By James V. Heidinger II,
President and Publisher
GOOD NEWS PERSPECTIVE – No. 10, January 3, 2008
With New Year’s greetings, we welcome you to this issue of Perspective, Good News’ e-mail newsletter sent out every two weeks to United Methodists across the nation. We hope you are finding it helpful and informative. If you do, we invite you to forward it to family, friends, or persons in your local church who might be interested in receiving it. The e-mail is free. To subscribe, send your e-mail address to: perspective@goodnewsmag.org. E-mail addresses will not be sold or shared.
“GREAT DEBATERS” FILM SPOTLIGHTS UM-RELATED COLLEGE -- United Methodists may not realize that a new film, “The Great Debaters,” starring Denzel Washington, which opened December 25 in U.S. theaters is a fictionalized account of the remarkably successful 1935 debate team at Wiley College, a small United Methodist-related, historically black school in Marshall, Texas.
The film, nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best motion picture drama, focuses on four young debaters and their mentor, Melvin Tolson, who taught at Wiley and coached the champion debate team. Washington stars as Tolson, a poet and author, and also directed the film.
The 1935 Wiley debate team was the first African-American school to debate on a “white” college campus and bested the University of Southern California debate team for an unexpected victory. Film makers chose to have the win be over Harvard because they felt the school was more symbolic of an educational bastion.
After Denzel Washington met with Wiley College’s President Haywood L. Strickland about how to help the debate program at Wiley, Strickland announced that the famous actor will donate $1 million to the school’s recently resurrected debate program.
For the full UMNS story by Fran Coode Walsh about the film and what it could mean to many of the historic black UM-related colleges in America, go to: http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=2433457&ct =4826793
SCJ DELEGATES DISCUSS “HOLY CONFERENCING,” AND OTHER ISSUES -- General and Jurisdictional Conference delegates from across the South Central Jurisdiction met in early December to discuss holy conferencing and other issues related to the 2008 General Conference.
Bishop Sally Dyck (Minnesota Area) reviewed the document “Guidelines for Holy Conferencing—What God Expects of Us,” and urged United Methodists to learn to practice holy conferencing in all areas of their lives.
The bishop spoke about the importance of getting to know those with whom we disagree. She and Bishop Scott Jones (Kansas Area) have tried to model that in a bridge-building partnership. She hopes that there will be less of a winners-and-losers mentality at the 2008 General Conference. “How it is that we make the decisions may be every bit as important as what the decisions are,” she noted.
Certainly, the civility of our conversations is important. But the church needs to realize as well that process is not the only concern. Issues of real substance to the life of the church will be debated. And we should take caution not to assume that disagreeing with others as we seek God’s truth is somehow unholy or unChristlike.
Theologian Richard John Neuhaus warned years ago that one of the dangers of dialogue is the view that our deepest differences make no difference. I remember thoughtful words from Bishop Jack Tuell (retired) as he warned of boasting in our “pluralism” [today we use diversity]: “In recent years we have tended to lose sight of that central ‘core of doctrine’ and have allowed ourselves as United Methodists to dwell on the ‘divergent interpretations,’ to which we have given the hideous name of ‘pluralism.’ And sometimes we have talked as though it is our ‘pluralism’ which holds us together and which is our most distinctive mark!. . .To suggest this is to suggest only chaos and disintegration” (“What We Believe,” The Interpreter, March/April 1982, p.8).
For the full article about this gathering of SCJ delegates, go to: http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=2927
UNITED METHODISM AND ITS BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS – I have often referred to Riley Case as the Will Rogers of United Methodism. As a retired member of the North Indiana Conference and a former district superintendent, Riley’s books and writings are always substantive and worth reading.
In a recent letter from the Renewal and Reform Coalition, he wrote about the proliferation of resolutions in the United Methodist Church. It’s hard to believe that the 1952 Book of Discipline had just 10 resolutions, three of which dealt with alcohol concerns. By 1980, there was a Book of Resolutions, which carried 84 resolutions in 221 pages. By 2004, The Book of Resolutions contained 368 resolutions in 960 pages of text!
