Unafraid and Unashamed: Facing the Future of United Methodism
By Wil Cantrell
This week's book was from a small book discussion my husband and I were involved with for the last few weeks at our church. The books I usually read for book group from my church don't really include religion for the most part, the group are people that all go to the same church. This week's book wasn't for that group and isn't like the other books. Not only is this book about religion, it’s about a major rift that is going on right now in the United Methodist Church.
I was raised in the United Methodist Church from birth. My parents were both raised Methodist and so was I. I never questioned which religion best fit me, but as it turned out this is the best choice for me. Even before my husband and I got married we talked at great lengths about what kind of things we believed it and if we had children if we would raise them with some sort of religion or beliefs. My husband wasn't raised religious, so when my husband and I got married I asked him if he wouldn't mind going to a Methodist church, and he said he was totally fine with where ever I wanted us to due to his lack of one church over another. Years later on a car trip he dropped a bomb on me. He explained why he was glad we were Methodist because our main focus was on helping people along with following in the teaching of God. He had thought more about our sect of Christianity then I ever had. When we were shopping around churches, like you do when you move, my husband and I Googled Methodist churches around us and the church we go to new was the second church on the list. From the first time we visited the church my husband and I agreed it was the church for us. The minister talked about playing Pokemon with his twin sons and also spoke about the seven love languages, which sparked both of our interests.
It wasn't until sometime last year that I truly understood how much we had chosen the right fit for us churchwise. My book group was discussing God and the Gay Christian. It was written by a man who was a researcher and coming to terms with coming out of the closet as a deeply conservative Christian man. The author wrote it as a purely to dissect the Bible and pinpoint the references that would explain why Christianity has a problem with the LGBTQ community. He explains how historically most if not all of the references that are referenced as opposed to the homosexual community are not speaking about what we think of as homosexual is today. It was an amazing book and the discussion with the group was even more amazing. Our pastor and his wife were there. An openly gay lesbian couple that are part of our congregation were leading the group that night and they brought one of their friends. The woman was about my age and she was terrified to be in a church with all these people that are older (I'm one of the youngest people in the group) and she was scared of what the people in group would say during the disscusion. The meeting ended with our pastor hugging the women while crying and apologising that she would ever feel unwelcome in any church. I went home that night and cried with my husband telling him we were at the right church.
This week's book is about how there might be a split in the United Methodist Church due to the fact that a few years ago at conference the point was brought up about LGBTQ becoming inculded into our faith. Every few years there is a international conference that has delegates that discuss different topics that arise in the United Methodist Church. The conference a few years back was in an uproar and things got very heated and they had to set up a separate special conference just for this one topic (which is going to be in 2019). There will be a regular conference in 2020 that will discuss other topics but the 2019 is only about this one topic. I think it should be noted that the rule discouraging the practice of homosexuality and gay marriage wasn't added to the United Methodist Church's Social Principles until the 1970’s.
The people that went to the group that was discussing the book at our church were in all agreement that this is the time to change the language and accept everyone. How can we express God's love for everyone and not accept everyone? The church changed when it came to slavery and women taking important roles in the church, we shouldn't have exclusion in the faith. I for one am tired and rather mad that there is this whole subject that I have to explain to my children and myself that I don't agree with in my religion. I don't want to leave the United Methodist Church and hopefully I will not have to.
I don't know if I would recommend this week's book. It was kinda wishy washy but I think it was because the author wasn't trying to sway the reader one way or another. It was definitely informative but I think I would have to recommend reading God and the Gay Christian, with this book as a good pairing.
No comments:
Post a Comment