ACROSS THE LINES - Archive (2006-2020)

"So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand." - Mark 3: 23 - 25 Since I was ordained as a United Methodist pastor twenty-five years ago, the culture here in Southern California has been fundamentally transformed. While it has not been eradicated, the ancient stigma attached to homosexuality has been dramatically eroded. Discrimination against people whose gender identity is not rigidly male or female is trailing behind, but is headed in the same direction. As a consequence, people who identify as LGBTQI have experienced a growing range of freedom to live openly and honestly in more and more dimensions of their lives. This growing sense of freedom is on display in almost every United Methodist congregation in Southern California. In the churches I know and love, gay and lesbian people have served op...

This week the United Methodist Church, in which I am an ordained pastor, gathers elected delegates from around the world for its quadrennial gathering called the “ GeneralConference .”   This year’s meeting is in Portland, Oregon, and the delegates may well define the denomination in a way that requires me some day, as a matter of principle, to separate from it.   In a  blogpost  last week Bishop Scott Jones made it clear that many General Conference delegates are prepared to throw down precisely this gauntlet in Portland. Of pastors  like me , who have presided at same-sex weddings, Bishop Jones wrote: "They are violating the rules of a church they have freely joined when other, similar churches offer acceptable ways of pursuing their calling. If I ever get to the point where I cannot in good conscience obey the key aspects of our discipline — and I pray such a day never happens — it will be time to surrender my credentials as a United Methodist bishop...