Like many, I am trying to make sense of the tragedy in Orlando. But I confess, as I talk to people and listen to different perspectives, I am embarrassed and ashamed. Well meaning, kind, caring people are inadvertently being callous and insensitive. I am going to speak from my own […]
There are very few people here in Portland who would say that The United Methodist Church is in a good, healthy place (no, I don’t mean Portland). We have come to a crisis point, where we cannot say we are united in Christ, or of one mind, heart, soul, and […]
Is a global gathering of thousands of “members” for a two week legislative meeting a community? General Conference does not feel to me like community. It could be. We are baptized to the same faith, confessing the same God and Savior, believing in the Spirit of God to be present […]
We are engaged in a fascinating bog here in Portland. There are strong and many calls to draw a definitive line in the sand to say who is right and who is wrong, who will win and who will lose. We have come to the place where no one can […]
Drawing on the saying “we’ve painted ourselves in a corner,” I want to offer a metaphor/analogy. Imagine if you will a ballroom. Large, open, massive space, with a sizeable floor. Four groups begin in the middle of the room to paint the floor, each moving in different directions toward a […]
Deja vu, all over again. Informally polling people on their feelings about launching into week 2 of General Conference, I am encountering a great deal of ambivalence, frustration, and a “here we go again” vibe. Expectations are very low, fear and anxiety very high, and a wariness that we may […]
At what point should The United Methodist Church admit its failures and simply split over the issues of human sexuality raised by LGBTQI people and those in the church unwilling or unable to accept them? For me, the answer is simple — at the point that we admit that we […]
An interesting and somewhat distressing thing happened this morning that gives me cause to pause. I was having coffee at a sidewalk table, sitting near a dozen other people, mostly my own age or older (so, all over 57…). A young, fairly hefty woman with her maybe three-year-old child, sauntered up […]
I always feel that I am serving some purpose when I blog and it turns out that I tick off everyone. By “weighing in” on all the talk of splitting the church (officially) I have “taken sides.” However, which side is a bit confusing and hard to determine. Consider these […]
I regularly encounter people who believe that disagreements in the church are evidence that we should split the denomination, that somehow we are defined by our differences rather than a common faith, a shared baptism, a risen Savior, and a God bigger than our pettiness. Probing deeper reveals that the […]
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