2008 General Conference Weblog RSS Feed

Near the back of the Fort Worth Convention Center, just past the massive church agency booths, free health screening expo, and zen-like prayer circle, sat a huge Cokesbury bookstore. Packed with books and General Conference souvenirs, the store was a goldmine of interesting finds. Without further delay, here are my top picks from Cokesbury GC08! –Jeff Walton

Party Divas! 12 Fabulous Parties for Women’s Ministry (Paperback)
By Amber Von Schooneveld
List Price: $21.99

Featuring over 60 mouthwatering recipes, “Party Divas” bridges the gap between hospitality and women’s ministry. With celebrations categorized by season, Schooneveld’s book pairs delicious dishes with “gab time” questions and fun games to match! Example: a “mystery lover” party where guests get clues as to who their “mystery lover” is. Spoiler: It’s the big J.C.

Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century (Paperback)

By Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz
List Price: $19.00

Featured on the prominent “Journey to Inclusiveness” display, Mujerista Theology describes itself as a “comprehensive introduction to Hispanic women’s liberation theology”. Author Isasi-Diaz focuses on “the life journeys and struggles of Hispanic women as she develops a theology to support and empower their daily struggles for meaning.” Part one of the book? “Locating the Self in Mujerista Theology”. Some liberation!

Unfaithing U.S. Colonialism

(Paperback)
By Deborah Lee
List Price: $44.00

Another pick from the treasure trove that was the “Journey to Inclusiveness” display, “Unfaithing” lashes out at “U.S. colonial influence and domination”. Lee says that “Religion in the form of oppressive teaching and distorted justifications has been used to subjugate colonized peoples. Real faith, when dislodged from the hands of the colonizer and unleashed, has a liberating dimension.” This was especially interesting, considering that delegates to GC08 from formerly colonized nations apparently thought their time was best spent trying to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ rather than talking about colonial subjugation.

Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action (Paperback)

By David Ray Griffin
List Price: $19.95

Pop quiz: what’s better than a conspiracy spewing 9/11 book? Answer: a Christian conspiracy spewing 9/11 book! Griffin, a former faculty member at the United Methodist Claremont Theological Seminary in California, somehow managed to get the Presbyterian Church’s Westminster John Knox Press to publish his radical screed about government-sanctioned sponsorship of the infamous terrorist attacks, only to have them run away as quickly as possible. At a recent religion and journalism expo, the WJK Press booth somehow forgot to bring copies. But who still has in stock the book that even the publisher seems to have hidden? Cokesbury, that’s who!

Middle

Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right (Paperback)
By Bob Edgar
List Price: $15.00

Written by then-general secretary of the National Council of Churches Bob Edgar, “Middle Church” calls for Christians, Jews, Muslims and all moderates at the “center” of the aisle to move away from the religious right boogeyman issues like homosexuality and abortion in favor of wide-ranging issues of poverty, peace and saving the environment. Unfortunately, policy positions espoused as “MiddleChurch” are exclusively on the left side of the aisle, and seem to link the practice of justice directly to advocating increased federal programs.

“Made in Texas” General Conference 2008 Hot Sauce

List Price: $4.95 (package of three)

Stomach still not upset after the plenary votes? Don’t fret! This gift pack includes steak, jalapeño and buffalo wing sauce to give you all the heartburn you crave. Complete with “United Methodist General Conference 2008: A Future With Hope” packaging, it’s the perfect thing to bring home to your spouse or life partner after two weeks away in Cowtown.

WomenSpirit: Vestments for Women

List Price: (varies)

Tired of patriarchal vestments with the traditional images of fish, doves and flames? WomenSpirit offers the latest in liturgical fashion, including popular butterfly and sea turtle themes. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of fish: shellfish! Decorative stoles with shiny bivalves, blue waves and silvery highlights will make certain your congregation is in tune with the wonders of the natural world. Note: send shellfish stole to Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop and Oceanographer Katherine Jefforts Schori.

Make Us One With Christ: The Study Guide Version (Paperback)

By the offices of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, TEC and UMC
List Price: $(Unknown)

Is your denomination not shedding members fast enough? Looking from tips from the experts? Then join into full communion with the wacky and wild heresies of the Episcopal Church. A product of official dialogue between the United Methodist and Episcopal Churches, this guide helps adult education classes understand each other’s denominations and “facilitate fellowship”. Spoiler: There’s no section on joint Evangelism.

–Jeff Walton

You read that right.

Among the many little-noticed actions of this General Conference was the retention, at the request of the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, of #309 in the denomination’s Book of Resolutions, which among other things calls for participation in a particular United Nations-sponsored conference.  A conference which the resolution portrays as upcoming.  In the year 2001.

