The following opinion piece appeared in the Toronto Star on June 22 about the Catholic Church’s position on homosexuality: Read It

The following 28-minute video appeared on the Facebook page of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. It is a summary report by the clergy and lay delegates to General Conference and offers a rationale for the recommendation by the Council of Bishops to form a study commission on homosexuality and to report to a special called session in 2018 of the General Conference. View It

The article and the video summarize the controversy in the Christian Church over the issue of homosexuality. Both point to the fact that both clergy and laypersons are challenging the traditional dogma and doctrine of the church. In the case of the United Methodist Church, our doctrine is spelled out in The Book of Discipline. This was changed in 1972, and wording was added to establish a position about homosexuality. We’ve been arguing about it at every General Conference since then (held every four years.) This long argument over doctrine has weakened the vitality of the church and has taken energy from its primary mission of spreading the good news.

The General Conference is the legislative body; the various commissions, secretariats and Council of Bishops make up the executive branch; and the Judicial Council serves as the final authority on legal matters.

Four Portraits, One Jesus: A Survey of Jesus and the Gospels by Mark L. Strauss

One of the themes of my blogs has been the abuse of the Bible by using it as a weapon rather than a guide. Many in the LGBTQ community hate any organized religion for being hypocritical and not even following its own principles. Of course, the church is made up of people who are human and fallible. We’ve been debating dogma for centuries and have become even more fractured with the passage of time.

God and Gays: Bridging the Gap

For several years I have compiled a resource guide of videos and books for the Reconciling United Methodists of North Carolina. Somehow I missed the 2006 film “God and Gays.” I found it on Netflix and watched it recently. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who was late learning about it because it barely registered on IMDB. My guess is that film faced distribution problems and thus had little impact.