CBF to vote on proposed hiring policy

[JE Pettibone]

Ed: See Sandy's lengthy post imedically above where he ask did I get that right?

My reply is "in Part" but to me it looks like a bowl of hash, a definite mixture of truth and error. When you say "I take it that you're not leaving because they are lifting some of those restrictions. You're still with ABC-USA which has a much more open and less restrictive policy regarding homosexual orientation that includes permitting ordination.

You make a couple unsupportable assumptions We have made no decision as to whether we will staying or not. We will be in Dallas, largely to get a personal feel for the reaction of the base. At this point I will say say that we will continue support some CBF partners and write a check to help pay the expenses of the Assembly above and beyond our scheduled assembly events (meals) where there is charge. Secondly our link to ABC- is quite thin. Officially our memberships rest with the last church that Trudy pastored in NYS. And her retirment check from MMB The only ABC church anywhere near us is as far as the 3 CBF churches we have visited. I guess no policy on homosexual ordination is less restrictive that something . ABC-USA has no such policy. Some Regions like Hauro's Evergreen Association make no such restriction, nor do they insist that churches ordain homosexuals ,

[Tim Bonney]

[Bruce Gourley]

I've just now read through this thread. I don't really have anything of substance and not already noted to add to this healthy dialogue about a difficult issue. My simplest interpretation is that CBF has long been caught between a hard place and a rock, and now, institutionally (and with diligent analysis and due process) chose to thread the needle in hopes of maintaining as much unity amid autonomy as reasonably possible, congregationally and financially. Some churches will leave on the left and right both; how many is anyone's guess. But ultimately, I have no reason to doubt that CBF institutionally will continue along its increasingly progressive trajectory.

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

It is a very strange new policy. And if I were a Baptist who believed it was just flat wrong to hire gay denominational leaders, I would see this as very probably a step towards the no-escape part of the slippery slope, even if I thought that at least in theory it was okay to hire gay bakers for denominational events, gay janitors for the headquarters complex etc... I mean look at the new movie about the janitor who took over Frito-Lay...

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

Here's an interesting perspective on the UMC General Conference to come.
https://juicyecumenism.com/2018/02/23/u ... -pro-life/

I must admit, I never really knew much about the Methodist church, at least, not how it operated. The one in my hometown looked a lot like the SBC church I grew up in, similar in size, down to the red koolaide and chocolate chip cookies served at VBS. The pulpit area was different, but I just thought they were being creative. There were times when serving churches that I thought Methodists were on to something in the way that pastors are assigned to churches, but most of what I know about Methodist polity and practice has come from what Timothy has posted here.

I'm in Western Pennsylvania, the rural area outside Pennsylvania. The UMC may well be the largest single Protestant denomination in the area in terms of total membership, though from observation, there are far more Presbyterian churches, but they are split up into at least four different denominational groupings here. There are three UMC congregations within a ten mile radius of my Christian school campus that send students here, and all of them have an in-house scholarship fund specifically for families to use here. One of them has a Pre-K program that provides us with about a fourth of our kindergarten class each year, though many of those kids don't attend that church. Their pastor is a woman who substitutes for us regularly. I know the churches aren't autonomous, and pastors are bound to follow the rulings of the general conference, but I'd say the author of this article is right on target in describing Methodists here. The churches that are represented on our campus do not identify as "Methodist," though they are pretty staunchly Wesleyan in theology. And they are more socially conservative than the Southern Baptists I used to hang out with in Texas.

[Stephen Fox]

in Bham took up the conversation yesterday.