The 2004 General Conference actually amended and re-adopted this resolution (which was originally passed in 2000), but neglected to change or delete the 2001 reference.

Does this say anything about how carefully and thoughtfully General Conference petitions, and especially the lenghty political resolutions, actually get read by the delegates who vote on them (not to mention by the general agencies that largely submit them)?

– John Lomperis

Another notable matter addressed at this General Conference was the denomination’s involvement in and heavy financial support of the leftist National Council of Churches (NCC).

Unsurprisingly, UMC membership in the NCC was re-affirmed.

However, delegates overwhelmingly rejected a resolution from the California-Nevada Conference opposing any “arbitrary capping of or restricting” of the financial support of the NCC from United Methodists’ apportioned offering plate money.  financial support of the NCC.  Interestingly, the California-Nevada Conference has consistently paid far less than most other conferences of its own assigned apportionments.

Surprisingly, the General Conference adopted a resolution declaring that the UMC “will seek assurances, through the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns (GCCUIC) and The Council of Bishops, that the [NCC] remain faithful and accountable to the purpose defined in its Constitution” (namely, to be “a community of Christian communions, which, in response to the Gospel as revealed in Scriptures, confess Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, as Savior and Lord”).

While it would have been nice if they had not deleted the lenghthy and explicit criticism of the NCC’s divisiveness that the submitter of the resolution (aka, yours truly) had originally had in there, the facts that the amended version of the resolution was passed so overwhelmingly (48-1 in committee, which put it on a consent calendar) and that there was no reason to support it if the NCC was in fact just fine as it is now demonstrate that even many liberals in the UMC see a need for more accountability for the NCC.

– John Lomperis

As the two-week whirlwind known as General Conference draws to a close, readers may appreciate an update on some major votes that have been taken, beyond what has already been mentioned.

Among the positive steps, the delegates overwhelmingly voted to:

• Retain the denomination’s current stand on marriage;
• Support a constitutional amendment to give licensed local pastors (a category of UMC shepherds of congregations who are not fully ordained and subject to itinerant appointments) the right to vote for General and Jurisdictional Conference delegates;
• Endorse and “encouraged the Church to assist the ministry of crisis pregnancy centers and pregnancy resource centers that compassionately help women find feasible alternatives to abortion”;
• Reject a petition from the Northern Illinois Conference calling for divestment from Israel;
• Reject resolutions from the Desert-Southwest Conference Board of Church and Society and from the New York Annual Conference that stridently condemned IRD.

 Some more negative steps taken by delegates:

• Rejected ending the denomination’s blank-check endorsement of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice by just 52-48 percent.  A switch of less than 20 votes would have changed this result.  RCRC achieved this victory only after surprisingly heavy lobbying of delegates (see posts below) and after RCRC supporters repeatedly misrepresented the truth to delegates (more on this later).  This vote just happened to be scheduled at a time when several dozen African delegates (who tend to be more pro-life than their U.S. counterparts) were absent.
• Supported constitutional amendments for a controversial global restructuring of the denomination, despite the fact that the question of precisely what these amendments would enable and establish will not be answered for several years.  However, before any constitutional amendments can be approved, they must also be voted on in all of the denomination’s annual conferences.

– John Lomperis

It has become a quadrennial tradition for gay rights activists associated with groups from within and without the church to invade the plenary floor to interrupt the important business of General Conference for a lengthy protest.

On Thursday, the presiding bishop of the plenary session, Bishop J. Lawrence McCleskey of Western North Carolina, used his position to unilaterally announce a 15-minute recess in order for such a protest, giving delegates no opportunity to accept or reject this.  So then came the dozens of activists wearing rainbow-colored stoles into the main plenary floor (where only delegates are allowed), lining the aisles and taking to the microphone to angrily denounce the United Methodist Church for not abandoning Scriptural teaching on sexual morality.

Numerous delegates, bishops, and visitors stood in solidarity during the protest.

Interestingly (but unsurprisingly), every single staffer of the denomination’s Washington office (including Linda Bales and Neal Christie) and staffer or volunteer from RCRC’s team to lobby delegates (including the abortion rights group’s PR Director Marjorie Signer) that I saw stood for such solidarity with the homosexuality cause.  When I went to take a couple pictures to get a record of which official agency staff were standing, I was angrily confronted by Bales.

