Viciousness is not a Virtue - a response to the Teabaggerati from a Methodist Minister

[TBF]

This week, a Tea Party leader said, "If you hate America, you have a great future in the Methodist Church" and called for the denomination to disband because of their positions on the DREAM Act and other social issues. Here, Rev. Josh Hale, explains and defends the church's stance.

Religion is necessarily social. And therefore, in our exercise of it today, it touches on all the great areas through which human beings create meaning and exercise our authority: politics; the military landscape; economically and financially; our cultural life: art, music, sports, writing, and the like; and communication individually, as well as on social media and through news organizations.

And now I must read again reports today that decry the "socialist" nature of The United Methodist Church. Once again, we're in the headlines (not in a good way!) for having certain social postures which result from theological and doctrinal positions.

I have to confess I hadn't heard of Judson Phillips before today. I would imagine he and I would disagree about this or that political issues, were we to be in a room together today. That's okay. There are big disagreements about the role religion plays in governance, about how to be responsible for all the citizens of our nation, and the exercise of faith in an increasingly diverse nation. We should disagree--there's a lot at stake!

But if the goal of Mr Phillips' post was a broader dialogue about how the United Methodist Church engages social, political, and economic issues in the United States, it was unnecessarily inflammatory, and just wrong in some of its facts. And if the goal was to score some cheap points by exploiting our mass fascination with hatred, then it just makes me sad.

Viciousness is not a virtue. It's not a Christian virtue, and it isn't an American virtue...

Read the entire article here: http://blogs.chron.com/spiritedchat/2010/12/methodists_hate_america_local.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I'm not much in favor of religions, but here,

Well, I would march arm and arm with any methodist, peacefully pointing out to Phillips and his asshole members the error of their ways.

[SpiralHawk]

2. ...but it is a republicon Family Value

as the TeaBaggerati (R) continue to demonstrate...

[Recursion]

3. "There is no holiness apart from social holiness"

--John Wesley, founder of Methodism

[TBF]

4. Another Wesley quote I like -

“Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can”

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. Very nice

[JustAmused]

6. My grandfather

My Grandfather was a Methodist Minister. He and my grandmother raised seven children during the depression on a preacher's pay. Each night at the dinner table, the first thing he asked each of the children was, "What have you done for someone today?". That question guided each of my aunts and uncles throughout their lives.

[TBF]

7. The faith is strong in my family as well - my cousin is a methodist minister

in another southern state right now. I actually don't see him often enough to know his political views, but I am quite comfortable with my own socialist leanings and also very proud of the way the most Methodist organizations conduct themselves. One worth mentioning is our relief organization: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/ (or on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=588124223#!/UMCOR). UMCOR is in it's 70th year of providing disaster relief worldwide.

[gratuitous]

8. I'm guessing Judson Phillips will decline to dialog

But he will continue to stamp his little feet, and threaten to hold his breath until he turns blue.

I believe at that time, we are all supposed to be sorry.

[socialist_n_TN]

9. Well, I guess I now know where my politics.........

came from! :) When we moved to the (relatively) big city, my family changed from Free Will Baptist to Methodist because of the lack of a FW Baptist church in the area. My Mom said the only difference was "dunk vs sprinkle". Or maybe it was Daddy the Union president.

Oh well. I left ALL organized religion when I was 14, but I'm now VERY proud to have gone to a Methodist church for a few years before that. Anything these idiots are against, I'm for.