Gil Caldwell (STH'58) on the UMC Becoming a 21st Century Church
SCRIPTURE & TRADITION WITHOUT EXPERIENCE & REASON, MAKES POSSIBLE & JUSTIFIES DISCRIMINATION!
by Gil Caldwell (STH’58), BU Distinguished Alumni Award Winner 2016
Reconciling Ministries Network has posted my blog, “Becoming a 21st Century Church.” I suggested that our current United Methodist Church anti-homosexuality language, legislation and practice is clothed in Scripture and Tradition. I would add that this is so because Experience and Reason have been ignored.
I want an early resolution of our UMC anti-LGBTQI discrimination in order for our denomination to become a faith-based leader in confronting “America’s Original Sin; Racism.” The presidency of Barack Obama and the ascendancy of Donald Trump have revealed that despite equal rights legislation and action in the USA, the cancer of racism, particularly it’s anti-black expression, is alive and well.
Donald Trump’s candidacy for the Republican Party presidential nomination was empowered by his “Birther” critique of President Obama. A critique I suggest that is shaped by the Biblical Noah’s “Curse of Ham” that was/is some how interpreted to be a declaration of the inferiority of black people of African descent. The Republican Party and all of the USA have discovered that anti-black racism, like chickens, has “come home to roost.” The “otherization”, the name calling, the demeaning, the police killing/jailing of innocent blacks, has “trickled down” to harm all of us,regardless of our race/ethnicity.
The USA more than the UMC regarding matters of sexual orientation/gender identity has understood the meaning of; “New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth”, James Russell Lowell. The Constitution of the USA has enabled affirmation of the God-given human rights of LGBTQI persons and same gender couples, while the UMC has misused Scripture to justify the discrimination of them.
“Come on” United Methodist Church leaders, affirm in our language and legislation the humanity and rights of same gender couples and LGBTQI persons as has the USA!
And, begin to lead the USA and the world in recognizing and resolving the evil of racism that historically and presently, has infected and inflicted the world. It is time for the UMC to resolve its institutional heterosexism in order to confront national and worldwide, RACISM!
Gil Caldwell (STH’58)
A retired Elder; member of the Rocky Mountain (Denver) Conference
Asbury Park, New Jersey/USA