It’s Good News Tuesday
Yesterday was to have been the trial of United Methodist Church minister Dr. Thomas Ogletree for breaking church law when he performed the marriage of his son to another man.
The Rev Dr. Ogletree might be considered by some to have the proper qualifications to perform a marriage ceremony.
Before retiring, Dr. Ogletree, 79, was dean of both the Yale Divinity School and Drew Theological Seminary. He is currently professor Emeritus of Theological Ethics at Yale. From 1978-81 he was director of graduate studies in religion at Vanderbilt University. He’s the author of such books as The Use of the Bible in Christian Ethics and Hospitality to the Stranger: Dimensions of Moral Understanding. Since 1980, he has served on the editorial board of The Journal of Religious Ethics.
Phew! Life well lived, dude.
So, he was prepared to go to trial when all of a sudden, it was over.
Yesterday morning, all charges were dropped by the bishop, and ….
And he didn’t just drop them, either. He turned them into a huge brass bell he used to ring what will likely be remembered as the death knell of the anti-gay policy of the largest mainline Christian denomination in the world.
From this day forward United Methodist Church will not discipline their ministers for performing gay marriages.
Whoa. While you gotta admit that it took a cattle prod in their overalls to do it, they finally did it.
And then, because yesterday must have been Gay Day, the Pope – you heard me right – the damn Pope, is saying that maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on gay people in love.
Pope Francis has suggested that the Vatican could support gay civil unions in the future, according to one of the church’s most senior cardinals.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that the pontiff wants the Catholic Church to study same-sex unions, ‘rather than condemn them’.
So, all we have holding out is Texas, two ole boys over at the Texaco station who have their mouths filled with chewing tobacco, ignorant old people, and the Tea Party. Okay, so the last two are the same. That just leaves three.
Thanks to Johnnie for the heads up.
My atheist heart has always had a warm spot for the Methodists since a hippie Methodist pastor taught me and a bunch of midwest country kids about social justice and doing the right thing.
1So good to hear!!!! For many reasons. Day started out with the elementary school 1 block away from me undergoing a rash of first responders cuz one of the construction crews building the new classrooms hit a damn gas line!!! This news about the Methodists and the Pope (in the same sentence) does me good!!!
2Wow. I wake up & find the Methodist Church & Catholic Church (via Pope Frank) are acting, dare I say?…. Christian?
Well, pick out a dress and set a date, because this is good news for sure!
The times, they are a’changing….
3So love wins over hate. That was what He was saying all along. ‘Bout time they understood.
4Just a few years ago the Republican mantra was Guns, Gays, and God.
Look where it got them.
5I suspect some folks at Bering UMC in the Montrose are happy.
I attended church there for a long time, because the Pastor at that time was the wife of the remarkable Pastor who was at my church, who started a homeless ministry among other things, …. until…. like the Methodists do… they “vacationed” him. So, he would go on Sunday and sing in the choir at Bering.
His wife, meantime, refused to perform ANY weddings at all at Bering, until she could perform ALL weddings for people who wanted to be married in that church. Even in Texas, some people fight the good fight.
I’ve lost track of them both. Basically, I stopped going to church altogether. The Lady Bishop who had to prove she was as tough as a man, just did me in.
I hope they are well, and I’m sure if they know, they are rejoicing at this news. As far as The Lady Bishop is concerned. Meh.
6Rewriting Ecclesiastes 3:
To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born this way, and a time to die surrounded by those you love.
A time to plant the seeds of change, and a time to harvest them.
A time to kill old prejudice, and a time to heal old wounds.
A time to break down barriers, and a time to build up souls.
A time to weep for injustice, a time to laugh at it too.
A time to mourn those who haven’t lived until the dawn, a time to dance for their memory.
A time to cast away hearts of stone, a time to gather together new cornerstones.
A time to embrace. Never refrain from embracing.
A time to gain acceptance, a time to lose fear.
A time to keep America’s promises, a time to throw away discrimination.
A time to tear up bad laws, a time to sew up FABulous outfits.
A time to break silence, a time to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.
A time of love, a time to hate hate.
A time of just war, and a time of peaceful reconciliation.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
7Yeah well, for this Cathlick girl’s part, I am sure that Bernard Cardinal Law needs an assistant to help clean the grout, wipe up cobwebs, and dust every page of every tome in the Vatican archives and libraries. Papa Paco, I hope you hear this: I respectfully (!!) nominate Timothy Cardinal Dolan, past president of the USCCB, to join Sr Dust Collector Law as Jr Dust Collector Dolan in the bowels of the Vatican somewheres. If successful, he will accomplish the most good he has achieved in decades, possibly in his entire existence!
8Finally.
9For women and men like me, who were lied to and used because our “gay” ( mine was miserable) husbands and wives were trying desperately to fit into the heterosexual normative culture, finally we can breathe easy because our children and grandchildren if they are gay (and my grandson in his favorite pink tu-tu of his sisters, might be) can choose to love and partner and live with whomever they love.
If that had been the case when I was growing up–30 years of my life would not have been a nightmare of abuse and pouring love down a black hole of no response, staying in a loveless space because as an unwanted child I married what I knew.
We either love or we do not. Love is not due to circumstance, it is what we are. When we deny what we are it poisons not only ourselves, but everything around us.
For the scared, homophobic people who know not who and what they condemn, I hope you can find peace around your fears.
In the meantime, I cherish a quote from Colonel Sanders, that we had on a poster in my Spiritual Training center, “Parts is parts.” That about covers it. What you do with your own parts is of interest only to the person or people you want to share them with. That way we get to go in peace.
Let’s usher in the 21st Century with no more passing judgement, no more voting against the rights of others and welcome all consenting adults to marriage equality. We’re only a century and 14 years too late.
