Standing straight

Tonight was our annual Dedicated Reconciling United Methodists potluck and program. Much to my delight there were 60 of us, including another member of my own church! That's far different than the dozen or so we get for our monthly inclusive services.

The speaker was Louise Ott. She had been a dynamic pastor in the UMC and even spent time as a district superintendent (in charge of perhaps 50 churches). She made news around the region when she revealed she is lesbian, was in a long-term partnership, and was resigning her UMC job and credentials to be a pastor in a more welcoming denomination. Yes, that long-term relationship meant that for many years (perhaps almost two decades) she was in violation of the denomination's rules.

Louise began her message with Luke 13:10-17. This is the New International Version:

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

As she began to read I knew she would refer to herself as the bent-over woman. And she did. With that as the background she told about why she stayed in the UMC for so long and why she finally left. She then turned to us and thanked us for being the ones to reach out to heal and to straighten. She noted when the leader complained about healing on the Sabbath, he didn't direct his comments to Jesus, but to those in need of healing. Come back to be healed when our traditions permit it. Her whole message was wonderful. Not many sermons get a standing ovation.



Alas, the evening had a bit of sadness to it. I had only a brief time to talk to Jill, the executive director of MFSA (the organization whose board meeting I sat in on this past week), so asked her husband Bob how the rest of the meeting went.

I had heard a bit about this story on Friday, but it didn't play out until Saturday. There was one person on the board who did not like Jill and the work she was doing. This was in spite of a very successful (perhaps most successful) year for MFSA, including all that work around General Conference, and a staff who think she's the greatest. This person convinced enough other board members to fire her. That group then proceeded to slash the budget. Some of the staff will leave out of loyalty to Jill and disgust with the board. Others will leave because their positions were cut. Many board members will likely resign. A good number of Jill's initiatives, especially the efforts to open dialogue with African churches, were scrapped. It seems the whole purpose of the organization was gutted.

Bob did not know why this person had a vendetta against Jill. So what I say next is pure speculation. MFSA has been on the vanguard of progressive causes within the denomination and has been for over 100 years. I get the impression that this person is actually a hard conservative who infiltrated the board to eliminate a progressive voice. And yes, there are organizations who would be delighted in such a fate. One of them is the Institute for Religion and Democracy (which should be named Religion Without Democracy) who have been attacking the progressive side of several of the big denominations. By "attacking" I mean completely silencing their competition, not just out-maneuvering progressives on important votes. I repeat that I don't know whether this is true and I don't know if IRD is involved.

Bob says Jill will land on her feet and is looking around for what she might do next. However, she will not go back to Washington to pack up her apartment and will instead rely on friends to do that for her.

This story does have a personal component. I've gotten to know Jill and her work over the last year as she attended the DRUM First Sunday services. It was partly through her stories of hope about what she and MFSA had accomplished and were planning to do that convinced me to go to General Conference so that I might witness the historic elimination of the gay prohibitions in the UMC.



Essayist Terrence Heath discusses the rise and fall of a Conservative talking head. Within the essay Heath discusses the funding of the Conservative propaganda machine. Have some talent describing the Conservative point of view? If good enough for notice, the Right will groom you and prepare you for the national stage. There is a huge investment (the term Heath uses) in media companies, think-tanks, advocacy programs, university programs, college newspapers, and more. A talented wordsmith could get a good job for life. The Left has very little that can compare -- we just haven't invested in it.