Contents
May/June 2006
FEATURES
Guardian angel on alert Chuck Ferrara discovers something beyond the badge.
John Wesley and United Methodist renewal James V. Heidinger II appeals to the wisdom of Methodism’s founder
The emergence of confessing Christians Thomas C. Oden encourages mainline renewal.
Anne Rice: The dark wing of night Trish Teves inquires the once gothic author about her conversion.
Holiness Manifesto The Wesleyan Holiness Study Project makes an appeal.
Columns
Editorial Why membership matters
Next Generation The answers are right, but the life is wrong
RENEW Women’s Network The tie that binds
The Great Commission The world in high resolution
From the Heart Tell
Letters to the editor
Straight Talk
News
Re-thinking ‘doing church’ to reverse membership decline
Prayer event brings unity to community
U.S. church opens arms to Iraqi girl with birth defect
Culture in View
Family films with a message
Walking the line into a ring of fire
The United Methodist Church celebrates its diversity-"Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors." Open to everyone, that is, except evangelicals (usually labeled "conservatives," although many are conservative theologically and liberal socially). Despite the fact that most polls show the majority of United Methodists consider themselves to be "conservative," UM boards and agencies have closed the church door to them.
Take, for example, the Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW). Garlinda Burton, General Secretary of COSROW, preached on "The Importance of Being Liberal" to a Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) banquet in Virginia. MFSA is a liberal caucus group with far left positions. She denounced gun owners, called for converting the people in the White House, made disparaging remarks about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and implored her audience to reclaim the word "liberal" and say, "I'm liberal and proud." She further claimed standing up to "oppressive war-mongering powers" is truly Wesleyan and concluded, "Liberal is a God thing. Liberal is a good thing," even though "many people say 'liberal' as though they are saying 'snot-nosed.'"
COSROW receives more than $3 million in apportionment funding from United Methodism this quadrennium. Is it time to let COSROW become an unofficial caucus for liberals and allow the church to use that $3 million for worthy causes serving the whole spectrum of United Methodists?
Take also, for example, the General Board of Church and Society. Speaking at an Oregon church, General Secretary Jim Winkler blamed the U.S. for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in either the war (which he called "an illegal war of aggression") or previous sanctions, and talked of "numerous atrocities" committed by U.S. troops. He also condemned "extremist" and "Christianist" forces in the U.S. who insist on posting the Ten Commandments, displaying public nativity scenes, and opposing gay and lesbian people. He likened Christian schools in America to Islamic madrassahs in Pakistan and elsewhere that advocate hatred and terrorism. According to Winkler, conservative Christians in the U.S. are creating a "virtual alternative society" that he finds dangerous.
More recently, Winkler suggested in an interview with the Christian Post that President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney should also be ineligible for church membership since the church opposes war (this in reference to the denial of membership to an unrepentant practicing homosexual, upheld by the Judicial Council). Mr. Winkler failed to acknowledge the "just war" clause in the Social Principles, which follows our church's opposition to war, and which states that war might be justly "employed only as a last resort in the prevention of such evils as genocide, brutal suppression of human rights, and unprovoked international aggression."
The UM Board of Church and Society received its very valuable building in the heart of Washington, D.C., along with other assets, from the old Temperance Board, with a trust clause that states all income derived from such must be used for addressing alcohol addiction. There has been little or no program for addiction for years, but Church and Society spends about $5 million annually for political lobbying. Significantly, the General Council on Finance and Administration, the denomination's financial oversight agency, recently rejected the 2004 audit of Church and Society, citing its failure to comply with the trust clause. This could have major consequences.
One might also visit the Reading Table of United Methodist Women and the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, or examine their spending to find a similar agenda of political causes.
When it comes to UM diversity: Evangelicals need not apply.
Carolyn Elias is a member of First UM Church, Hot Springs and is a Good News board member. This is an opinion article, first printed in the Arkansas United Methodist. Used with permission.
At Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Franklin's house, about 16 students from Virginia Tech University are tearing out walls, knocking down ceilings and pulling up carpet.
The Franklins' son, E. Dwight Franklin, couldn't be happier.
"My parents lived here for almost 30 years," he says. On the outside edges of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, the Franklins' home was one of many left mired in mud and mold six months after Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast.
Several of the volunteer groups coming through the state in March are college and high school students on their spring breaks.
Now that the students are working on the house, Franklin says he is beginning to see some hope. "A month or so ago, I didn't see any hope. It is such a blessing to have them here."
The Franklin family is spread out from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Texas, he says. "My mom has been back, but my dad hasn't seen the house yet." He says in addition to his parents' house, his own house was flooded as well as his grandparents' house.
Ivy Gorman, team leader for the Virginia Tech students, stopped long enough to catch her breath after dumping another wheelbarrow load of debris on the pile outside the house.
"We are cleaning up the mess, pulling up carpet, taking out the kitchen sink, the toilets," she says. When asked why she would give up a chance to be relaxing on a beach somewhere for this backbreaking work, she says simply, "People need help."
Franklin watches the students haul out load after load. "Just look at all this stuff," he says. "My mom was a stuff person."
In another part of town, more students from Virginia Tech are helping Rita Taylor clear out her house.
"I love it," she says of the help. "I didn't have enough money to pay someone to come in and do this, it is a blessing."
Taylor says this was her first home and the storm took its toll on her. "I lost everything," she says. "I am going to clean it out and lock it up and wait and see what happens during the next hurricane season."
Joshua Plitt, a senior mechanical engineering student, explains why he came on this trip: "The Bible directs us to help the poor and oppressed."
After a pause, he adds, "I am doing it to glorify God."
Kathy L. Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tennessee.
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