Bill Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, details the Unitarian Universalist Association agenda, in a press conference sponsored by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
Mark Tooley, UM Action Director for the Institute on Religion and Democracy, writes on the same press conference, describing the involvment of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society and other groups.
Posted by Joel Fuhrmann at November 11, 2004 09:47 PMThe United Methodist Church is a "big tent" church. Mark Tooley would like the church to be composed entirely of conservative Republicans, it seems. That is why Tooley extended an invitation to me to leave the church. I have no intention of leaving.
Posted by: Joel Thomas at November 11, 2004 11:48 PMJoel, just for clarification:
You have a disagreement with the IRD, and Mark Tooley as its representative, for its position against attempts to rewrite the UMC Book of Discipline with respect to ordaining homosexual ministers. I believe you were supportive of efforts of gay activists, through organizations such as Soulforce, to revise the Book of Discipline, while the IRD opposed such efforts.
Near the end of the General Conference, animosities between the two sides were so great that someone from Good News made an off-hand comment, not intended for consideration at the Conference, but leaked to the press, that maybe it would be better if the UMC split. The comments were quickly disavowed by resolution by the delegates at GC. Good News and IRD continue to view an "amicable separation" as a possible outcome if the UMC Book of Discipline is threatened again in this manner.
Please correct me if I misrepresented anything.
Actually Dr. William Hinson president of the Confessing Movement and an ally of Mark Tooley's drafted a proposal for a split. This wasn't something offhand. It was floated as a trial balloon. The suporters discoverd that they didn't have enough support for a split, so they backed off. Mark Tooley remains committed to a split, however, because he wants the church to be a mirror of the Republican party, in my opinion.
I am not a supporter or ally of Soulforce. I don't believe that disrupting gatherings is the way to go. I also believe the matter should be decided by people within the denomination and not outsiders and many in Soulforce are outsiders.
The fact is that the conservatives are also trying to re-write the Book of Discipline to make it more "war friendly", to remove our historic opposition to the death penalty, to remove our support for collective bargaining and minimum wage, for instance.
Just so you know, if the church were to split, I'd stay with the conservative faction because among other things I have very traditional views on the atonement.
I was baptized into the United Methodist Church more than 37 years ago and I have no intention of being run out.
If one doesn't want to be around both liberals and conservatives, the United Methodist just isn't the place to be.
Mark Tooley is overwhelming unpopular with probably 75-80% of all United Methodist pastors because his tactics aren't respected even by many of the more conservatie pastors. He is also unpopular with the good majority of United Methodist Bishops, not just the liberal ones
However, he has the right to do what he wants, just as you do.
Joel, thanks for the additional commenting. I appreciated the extra detail, and reading your point of view.