Retired bishop Mel Talbert also took to the microphone to encourage the protesters.  The protest closed with Bishop McCleskey inviting the official General Conference worship leaders, Mark Miller and Marcia McFee, to lead a hymn-singing.  As UMAction has reported earlier, both Miller and McFee have been involved with the pro-homosexuality Reconciling Ministries Network.

The protesters were particularly upset by recent plenary votes to uphold and strengthen biblical stand of the statements in the Social Principles on sexual morality, to uphold the denomination’s ban on homosexually active clergy, to reject support for civil unions, and perhaps most significantly, to not establish more “open” church membership standards than those currently in the Book of Discipline.

– John Lomperis

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is really pulling out all the stops in its lobbying of delegates.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, they’ve sent their PR Director, Marjorie Signer, to be here for the entire two weeks lobbying delegates, although she only came for a single day of the last General Conference, and the have a special section of their website set up now for their General Conference efforts.  What I have noticed since then is that RCRC has at least three or four additional people on its lobbying team here at the General Conference.  People sent to work night and day to keep a Christian church tied to the cause of killing precious unborn children who bear the image of God.

And that’s not all.

Apparently, shortly before the start of General Conference, RCRC was telephoning delegates to urge them continue the denomination’s unequal yoking with them.

They’ve been  distributing “RCRC Yes!” stickers to supportive delegates and others.

For the last couple of days, the RCRC crowd has been outside of the convention center to hold up their big sign and hand out their materials.

Just for this General Conference, they have produced special, professionally laminated bookmarks with pro-RCRC talking points for delegates.  When they were handing them out as folks entered the convention center yesterday morning, one started to automatically hand one to me as I passed by, but Ms. Singer then started yelling at her team member to not hand me one (since she knows who I am).

They’ve also produced a booklet and talking-points flyer especially for this General Conference.  The latter includes the amazing claim that “RCRC has never in any way supported abortion for gender selection or birth control or supported the use of partial-birth abortion.”  The extremely misleading nature of that statement is demonstrated by the analysis on the Renewal and Reform Coalition’s website of the contrast between RCRC and the United Methodist Social Principles.

 Again there seemed to be nothing like this on their part four years ago.  We’ll soon see how successful it is…

– John Lomperis

On the Sunday before General Conference, my pastor mentioned the Conference in the morning announcements. He added his hope that the “special interests” that have besieged past General Conferences would be set aside along with divisive issues like abortion, human sexuality, the environment, and immigration. Indeed the Rev. Tom Berlin, the lead clergy delegate for Virginia, mentioned the same hope in a commentary for UM News Service. “The curtain may be rising on a new act in our story as a Christian movement—unless forces of the past conspire to jam it shut.”

Sadly, the hope expressed by my pastor and Rev. Berlin have not been exhibited at this General Conference. There is little agreement on social issues like human sexuality, abortion or the war in Iraq. Each day there are anti-war protests, pro-homosexuality demonstrations, immigration reform rallies, one anti-Bush Library protester, and over a dozen daily leaflets available from various caucus groups.

There is little theological agreement either. On a quick walk through the official UMC bookstore, Cokesbury, one can find monographs by radical Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, Jesus Seminar author Marcus Borg, and “dissenting” United Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague. One can also find a few evangelical authors like orthodox Oxford don Alistair McGrath, Jesus Seminar critic and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, and Mere Christianity’s C.S. Lewis. And there are those from the so-called “extreme center” like UM Bishop Scott Jones (who, by the way, has a curious habit of avoiding taking all leaflets offered to GC delegates and visitors each morning—as a former professor, perhaps he’s already read enough).

Sorry Pastor John, General Conference hasn’t changed a bit.

-Jerald Walz

“The Love That Goes Unspoken,” sung to the tune “Ellacombe”
(“Hail, to the Lord’s Anointed” is usually sung to this tune) by Mary Louise
Bringle:

The love that goes unspoken,
that fears would force to hide,
still blooms in closet spaces,
too strong to be denied.
The Spirit’s wind blows freely,
To open bolted doors,
and beckon into daylight
a love that hate deplores.

As poets and musicians,
In Pietas of grace,
The outcast of our churches
Cast light on Myst’ry’s face.
They translate for our witness
The gifts the gospel brings,
And celebrate God’s grandeur
In rare and dappled things.

In varied forms of fam’ly,
In unions yet unblessed,
As sisters and as brothers
And kin with earth’s oppressed,
All dwell within God’s household,
Yet some bear insults hurled
To chide the so-called ‘barren’
Whose children are the world’s.

Christ loves without distinction,
Both joys and sorrows borne,
And welcomes open-hearted
The ones whom others scorn.
We shall not, then, be shackled
By needless guilt and shame.
In Christ, the love unspoken
Now dares to speak its name.

