OPINION: 'Anything goes' in new Methodist Church?
Injustices occur every day, and the people affected often turn their heads away, thinking that if they ignore it or sweep it under the rug, it never happened or that it will soon be forgotten, or simply vanish like a vapor. However, I feel that “whatever we permit, we promote.”
As a Bible believing Christian, I feel constrained to take a stand against the election of Karen Oliveto as bishop in the United Methodist Church.
The United Methodist Discipline is based on the truth of the Bible, which is the main resource of Christian belief. Karen Oliveto and those responsible for electing her as well as those accountable for allowing it to happen are rebels with no regard for the law or harm inflicted on the church, resulting in:
1) The promotion of gays to spiritual leadership that’s forbidden by the discipline and unacceptable.
2) Broken vows before God while promising to uphold the discipline.
3) Stripping the United Methodist Church of its traditional values.
4) Pushing their own agenda, under the guise of love, in an attempt to prove acceptance of their gay lifestyle.
5) Wheedling their way into church leadership to create a stronghold.
Why did they not join a denomination that was in agreement with their lifestyle? If they were not able to find one, why did they not start a denomination of their own, making their own rules, building it “from scratch” as others have done?
Was it to prove a point? Was it to steal from people who had supported and worked at developing it over the years? They have taken possession of it and are now free to set up a new Discipline called “Anything Goes.” Their reasons for breaking the rules, they say, is because they don’t believe the “whole Bible”... only parts of it. My understanding of the Bible is that no one has the right to add to it or delete from it. By dissecting the Bible, one can manipulate it to mean just about whatever they want it to say. In accepting it, God can transform us into the beings He meant us to be.
The Council of Bishops asked for a special session set in early 2018 to study human sexuality. This commission would then make a recommendation to the General Conference as to whether the Book of Discipline should remain as is or be changed to accept practicing LGBTQ people as clergy and allow them to perform same-sex marriages. Persons selected to serve were to be made up of equal representation from both persuasions. Sadly, according to United Methodist Action, some bishops have “stacked” the commission to over-represent the LGBTQ group.
Baughman is a resident of Kalispell