#GC2019: One Day After

It is the day after our special called General Conference in the United Methodist Church. No one has asked me to write this; but I have some thoughts tonight. 

I will start by saying thank you for the calls, the texts, the emails, and the prayers--not only for me, but also for our denomination. 

Today, I have read various articles about the Traditional plan passing at the general conference. Each article has made it abundantly clear that they think the UMC is wrong, that we are bigots, that we hate the LGBTQIA+ community. That is the farthest thing from the truth. If I could tell the media one thing, it's that "Yes, we stood on our belief in the authority of Scripture; however, have you even read the One Church Plan?" If not, here is your chance. If you've not read the Traditional Plan, here's your chance. 

When I look at the Traditional plan, I look at it as any Methodist would--through the lens of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: For United Methodists, Scripture is considered the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine. Tradition is experience and the witness of development and growth of the faith through the past centuries and in many nations and cultures. Experience is the individual's understanding and appropriating of the faith in the light of his or her own life. Through reason the individual Christian brings to bear on the Christian faith discerning and cogent thought. These four elements taken together bring the individual Christian to a mature and fulfilling understanding of the Christian faith and the required response of worship and service. However, no matter where we get our beliefs, they must be founded on the scriptures. 

Paul even tells us in 2 Timothy 4:3 

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. 

And yet, I am sure you will tell me "Well Jesus said nothing about..." Friends, I am sorry that just isn't the case. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that He didn't come to abolish the law (The Torah), rather to fulfill. So in that one verse, He says a lot about the orthodoxy of the reformation He was bringing. 

The major media outlets are also missing the fact that even the LGBTQAI+ community will tell you, candidly of course, that "Gay men everywhere, at every age, are 2 to 10 times more likely than heterosexual men to commit suicide." In Sweden, according to Gransel and Hanson "LGBT people have four times as large a portion of attempted suicide in comparison to the rest of the population. Bisexual women have the largest portion. The banner study shows that it is bisexuals between the ages of 16-29 and transgenders of 30 years or more who have the largest portion of attempted suicide. All three surveys show that the largest portion of attempted suicides have taken place between the ages of 13-19. Notable is, both the survey and the banner study show that 6-9 % of attempted suicides took place between the ages of 4-12. The heterosexual control survey shows that no attempted suicides have taken place at such an early age." By the way, the LGBTQAI+ Community in Sweden has full-inclusion. 

The other thing that is frustrating me is that I have seen several people, evangelicals, bragging, celebrating and some made down right rude comments--myself included. So I want to take a moment more of your time; I want to apologize to you if I have said something that made you angry, or hurt. It truly isn't my intention. I also want to encourage my brothers and sisters on both sides of this debate to take a moment; to stop posting online, get on your knees in prayer and to pray. Pray for one another, yes, you conservative, pray for your progressive brethren...yes, progressive, pray for conservatives like myself. We have a long road of healing to go down. We all knew that one side or the other would be hurting today, let's take time to heal.