Gather and Give Thanks

My church continues to struggle and is engaged in a battle of who will control the denomination. I went back and read my commentary a year ago on “The Way Forward” in the current controversy of the United Methodist Church over homosexuality. We now have the report of the commission, the three optional plans they presented, and the recommendations of the Council of Bishops. Here in North Carolina we’ve had a series of “discernment” meetings to discuss the options and to consider the positions of the local churches. Everyone is gearing up to lobby the delegates of the Special Called Session of the General Conference in February 2019. The conference will consider the options and presumably reach a decision on the issues. It’s not just a question of the wording of the Book of Discipline; it’s also about what happens with the potential reorganization of the church, especially if the Wesleyan Covenant Association decides to leave the denomination.

Flag flying on Memorial Day

Hymn to the Fallen

On the afternoon of Memorial Day, I was listening on WCPE to John Williams' Hymn to the Fallen from the score of the film Saving Private Ryan when I was moved to tears by the music. The haunting music struck a chord of memories of violence in this country. The media headlines today are focused on gun violence that has killed more people than all the wars since WWII. We see reports of shootings in the schools and of shootings in the streets. We are learning day by day of the intransigence of the National Rifle Associations that dwarfs that of the tobacco companies in their fight against regulation. Violence is all around us every day so that we become so numb to it that it doesn't even register anymore.

Call Me By Your Name scene

Last weekend I went to a nearby suburban cinema to see a matinee of Call Me By Your Name. Later I read some of dozens of reviews of the film, and they clearly indicated whether the reviewers were gay or straight by how they saw the film.