connectional

My family, on the Reaves and Hamilton sides, have been members of the Dyersburg Methodist Church for about 150 years, give or take a decade.  The current property is in limbo over a vote that happens on Thursday evening.  The process that brought us to this point has been prayerful and a lot of work for those who were on the discernment team and we as the congregation.  Other Methodist churches are dealing with the same scenario.  

IMHO this is much ado about nothing.  The UMC book of discipline has been changed several times over this century to allow women pastors and such.  This particular item regarding homosexuality has been defeated twice at the global conference level.  About half of the UMC members are African and Filipino and they do not like gay anything.   The vote has failed twice at the global level and the anti-gay members are growing in number.  

My friends and I have talked about this at length.  How do you know for sure that someone is gay?  How do you know how many there have committed adultery?  Both are supposedly forbidden in the Holy Bible, yet we pick and choose which commandments to follow.  We choose who to judge according to our own biases and beliefs.  I don't know about y'all but I believe that Big Ernie is the judge and I'll wait my turn at the pearly gates.  

Those who honestly seek the will of God will study and be informed and create their own theology, but they don't try to cram it down somebody's throat.  I have attended several non-denominational churches and I have to admit that when they started kicking over tables with homosexuality and abortion rights, I vowed never to go back.  It was charismatic and dramatic to the hilt.  I felt literally sick at my stomach.

There will be an official vote tomorrow evening and I will be there to cast my ballot.  And I will leave and wait to be notified of the results.  I trust the people who are handling the whole thing and it is being done appropriately.  We have 600ish members by profession of faith or transfer.  It will require a 2/3 vote to leave the UMC.  I have to give credit to Will Bird for educating all of us with his SS lesson last week.  Others have done their best to share their emotions about this event.  But ya' know what?  The damage has been done and Jesus wept.

I need some sage to burn and ash myself but I'm smooth out.  Y'all be faithful and always remember who you are ^j^