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January 2022

January 09, 2022

The UMC Must Die To Have Any Hope Of Life

My idealist vision of the hope of life after death? We acknowledge and act on...

January 03, 2020

Response To The Great Divorce, i.e., “Protocol Of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation

Even as I appreciate their attempt to mediate the great divorce, frankly, every single one...

May 2019

May 27, 2019

The UMC Inquistion Arrived While The Centrists And Progressives Fiddled

The centrists and progressives fiddled our love of God and of all and paid no...

March 2019

March 08, 2019

The UMC: Leaving Behind The Hope Of Dialogue

In late February this year, delegates from The United Methodist Church met and, leaving behind...

February 2019

February 26, 2019

GC2019: Morning Session, Bishops, Power And An Unconstitional Traditional Plan

Bishops have no real power in the UMC. In other words, the Bishops may be...

February 24, 2019

GC2019: The Craziness Of The Organizational Day

The real craziness of the organizational day is just about to start. I'm going to sign...

February 11, 2019

Yes, Fighting Church Folk: There IS a Great Bunny of Wisdom

The often-funny Pearls Before Swine comic strip with its "Great Bunny of Wisdom" wish speaks specifically...

February 07, 2019

Confessions Of A Liberal: I Need Conservatives

Liberals need conservatives; otherwise, things fall apart. Conservatives need liberals; otherwise, things get stuck. Healthy...

November 2018

November 12, 2018

The Mean Girl Manifesto: The UMC Traditionalist Plan

The Traditionalist Plan is a classic mean girl manifesto. "If you don't follow MY rules,...

July 2018

July 30, 2018

From 95% To 5% Church Attendance: Clergy Overreach Or Evil Feminists?

Depending on your perspective, the demise of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec is due...

March 2018

March 13, 2018

NOW is the Moment, UMC: Will You Stop the Evangelical Takeover?

Yes, there is something profoundly wrong at the heart of The United Methodist Church. And...

February 2018

February 28, 2018

The Will of God, Jesus, the Bishops and the UMC

I don't know what life would look like if one entered with perfection into the will...

December 2017

December 20, 2017

Lack of Institutional Support: A Recipe for Clergy Destruction

To say that I did not have the institutional support that I needed to keep...

July 2017

July 18, 2017

What the UMC can learn from the GOP health care debacle

The GOP just doesn't care about health care and the well-being of millions. And the...

June 2017

June 05, 2017

Let’s be fair, UMC, and exclude ALL the unclean, not just the homosexuals

Jesus broke the rules of the holiness code, rendering himself ritually unclean, with great regularity....

May 2017

May 30, 2017

Could Diverse and Especially Female Clergy Be What Is Killing the UMC?

A third reason the UMC is dying may be because of a thorny issue we...

May 24, 2017

Wild dogs, babies and betrayed trust: why the UMC is disintegrating

Trust serves as the glue that holds any society together. We trust that others will...

May 21, 2017

The Megachurch Infection

The megachurch infection may lead to the eventual death of Christian connection, also known as...

May 20, 2017

Do We Want Tight Doctrinal Standards Or Do We Want To Follow Jesus?

After spending much of 2014 and 2015 visiting churches, I have become increasingly aware that people...

May 15, 2017

Right-handers=Good; Left-handers=Evil

The dominant world enriches itself endlessly when it makes room for the less-dominant to have...

April 2017

April 24, 2017

It’s time. Blow up the UMC. My own breaking point.

These responses may be the breaking point for me. A church based on a theology...

October 2016

October 10, 2016

The church then and today: the need to exclude defines us

Saturday was Sicily. We wandered in the small villages that Francis Ford Coppola inadvertently made...

October 07, 2016

Notes from a retired pastor, musings from cruisings: swans and emaciated Jesus

Luxury cruising: finding our bed strewn with rose petals and towel swans along with a...

October 03, 2016

Notes from a retired pastor: musing from the cruising

My life has not turned out in any way that I expected when I decided...

September 2016

September 26, 2016

The penchant for purity will kill the church

I am watching from a distance as I see The United Methodist Church slowly disintegrate...

September 20, 2016

Ask the Thoughtful Pastor: escape right-wing religious past

I stopped trying to make the Bible do something that it most definitely is not:...

September 13, 2016

The view from the pew, reflections from a retired clergy: guilt and peace edition

The Guilt Factor I've been retired from formal ministry for nearly three years now. Frankly, Christianity...

August 2016

August 31, 2016

Ask the Thoughtful Pastor: Did the UMC really elect a lesbian Bishop? A primer on UMC-speak

Dear Thoughtful Pastor: My question: I have been an active member of the United Methodist...

August 24, 2016

Ask the Thoughtful Pastor: how do I practice Sabbath today?

Dear Thoughtful Pastor: You know how the Jews in the Bible were forbidden to work...

July 2016

July 23, 2016

The terrible, awful, horrible things progressives have done

Chris Ladd, a life-long Republican, recently wrote about his decision to leave the GOP. A...

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