United Methodist LGBTQ Re-Education
by John Lomperis, Juicy Ecumenism:
As our denomination splits, propagandists for the increasingly liberal post-separation UMC (psUMC) have lately been claiming that the psUMC will still have “a place” for non-liberals. But what sort of place will that be? We received a preview at last month’s session of the North Central Jurisdiction (NCJ), at which I was a voting delegate. Affirming LGBTQ liberationist ideology was now treated as an essential issue for the United Methodist Church.
At the request of the “Covenant to Build BeLoved Community” adopted by last year’s NCJ special session, the NCJ leadership subjected all delegates present “to engage in conversation to understand the impact of homophobia, transphobia and heterosexism within United Methodist Churches.”
This United Methodist “LGBTQ Exercise” was surprisingly lengthy—lasting over two hours—and featured a mix of liturgy, one-sided presentations, and small-group discussions (it can be viewed beginning at the 47:37 mark of the official Friday video.)
Throughout the re-education session, there were several consistent themes: the United Methodist Church’s bans on gay weddings and non-celibate gay clergy are indisputably wrong and harmful, people are obviously not truly loving or compassionate if they support these moral standards, the presence of more conservative perspectives in the UMC is a big problem, and this cause is a top priority for the new United Methodism.
This LGBTQ exercise, organized by the area’s United Methodist bishops and Mission Council, treated no other perspective as worthy of respect.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