At this juncture, I would like to pose a simple,
grammatical question that may reveal a deeper spiritual truth. What is the (grammatical)
subject of the introductory and concluding sentences of the lyrics?

What does this mean?

UMAction Steering Committee Chariman David Stanley introduces UMAction Director Mark Tooley, praising his new book and likening him to the “troubler of Israel.”  David praises Mark for his “ability to sniff out things that need to be sniffed out and brought to the light of day.”

 Mark Tooley gives brief remarks, overviewing his 20 years of involvement in the renewal movement.

Now a question-and-answer session.  Mark notes that while our denomination indeed has many problems with theological liberalism, we are in a much better position than other mainline American Protestant denominations (such as the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church-USA).  He gives much credit to this to the overseas, largely African portion of the church.

In response to a question from the Rev. Jerry Kulah, Mark addresses the problems of rampant theological liberalism in our seminaries, but points to how God is using some market pressures to strongly challenge this, namely, pressures for official United Methodist seminaries to be more responsive and hospitable to evangelicals and the reality of so many U.S. United Methodist seminarians going to seminaries other than the 13 officially affiliated with the seminary.

Mark recalls his first major project of researching the extremely liberal theology and politics of Dr. Phil Wogaman, who was then (in the early 1990s) pastor of the church attended by President and Mrs. Clinton.  Somewhat without warning, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas picked up Mark’s review of Dr. Wogaman’s writings, suddenly making his work a national phenomenon.

Mark recalls writing Wall Street Journal column he wrote after President Bush’s 2000 election that got him to visit Lincoln Park UMC, a thriving African-American congregation whose pastor is very evangelical and pro-life.

One man speaks of his discouragement with “Church and Society-2” committee (which just voted to replace the denomination’s Social Principles statement on human sexuality, which includes the position that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching”).  Mark agrees that we certainly are not out of the woods yet, but that this General Conference is still dramatically more friendly and open towards evangelicals than General Conferences in even recent memory.

The proposed changes from the Church and Society-2 committee still need to be voted on by the full, 990-member General Conference plenary session, so please keep this in prayer.

 – John Lomperis

“If you haven’t been accused of anti-Semitism yet, you haven’t been doing the work of Justice.”

The young activist’s words elicited something between a gasp and laughter from the assembled audience. Liat Weingart from Jewish Voice for Peace was speaking at a Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA)-sponsored talk on Phased Selective Divestment at First Christian Church, just down the street from the Fort WorthConvention Center where General Conference is taking place.

Weingart’s words may hit some as shocking, but they were in line with a frustration conveyed by each of the other speakers at the Monday event, frustrated at fellow Jewish groups they saw as unnecessarily reactionary and defensive, and most of all frustrated by a perceived injustice that they felt the United Methodist Church was perpetuating through its investments.

MFSA is one of several progressive groups that advocates divesting denominational holdings from companies doing business with Israel, specifically those that they feel have profited from what they argue is an unjust occupation. The session came the day after legislative committee events that left MFSA, in it’s own words, “disappointed”. Five different resolutions advocating divestment had been presented to the subcommittee on Finance and Administration, and all five had been summarily shelved in lop-sided votes that left little doubt where the resolutions would be headed: a filing cabinet for at least the next four years.

“All of our members share one thing in common,” Weingart asserted. “The organizations we once relied on are out of step with Jewish values, frozen in a reactionary stance.”

She was speaking of the major national Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, which have taken a strong tack against divestment proposals, arguing that they unfairly target Israel without offering any kind of balanced perspective.

Another speaker, Rosi Greenberg, disputed that argument. Greenberg questioned calls for balance in Middle East peace, asking “what about the inbalance” that she had seen in Palestinians’ lives. “The depiction of balance we cling to doesn’t acknowledge reality on the ground,” said Greenberg, who had spent the past year in Israel and shared a slideshow of checkpoints and demolished buildings to convey what Palestinians were facing.

Weingart described the dangers her Jewish relatives had endured in the past, but then went on to say “when it comes to Israel, Jews are prone to acting and speaking like we are still in mortal danger.” Weingart didn’t see that same level of danger continuing, and said that Israelis felt like they were in mortal danger every time their government was challenged.

The MFSA speakers also expressed frustration with what they called “fuzzy or hazy” language that had been adopted by mainline churches in addressing the divestment issue.

“People use such language because of fear of being accused of anti-Semitism,” said Weingart. “There is nothing fuzzy or hazy about the occupation. Soft and ambiguous language does not move people to action.”

