading the planet and depleting our resources, honoring the love and commitment of a non-procreative relationship makes sense. After all, we do let men and women marry who are unable to bear children. No fertility test has yet been required.

And the phrase, “But the Bible . . . ” can be so twisted as to say that it is OK in the name of hospitality to offer one’s daughters for gang rapes that I’m not sure of its trustworthiness to adequately address these kinds of covenantal relationships.

I hate Twitter but . . .

Now, if you want to see a blow by blow of what is going on, I’d suggest you turn to Twitter, using either #GC2019 or #UMCGC2019 or #UMC or all three and thereby lose what might be left of your mind. At this moment, delegates are starting to offer amendments to the Traditional Plan, also known by me as “The Mean Girl Manifesto.”

Just a note: The evidence of how poorly the Traditional Plan was written appeared in all its glory when Maxie Dunnam went to the mic to offer a large packet of material to the delegates to explain all the amendments necessary to bring it in compliance with our constitutional requirements.

Now, all that material MUST be translated into Portuguese, French, and Kiswahili. The person in charge of such things said that he requested the materials two weeks ago. As he was speaking, someone hands him a flash drive with the materials in digital form.

This is ridiculous. If the traditionalists want everyone else to follow the rules, it is about time they do the same.

Frederick Brewington, a delegate from New York, then went to the mic to read those translation requirements from the rules for all to hear and see. What a crock Dunnam, the master architect behind splitting the church, is proving to be.

You can probably read my fatigue, my frustration, and my sorrow here. Thus my sleepless, grieving night as I see yet another conservative takeover. They’ve done a great job taking pages from the Southern Baptist playbook.

I’m going to take a break, publish this and start another post in a while.

Let me amend that: the “I hate gays,” “let’s split the church” and constitutionally unacceptable traditional plan has just been passed by the legislative session to go to the plenary session tomorrow. Should it pass there, it will be ruled unconstitutional again by the judicial council when they meet again. Thus, a several million dollar boondoggle takes place yet again at a General Conference.

Photos: (c) Christy Thomas; screenshot of the live feed, Christy Thomas

church

religion

sexuality

conservative takeover

Previous Post

February 24, 2019

GC2019: The Craziness Of The Organizational Day

Next Post

February 25, 2019 Monday Afternoon At GC2019: The UMC Has Just Died

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category " obedience abortion accommodation accountability administration adolescence Advent advice an ordinary death anxiety apology apportionments Ash Wednesday ask thoughtfulpastor baptism betrayal Bible bondage calling certainty change character charity children Christianity Christmas church church as garden clergy clergy credentials closure comfort compassion competition compromise Confirmation conservation conservative conspiracy theories consumer conversion coronavirua corruption courage covenant cultural context death Deconstruction discipleship discord divorce doctrine doing good drugs dysfunctional Easter Easter; Resurrection education election entertainment envy escape evaluation evil exclusive church exercise faith faithfulness family fasting fear feast featured film review finances first world problem food forgiveness fundamentalist garden gay marriage General Conference generosity giving thanks GLBT glory good government grace guilt habit happy harmony hateful acts healing health health care heaven hell hello/goodbye heresy hidden agenda holiness homelessness homosexuality humility hymn hypocrisy Imago Dei In training inclusive church indulgence injustice innocents insurance intolerance itinerancy joy Justice kindness Kingdom of Heave kingdom of heaven language laughter laundry lawsuit leadership Lent LGBTQ liberal life Little Things Matter longform meandering thoughts memories mercy metaphor metrics miracle misfortunes morality Mormon Muslim mystery worship natural disasters New Category Name nutrients older adults oppression pain Paleo paperwork partnered pastor peace pension pharmaceutical placebo politics poverty prayer privilege public schools questions quiet racism rain reason reconciliation religion repentance requirements rescue respect rest resurrection retirement Sabbath sacrament sacred salvation same-sex marriage sanctuary schism schooling science SCOTUS secrecy separation of church and state sexism sexuality short cuts silence sin sleep soil spiritual journey stillness suffering surgery sustainable church teacher technology thank you theology therapy thinking tolerance TOS trust truth Uncategorized welcome Why Easter? wisdom women worship

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 March 2025 February 2025 December 2024 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 July 2007 March 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz