#intelligencehavingfun

podcast: of slippers & spindles

for @droo216 & @intelligencehavingfun, inspired by @yourockthebeatofmyheart

My mom (retired UMC pastor) thinks we're headed for a schism. Because I genuinely think the North American UMC would vote to change the BoD, but (to my understanding), it's the South American and African UMC regions that are really strongly opposed. But something's gotta give. It just has to. It feels like we're on a precipice, and I just want the UMC to be on the right side of this, finally. We've been on the wrong side and debating it for so long.

I think it’s going to be a cluserf*ck either way. One thing I failed to say in my original post was that I don’t think a clusterf*ck is a bad thing. It’s going to be painful and messy, but like you I just want the debating to stop and the choices made. 

I’d say broadly speaking the America/Europe faction is more theologically progressive than the Africa/South America faction, but for both sides their points of view around human sexuality are never in a vacuum. This news article from 2015 does a good job of highlighting the thorny layers. African bishops put forth a statement - urging the church to not allow the ordination of and marriage between LGBTQ persons - and in that same statement tried to draw attention to the massive refugee crisis happening on their continent. They said: 

“As a church, we are called to be in solidarity with people who suffer as a result of unjust political systems, wars, famine, poverty, natural disasters, diseases, illiteracy, etc. We believe that we can be united around these issues rather than allow ourselves to be ripped apart by issues of sexual orientation.”

The fact is that the denomination is US-centric. General Conference always takes place in the US so members from around world have to travel to us. It’s always in English (with translators). While the current conferences in Africa and the Philippines were founded in the 1920′s & 30′s - there is the very real history going back centuries of the marriage between Christianity and colonization. Also, while the largest jurisdiction is in the Southeastern US (my jurisdiction) the second largest and fastest growing one is in Africa. 

So do we decide to split based on these historical and cultural differences? Do we agree to disagree because what binds us together is stronger than what we are divided by? I think some things are worth schism over. I want our denomination to be on the what I think is right and just side of this. I want to be in control and I have to realize that in most parts of this whole thing - I am not. 

But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t draw one last point. ;) 

What is the cost of schism? 

The Catholic church has held onto their unity with bare-knuckled tenacity. It’s more of a Protestant (and therefore younger) impulse to sub-divide and sub-divide. 

There’s a book that’s next on my reading list - The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Life-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop - which Brene Brown references a lot in her book Braving the Wilderness. So I haven’t read it myself, but her summary is that Bishop argues there is a real loss and even danger to like-minded clustering. However, what is most surprising - they both say - is that clustering with like-minded people - in our neighborhoods, social media feeds, etc. - correlates with a growing phenomenon of loneliness among Americans. You’d think if your world is mostly people who think like you do you’d never feel lonely. 

The Gen question and the Kitty question are answered in the book. The Gen question might be in book 2, though, I can’t remember, and the movie takes elements from both books 1 and 2, which I thought was a smart choice. I enjoyed the first book immensely, but have now stalled out twice on book 2 around the halfway point because so much of it should have, I feel, been included in book 1. But definitely worth a read.

That's exactly what it is. Dan Stevens as Dan Stevens, playfully growling and snapping his teeth in a seductive manner.

[SWEATING INTENSIFIES]