The session concluded with a talk by Elizabeth Corrie, cousin of Rachel Corrie and a United Methodist from the North Georgia Annual Conference

Corrie charged that “a strategy of obfuscation” had confused those engaged in policymaking in the divestment matter and laments how she believed people haven’t been given a chance to talk about the matter on the floor of the General Conference because proposals dismissed in committee.

“Are we as a church comfortable with being war profiteers?” Corrie asked.

-Jeff Walton

The key elections were this morning.

There were lots of problems with the voting keypads functioning or delegates being able to figure them out.  Also, despite there being delegates from all over the world, the instructions screen was only in English!

Here’s who was elected:

Lay

Angela Brown (483 on the second ballot)

Ruben Reyes (458 on the second ballot)

Clergy

Kathi Austin-Mahle (478 on second ballot)

F. Belton Joyner (451 on second ballot)

William B. Lawrence (517 on the fourth ballot)

– John Lomperis

Since our earlier chat, the Religous Coalition for Reproductive Choice’s aforementioned PR director has relinquished her press credentials to comply with the policy, and let me know this recently.

I’ll take small victories when I can get them.

The full Church and Society-2 committee should be voting on our denomination’s affiliation with RCRC tonight or possibly tomorrow.

– John Lomperis

At the front of a full sanctuary in downtown Ft. Worth, a young woman a few years my junior, with a few weeks to go before her college graduation, stands addressing a progressive, rainbow-stole clad audience about our generation’s demands for official affirmation of homosexuality and transgenderism. She emphatically prophesies the inevitable victory of her agenda.

I spent my lunch hour at the MOSAIC/ RMN youth rally today. While there, Rachel, the young woman from above, delivered the final speech before almost 200 rally-ers marched out into the streets of Fort Worth on their way to demonstrate at the Convention Center that is hosting the General Conference.

Most striking among her demands was that “We [young people] would like to be listened to; we would like the Church to meet us where we are.”

Rachel could have meant two things by “meeting us where we are.” Christ met the woman caught in the act of adultery where she was, and told her to ‘go, and sin no more.’ It seems reasonable to expect that the Church should emulate Christ’s example in this.

Or, Rachel could mean that the Church should leave her orthodox teaching of 2000 years and meet us there in our place of sin, and then tell us that it isn’t sin after all, and encourage us to pitch a tent and live in that spiritual wilderness.  This is a disturbing thought. Here’s why.

Christians understand the Church as the bride of Christ; while she awaits His return, she busies herself about His work. All her forward momentum is spent in following Him.

To suggest that the Church should stop in her tracks, do an about-face, and reorient her teachings to accommodate our individual and perpetuated brokenness seems extremely presumptuous. She does not exist to affirm the legitimacy of our often wayward actions. She exists to form our hearts and actions increasingly into the mold of Christ’s.

General Conference has provided an opportunity to talk with people that hold radically different worldviews. Over the first few days of our 11-day stay here in Fort Worth, I’ve already attended numerous events hosted by Affirmation, the unofficial UM gay caucus, the Reconciling Ministries Network, another pro-gay group, and Soulforce, a pro-gay faith group outside of United Methodism that advances the causes of a wide range of sexual minorities.

In addition to events sponsored by each of these groups, I also see gay and transsexual activists each morning during daily distribution of our UM Action briefing in front of the convention center.  Everyone is cordial, affording the opportunity to discuss each others viewpoints and stories. This morning, one of my new acquaintances queried me about our briefing cover story, a straightforward piece about transsexuals seeking a higher profile at GC08. “You’ve quoted each of the panelists,” the woman noted, “and included your legislative recommendations at the end of the article. But you never rebut their statements. Why?”

I responded that the statements spoke for themselves – a transsexual woman who suggested that people who have had sex changes would make great marriage counselors since they had been on ‘both sides of the table’, or a transsexual man who is currently seeking ordination in the New England Annual Conference.  She couldn’t understand the connection between printing what she saw as reasonable statements and the decision to support resolutions declining to offer ordination to transsexuals.

The inability to connect the two surprised me, since many progressive activists at General Conference have a passion for language and imagery. During one RMN-sponsored youth rally this afternoon, a young seminarian half jokingly shared her views about the tree logo the RMN-affiliated youth organization had selected. Initially she had reservations, as the “western” tree might prompt images of colonialism. In contrast, she had selected an Indian tree with a more diverse look. Unfortunately, the Indian tree proved a poor metaphor for diversity – it was actually an invasive plant species that sent out a sprawling root system, destroying all other life underneath it. Poor metaphor, indeed.