WTG Timothy Cardinal Dolan: “study same-sex unions.” The LGBT community are not experiments nor are they in need of study by you. Quit misquoting the Pope, you gohmert.
10Thank you, da Chipster, for the lovely rewriting. I am sending this column to one of my favorite lady UMC preacher friends.
11As a long time 50 + years United Methodist, who belongs to a “Reconciling Congregation” with gay people on staff, IT’S ABOUT TIME!
12Times are changing, thank heaven. In 1998 we saw a church trial like this take place against Greg Dell, pastor of Broadway Methodist Church on the north side of Chicago, in the heart of the city’s LGBTQ community. Although he could have been defrocked according to the Book of Discipline, in March 1999 a jury of fellow pastors voted 10 to 3 to suspend him from ministry, until he pledged not to wed gays again. Courageously, he refused, and the bishop at the time subsequently trimmed his suspension to one year. He ministered until 2007 without “technically” violating church rules, then retired as his Parkinson’s Disease worsened.
Our pastor at the time served on that jury and was deeply conflicted personally because of having a sister who is lesbian. The Discipline’s fundamental unfairness is being challenged increasingly and the provision against homosexuality may well fall and the denomination’s next conference. In 2011, 200 Methodist clergy in Illinois pledged to support same-sex unions.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-26/news/chi-200-methodist-clergy-in-illinois-defy-church-on-samesex-unions-20110626_1_civil-unions-holy-union-church-trial
Last year, the current Chicago bishop announced support of same-sex civil marriage in Illinois, which now has become law.
http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/swift-reaction-to-bishops-gay-marriage-stand
And Greg Dell? He soldiers on, standing up for what he believes is right.
http://www.iwu.edu/magazine/2008/fall/DELL.html
And his former church? It soldiers on as well, deeply involved in the spiritual welfare of its community. Heroism lives forever.
http://www.broadwaychurchchicago.com/about-us
13Come on, quit picking on old people. Lots of good liberal old people around.
14And a lot of us liberal old people frequent this establishment.
15I don’t know or claim to know Methodist polity, but I’m fairly sure it’s that in this, it works the same as Presbyterian PC(USA) polity: This is just one bishop, one ruling, one conference. It does *not* set precedent for the whole church and/or all conferences. The commissioners (delegates?) to General Conference – in other words, representatives of the whole denomination – have to vote to change their polity. In the PC(USA), even a vote by the General Assembly isn’t enough to change the Book of Order; amendments then go to the Presbyteries, of which there are 183, for a vote. Simple majority *of the Presbyteries, not the overall vote count* takes it. I don’t know if that part of it is the same for the United Methodists or whether for them a GC vote is enough. It may be – it’s a hierarchical system, different from the PC(USA), which is not (no bishops).
I’ve tried to find out online how this will work but so far haven’t confirmed it. Just not dancing my celebratory two-step yet. Need to dig a little deeper.
This summer, the Presby G/A will vote on permitting same sex *marriages* by their pastors. At this point, they can bless same sex commitment ceremonies but not call them weddings or marriages. As more and more states are permitting marriage equality, the pressure is definitely increasing. I have great hopes.
16Kay’s almost right. The General Conference of the world-wide United Methodist Church, meeting every four years, sets the “law” of the entire church. A majority vote by the General Conference is sufficient to change policy. (Bishops don’t vote.) In order for change to occur, the Book of Discipline, Methodism’s rule book, will be amended to reflect a change in policy/law. The current most offensive passage, “Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” will either be struck or rewritten to reflect the change. It is from that passage that rules concerning same-sex marriage and ordination of anyone who is LGBTQ are derived. Change can’t come too soon for many, many United Methodist.
17As I said with a bit of irritation at someone once: The only time a person’s sexual identity is important is when they are: Naked. In bed. With YOU!
18GeneB, this article’s first paragraph sums up the Gordian Knot in which the United Methodist Church finds itself.
http://unitedmethodistreporter.com/2012/10/19/breaking-up-is-hard-but-right-thing-for-the-umc/
“Open Church. Open Minds. Open Doors.” It was a motto and the title of a huge advertising campaign by the UMC some years ago.
Open? Open-and-shut hypocrisy. Philosophically, the UMC is in dire straits and its stagnant membership statistics are proof.
19UmptyDump, no argument from me.
20The whole argument against same-sex marriage would go away quietly if the U.S. was a normal country where marriage was a legal matter before a judge, and the religious rites were your own business, not the State’s. Heck, having been ordained over the internet a few years back (along with the Rev. Stella Kowalski, a particularly pious Labrador Retreiver I had at the time), I suppose I’m as qualified as any other Rev. to perform a wedding in most of the U.S.
21GeneB, where I said the polities were the same was that whereas the Bishop of the Rev. Ogletree’s conference could drop the charges in his disciplinary case, that action did not set a precedent for all other conferences (any more than the ruling of one Presbytery or one Synod’s Judicial Commission in the PC(USA) sets a precedent). Where we differ – and thanks for clarifying that for me – is that the UMC General Conference vote *alone* changes the polity church-wide. The Presbys have to jump through one more hoop: affirming by the Presbyteries in order for an amendment to go into effect. The battles are…. intense. As I’m sure you’ve observed.
How much longer until a General Conference? Our Assemblies are every other year now, and that’s nerve-wracking enough to have to wait out. I can’t imagine sweating it for *four years* at a time….!
22I’ve never belonged to a church, but I used to hang out in a Methodist church for anti-war (Vietnam era) meetings, and met some truly caring people who were Christian in the best sense of the term — charitable, boots-on-the-ground types. This is really good news.
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