Retired United Methodist pastor Jerry Eckert knows a lot about advocating for folks who may not have someone to stand up for their rights. Eckert was a co-founder of a volunteer group, Associates in Advocacy, that provides advocates — usually…
UMC’s racial monitoring agency awards undisclosed grants to immigration ministries
The United Methodist Church’s racial monitoring agency is awarding grants to what it calls “bold ministries” aiding immigrants. But it’s not telling who’s getting the money to protect the safety of the ministries and their locations. The UMC’s Washington, D.C.-based…
New US travel ban will harm The United Methodist Church
President Donald Trump’s announced travel ban will harm members of The United Methodist Church and its far-flung ministries significantly if allowed to stand. According to the newsletter 1440: “Countries whose foreign nationals will be banned are Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), Chad,…
For United Methodists, politics isn’t partisan; it’s gospel
This is the last in a five-part series on the newly adopted Social Principles of The United Methodist Church. “Politics” often gets a bad rap in American churches, not least because it’s confused with “partisanship.” For United Methodists, politics…
The phrase that haunted United Methodists for 52 years is gone
Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the updated Social Principles of The United Methodist Church. Back in 1972, delegates to the first full General Conference of the four-year-old United Methodist Church struggled to adopt a…
‘Woke’ T-shirt gets off to a sassy start
I own an indecent number of social-justice T-shirts. Name a cause and I bet I have a T-shirt to match. At last count, I had at least two dozen shirts with a theme or motto. There’s my indigenous shirt with…
In North Carolina, a Methodist creation care community grows
Author and scholar Elaine Heath says the most challenging question ever put to her inquired, “What does care for the earth have to do with following Jesus?” Heath now uses the question as a reflection tool for her ministry as…
We ‘Jezebels’ can wield power with righteous authority
Until this week, I didn’t know I had something in common with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for U.S. president. In our time, we’ve both been labeled Jezebel. “Jezebel” has been the name for so many women whom…
What comes next for the United Methodist Church?
Not even the sainted hymnist of Methodism, Charles Wesley, could sing better of the United Methodist Church’s future than King George III in the musical Hamilton: What comes next? Regrouping after decades-long conflicts over human sexuality, declining membership, decreased revenues…
Forty years
As the vote was announced, we wept and hugged. We wept and prayed. We wept and rejoiced. Outside in a convention center courtyard, we sang praises to God through joyful tears to the beat of Marcia McFee’s conga drum. Mittie…
Top issues for United Methodists’ Global Assembly taking shape
Delegates to United Methodists’ first worldwide legislative assembly in five years will consider three major issues known as “the three Rs” — regionalization, Revised Social Principles and removal of “harmful language” against homosexuality. This General Conference — technically considered the…
Artificial intelligence spells the end of church as we know it
The advent of artificial intelligence marks the end of human endeavor in church and society. Maybe not now, and maybe not in 10 years (if humanity lives that long), but sooner than we’re prepared to cope with it. There’s small…