-Jeff Walton

Since coming on staff at UMAction sixteen months ago, one of the things that has most surprised
me about the responses to our work by those (supposedly open-minded types) who
disagree with our views is the vitriolic tone that many take.

Yesterday I went early with other IRD staffers to greet
delegates entering the Convention Center and pass out the day’s Briefing.  Some delegates smiled and took them gratefully,
others politely shook their heads and rushed by, and the third group… well, let’s
just say they were vocal in their dissent from UMAction’s work. One woman paused to look at the stack of papers
resting on my arm, and, recognizing the organization’s work, chided, “Oh no! I
think some of the work you do is the most destructive to the Church!”

While not all respond that way, it happens frequently enough
to be a pattern.  And yesterday, I wondered
why.

My job is to go to church events, take notes, and write
about what I see there, so that the United Methodist laity remains informed
about the activities of the denomination at a national level. What is it that
makes the truth frightening?

Then it occurred to me. Truth is a virtue, and virtues only have
the power to destroy vice. Virtues are not destructive to good works, but to
bad ones. If you are worried about the truth destroying what you are doing, you
would do best to question whether what you are doing is really good. Chances
are, if you find the truth destructive to your agenda, you are probably on the
wrong side of the issue.

Along with this goes that old maxim one journalist recently
reminded me of: Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

This morning the IRD team headed to the Ft. Worth Convention Center to distribute our UMAction Daily Briefings. The response to our Briefings have been varied as mentioned earlier in this blog.  However this morning, I was taken aback by what the Soulforce folks decided to do this morning.  As you see in the photograph, there is a main walkway into the Convention Center.  Soulforce volunteers lined the the sidewalk for an entire block.  Then as delegates walked into the Convention Center there were a half-moon of volunteers making a “barrier” to enter into the Convention Center.  They were not verbally abusive.  But they were, as what had to be their goal, somewhat intimidating.  I overheard two delegates talking and referred to this morning’s Soulforce presentation as “running the gauntlet.”

-Loralei Coyle

One of the most important issues to be decided at this General Conference is whether our denomination shall continue its current “blank check” endorsement of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) or follow the lead of other “mainline Protestant denominations with similarly nuanced positions on abortion that have  rejected affiliation with RCRC (namely, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptists, the Disciples of Christ, and the Northern Province of the Moravian Church).  For more information on this strident, U.S.-focused political group, see the Renewal & Reform Coalition’s very informative web page on RCRC or else UMAction’s briefer white paper on the matter.

The last General Conference, in 2004, voted by a relatively narrow margin to maintain affiliation with RCRC.  But this vote was only taken after one RCRC supporter, Beth Capen (who now sits on the Judicial Council), assured fellow delegates, who had no opportunity for rebuttal, that RCRC advocates nothing contrary to the United Methodist Social Principles.  To see how that is blatantly false, see either of the above links.

This time, RCRC has really geared up for lobbying General Conference delegates.  The main page of RCRC’s website prominently links to several pages designed to promote itself and its agenda here at the General Conference.  (And guess who they single out as their Enemy Numero Uno?)  They are also touting a new pro-RCRC statement by the radical Bishop Beverly Shamana of San Francisco, which was also recently distributed by the denomination’s General Board of Church and Society (GBCS).  “RCRC Yes!” stickers are being passed around here to the group’s supporters.

I can’t remember anything like this from them last year.

Also today (okay, technically yesterday since I’m once again working past midnight), I had a surprisingly courteous and pleasant chat with RCRC’s publicity director.  Like me, she’s monitoring the sub-committee currently addressing “sanctity of life” issues.  (Unlike me, she has also signed up for and received press credentials.  I did not want to be bound by the rules stating that those receiving them cannot “serve as a lobbyist for their organization” or “act as spokespersons.”  I’ll be watching closely to see if she respects those rules in her efforts to divorce my church from historic Christian teaching.)

Anyhow, apparently she came for only one day of the last General Conference, but this time around will be here for the duration.

Is somebody getting a little nervous?

Maybe it’s the fact that in 2007, five annual conferences passed motions calling for this General Conference to cut the UMC’s ties with RCRC.  Maybe it’s the threat of growing pro-life sentiment in the U.S. “infecting” its second-largest Protestant denomination.  Or maybe its the growing fear of many liberal church officials of the growing African influence in the UMC.

In any case, please pray that their fears will turn out to be more than justified at this General Conference!

– John Lomperis

The nearly 1,600 petitions submitted to General Conference must first make their way through one of the thirteen different committees into which delegates are divided.