Case notes that in the 50-year period of time during which the percent of United Methodists in the general population of America decreased by half (from 6 percent of the population to just 3 percent), the number of resolutions increased more than 30 times, from 10 to 368. With resolutions on every conceivable subject, it appears that some United Methodists would like our church to be another United Nations, but with a religious flair.
He also notes, as Liza Kittle documented in her article in the current Good News, that 67 percent of the petitions in the 2004 Book of Resolutions originated with three general boards: Church and Society, the Women’s Division, and the General Board of Global Ministries.
For Kittle’s full article, see the January/February issue of Good News magazine. Case’s full newsletter is reprinted below.
_____________________________________________
Dear delegates to the General Conference from the North Central Jurisdiction (and others):
The following is Renewal Letter #7 from the Renewal and Reform Coalition. Direct responses to rbcase@netusa1.net.
THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS
If church growth were to be measured by the number of resolutions a denomination passes United Methodism would long since have passed Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, and everyone else in America. The Book of Resolutions of 2004 runs to 368 resolutions in 960 pages. That is a resolution for every day of the year.
To put this in perspective: the Methodist 1952 Discipline carried a total of 10 resolutions, three of which were about alcohol (we urged abstinence for all persons nominated for any official position in the church), one on the Christian home, one on public morals, one on War and Peace, one on evangelism, and one on Race. E.U.B.s did not report resolutions but included a section on "Moral Standards" in their Discipline.
But times change. In the heady days of the 1960s when the world was setting the agenda, and when seminary classes debated the death of God and the Secular City,
a number of persons in the church became enamored with resolutions. How better to bring in the kingdom than to instruct the government, the schools, and the church on matters of public policy and how the world should be run. The General Conference of 1968 provided for a "book" of resolutions. The Methodist-EUB merger provided the church with some superboards which felt anointed with wisdom from on high.
Ten resolutions soon became fifty. By 1980 The Book of Resolutions carried 84 resolutions in 221 pages. This increased to 181 resolutions in 608 pages by 1988. From then on resolutions multiplied until they were like sand of the sea. In the 50-year period of time during which the percent of United Methodists in the general population decreased by half (from 6% to 3%) the number of resolutions increased more than 30 times (10 to 368).
Who do we have to thank for the glut? An analysis of where petitions originate reveals that 67% of the petitions in the 2004 Book of Resolutions originated with three general boards: Church and Society, the Women's Division, and the General Board of Global Ministries. We can thank these agencies also for redirecting the church's priorities during the time of membership decline. In 1996, when the Book of Resolutions still had space for an index, 298 resolutions talked about "community," 250 about "government," 116 about "women," 64 about "United Nations," 79 about "racism," and 51 about "native American." By contrast, "gambling," and "alcohol," once major concerns in Methodist morality, received a total of 10 and 22 mentions respectively. Only 19 resolutions made a reference to "evangelism."
Do we really need so many resolutions? Is our social witness any stronger with 368 resolutions than with 10 resolutions? Have we heard about the Law of Diminishing Returns? If the church insists in talking about everything from Chief Wahoo (p. 369) to the evils of privatization (p. 937) to Taco Bell (p. 511) to "processed chlorine free" paper (p. 108), to pollutants from photocopy machines (p. 101), do we come across more like busybodies than as prophets? Do we really need, as in the 2004 Book of Resolutions 30 different resolutions on "Native Americans," 12 on "Peace," 11 to "Women" (0 on "Men"), and 9 different call for church-wide studies.
To make the case that The Book of Resolutions is out of control, the 2004 edition calls us to dialogue on homosexuality during the period of 2000-2004 (p. 149), hold consultations on the ministry in the years 2000-2004 (p. 118); instruct the General Council on Ministries (no longer in existence) to recommend to the 2004 conference how to live into the future (p. 117). We are also to study communion, which was done, approved and published in the same book that tells us we ought to do it.
How about if the delegates to the 2008 General Conference got together and said it is time to be responsible about The Book of Resolutions. No more accepting resolutions after three minutes' debate. Delete the irrelevant resolutions. Give the church resolutions that it can take seriously.
Riley B. Case
Click here to send your response plus the title of this article to us at Good News.