I am so saddened by the just voted on decisions at the United Methodist General Assembly. Once again, the UM delegates, by the slimmest of margins, voted to affirm their teaching that homosexuality was incompatible with God's teaching.
Here's a summary of their decisions from the National Religious Roundtable of the NGTLF:
"In deeply paradoxical moves, the voting members of the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church, meeting in Fort Worth, TX, decided to uphold language that states that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching; keep in place a ruling that allows pastors to ban lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons from membership even as they turned down all legislation that sought to discriminate against transgender persons, especially transgender pastors; named heterosexism and homophobia as oppression against which the church should work; and called on families and congregations not to reject their LGBT members."
In response, the Reconciling Network released this proclaimation, which said in part:
We are part of God’s living body in today’s world, but our United Methodist Church refuses to accept what God has done, refuses to keep covenant with its own words in the baptismal promise, refuses to honor God’s call to professional ministry, refuses to do no harm, refuses to open its hearts, minds, and doors.
Surely, soon the day will arrive when the churches will acknowledge sexual diversity as part of God's blessing and welcome fully all of God's children. But until that day, we must all continue to speak out for full inclusion.
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I have many friend where there as part of RMN and others here who were here watching it all. We are heart broken.
So much for "open minds, open hearts, open doors," or however that UMC ad slogan goes.
What is the spiritual foundation of having sex outside of procreation in either hetero or homo regard? Yeah self-indulgence should not be scapegoated on the gay community, but then again by definition, they are incapable of using the one and only spiritual and creative avenue sex was designed for, procreation. Let's ALL practice some spirituality and discipline and not continue the defense of wanton pleasure = spiritual growth.
We homosexuals have suffered 1,000 years of persecution, torture and vilification at the hands of Christianity.
342 AD — Homosexuality had been accepted by all ancient cultures as a normal part of human sexuality. The rise of Christianity, however, led to the beginning of homophobia. The first law against homosexual marriage was promulgated by the Christian emperors
1102 AD — The Council of London took measures to ensure that the English public knew that it was sinful, marking a significant shift in church attitudes towards homosexuality, which previously had been more or less indifferent, at worst amounting to mild condemnation.
1250–1300 — "Between 1250 and 1300, homosexual activity passed from being completely legal in most of Europe to incurring the death penalty in all but a few contemporary legal compilations." — John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (1980) p. 293.
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