Tonight these committees elected their officers, with evangelicals winning several key, strategic positions, and self-described “progressives” winning others.

I am monitoring the second of two “Church and Society” committees.  The petitions in “Church and Society 2” largely deal with issues related to sexuality, abortion, bioethics, and the family.

A few hours ago, they elected as their chair Fred K. Brewington, a civil rights lawyer who currently serves as a director of the denomination’s Washington lobby office, the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS).  He was the subject of a relatively recent New York Times profile, which noted that he “is sometimes called the Johnnie Cochran of Long Island” and is active in local Democratic politics.  The article also noted that he was at one point one of the lawyers for Tawana Brawley, “an upstate teenager whose accusation that she had been raped by white racist tormentors turned out to have been a hoax.”  (Vivian S. Toy, “A Civil Tenor for Civil Rights,” New York Times, 23 February 2003)

Brewington did give a pretty good nominee speech, and it was definitely better than that of the other three people he ran against.

A more encouraging sign for this committee is the fact that its full membership elected a strong evangelical 40-24 over a board member of the pro-homosexuality Reconciling Ministries Network, even though the latter may have gotten a boost by being nominated by a prominent evangelical leader.

– John Lomperis

During the course of a break in the opening night’s Church and Society—2 committee meeting, a prominent conservative delegate returned to his seat in the delegates-only area to find that someone (either a translator or another delegate) had drawn a swastika on his paper.

Things are off to quite a start!

– John Lomperis

An important decision made with the latter concerns an important factor in General Conference that is little-known at the grassroots level: consent calendars.

Basically, if a particular petition gets overwhelmingly supported or opposed in its committee, it is lumped together with other such petitions so that the full plenary session will take a single vote on them as a group. So the full body of delegates never individually votes on or discusses the petitions in a consent calendar. Each General Conference votes on numerous consent calendars throughout its duration, and they are consistently approved overwhelmingly.

In practice, this is how it often works: A committee gets a petition, which is in turn referred to one of its self-selected sub-committees. At the last General Conference, I saw that these sub-committees include as few as three or four delegates. The sub-committee then overwhelmingly or unanimously approves or rejects the petition with little to no discussion, since these particular delegates happen to be like-minded on the issue at hand. Impressed to hear of such strongly one-sided feelings by the sub-committee, and being hesitant to pick a seemingly unnecessary fight, the other committee delegates (many of whom have not read this petition carefully) vote—with only token opposition, a few abstentions, and little to no substantial discussion—to support the sub-committee recommendation. So it sails on through to the consent calendar, which the plenary approves as a matter of routine, and before you know it, the unexamined and un-debated personal opinion of three people has become established as the official position of the 11-million member denomination.

Moral of the story: the next time you hear about a United Methodist General Conference approving such-and-such a political resolution by a vote of 877-19, beware of reading too much into that.

Indeed, all kinds of controversial political resolutions have sailed through under the radar through this system.

Now the word on the street is that the rules have been changed to make it easier to assign a petition to a consent calendar (by doubling the minimum threshold of dissenting votes to prevent this from happening) and much more difficult to get a petition off of a consent calendar (by, among other things, increasing from five to twenty the number of delegate signatures required).

While the full effect of this rule change will have to be seen, it leaves the door open for quite a bit of mischief…

– John Lomperis

There’s quite the overflow here.  Since we only have made arrangements to feed 120 people, we’ve had to ask those coming into the room to give preference in line to General Conference delegates (rather than visitors) and/or people from Africa.

Even so, the areas around the lunch tables are packed with people sitting in chairs or standing.  We have nothing left to feed them, but they’re still eager to stay here with us!

UMAction Steering Committee head David Stanley is now speaking (with the help of a French interpreter) about the critical importance of electing Judicial Council members who are committed to biblical, Wesleyan teaching and who will uphold the Book of Discipline and other policies democratically established by the General Conference.

David is now encouraging those present to pick up some of the papers we have on a display table before they leave.  The papers cover everything from Judicial Council elections and candidates, specific issue areas to be voted on, and the entirety of the “Africa Declaration.”  Some of these are translated into French and Portuguese.

UMAction Director Mark Tooley now introduces Monrovia, Liberia District Superintendent, the Rev. Jerry Kulah, as well as a Congolese United Methodist leader, Jacquie Mujinga, a General Conference delegate who has held several key positions in her annual conference.

