You gave me something to eat

I didn't write about it at the time because the story was another about the Catholic Church pulling out of some service agency because their beliefs weren't respected. Then I found out the other big player in the spat is United Methodist. Francis House in Sacramento provides a wide range of services to the homeless and poor. It serves perhaps 25,000 a year and has a budget of a half-million dollars a year. A year ago Rev. Faith Whitmore, a United Methodist pastor, became the executive director of Francis House. But before then, while still serving as a pastor, she advocated for marriage equality and defied United Methodist law by performing same-sex weddings. She also proclaimed she supports a woman's right to an abortion and that her views on abortion and marriage equality are from the heart of the Christian message.

About $10,000 of that half-million came from the Catholic Church. No more. Whitmore doesn't respect Catholic beliefs. That prompted Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin to ask, "Who speaks for Jesus?" Is it the Catholic bishop or the Methodist pastor? Kincaid then quotes from Matthew 25 and says Jesus is quite able to speak for himself.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

I was at my own United Methodist Church yesterday morning. I was part of a crew that within about 90 minutes assembled and packaged almost 500 sandwiches to take to an inner city church to help them feed the poor.