The ever-enthusiastic Rev. Kulah is now giving a rousing speech, stressing that United Methodists around the world believe “there is hope and a future for United Methodism in our Wesleyan heritage,” *but* this is dependent on the denomination choosing high-quality leaders, as “leaders make or break an organization.”  It is also dpendent “on the decisions we will make at this General Conference” on such key matters as the authority of Scripture, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and our remaining a UNITED  global denomination.

He now delivers the the Africa Declaration, the full text of which can be read in English, French, or Portuguese by going to our main General Conference landing page.  He briefly departs from the text to rhetorically ask why the UMC is declining in both the USA and Europe, but growing rapidly in Africa.  Because of time constraints, he is having to deliver an abridged version of this important statement from the United Methodist churches in Africa.

Now Ms. Mujinga gets up to speak (in French, then translated into English).  She says that those from Africa are here “to work with this church and to help it to grow and advance.”  Invoking John’s Gospel, she stresses the desire of African United Methodists to be united as Christ and the Father are one.

David Stanley now closes the luncheon in prayer.

– John Lomperis

One of the highlights of this first official day of the General Conference was the group distributing an eight-page newspaper entirely devoted to attacking IRD/UMAction, and our Renewal and Reform Coalition partners.

 The first paragraph sets the tone for the entire piece:

The IRD? Who IS This Group?

A conservative think tank, like the one that may come on the SMU Campus—the IRD (Institute on Religion and Democracy) is basically composed of two groups: (1) Neocon Roman Catholic leaders and (2) wealthy millionaires who control billions of inherited tax-free
trust dollars. There are others. If you haven’t heard about the IRD, you will before General Conference ends.

(Gee, I wonder which of those two categories I would fall under?  On the one hand, I have visited a Catholic church before.  But on the other hand, I think it would be pretty cool if I got to “control billions of inherited tax-free trust dollars.”)

Amidst some laughably and very demonstrably false assertions (such as that the powerful Women’s Division’s “position on any issue is that of the general church and will remain such unless a change is made by General Conference”), railing against our alleged intentions, and promoting the “Living the Questions” adult Sunday school curriculum (which promotes the perspective of prominent critics of such key doctrines as the virgin birth, eternal deity, and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ), the hand out makes space for a number of fun cartoons.

 Like the Methodist/Titanic:

And this:

(The snake metaphor seems to be getting catching on with our critics!)

And this:

(Hey, how come I never got my IRD armor when I came on staff?!)

 This one’s more colorful:

But this is my personal favorite:

 (I guess the evil conductor with the villainous moustache would be UMAction Director Mark Tooley.)

According to this group’s website, they’re big fans of Jesus Seminar gurus and the pro-homosexuality Reconciling Ministries Network.

If we’ve got these folks this worried, we must be doing something right!

– John Lomperis

Greetings from Fort Worth! 

In our efforts here at General Conference, UMAction is working a part of the Renewal and Reform Coalition—which also includes the Confessing Movement, Good News, Lifewatch, the RENEW Network for Christian Women, and Transforming Congregations. 

I just learned about an interesting experience of another team member.  When this volunteer arrived at the airport, she ran into one of the denomination’s official General Conference greeters.  After finding out that this woman had indeed come to town for the General Conference, the greeter effusively gushed, “Welcome!  I’m so glad you’re here!  Who are you here with?” 

But the volunteer’s reply that she was with RENEW and Good News was apparently not expected.  The greeter promptly snapped, “I take back everything I just said!  I wish you were not here!”

So much for “Open hearts, Open minds, and Open doors.” 

In my work at UMAction, I have been continually amazed to see people acting on behalf of official bodies of the whole of our denomination appearing to feel no sense of obligation to seek to serve the whole of our church or even to extend basic human courtesy to United Methodists with whom they disagree.  This is particularly striking in light of the fact that the work of no official general agency or other official denominational body would be possible without this rudely welcomed volunteer and countless other devoted, evangelical, and, in some official quarters, unwanted United Methodists sacrificially contributing to their churches and therefore to the apportionment system. 

For me, this anecdote simply highlights the importance of our efforts to make the official structures of our church more accountable and responsive to the entirety of the denomination rather than just to a minority American liberal faction. 

Stay tuned …

– John Lomperis

Hello, and welcome to the UMAction weblog from the 2008 General Convention of the United Methodist Church.  I am Mark Tooley, Executive Director of UMAction.

My staff and I are busily preparing for the upcoming convention.  Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting my thoughts and comments from Fort Worth, as will my assistants John Lomperis and Rebekah Sharpe.  This weblog will be the best place to get our thoughts and analysis on the conference happenings from the convention hall as they occur.  To get the inside scoop, be sure to bookmark this site and visit it frequently.

– Mark Tooley