The Methodists, like the Presbyterian Church in the USA that I grew up in (and, it’d seem much of American Catholicism to boot) is slowly spinning itself into an institution that observes a holy trinity; social justice the mother, political correctness the other mother, and virtue-signaling the spirit.
Witness the United Methodists’ bishop, Dr, Karen Oliveto – herself a virtue signal, as the UMC’s first Lesbian Bishop.
Oliveto was elected with a flurry of virtue-signalling glee a few years ago – and has spent her term basically turning the United Methodists into even more of a pseudo-Unitarian cult than it was before:
“Too many folks want to box Jesus in, carve him in stone, create an idol out of him. But this story cracks the pedestal we’ve put him on. The wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting one, prince of peace, was as human as you and me. Like you and me, he didn’t have his life figured out. He was still growing, maturing, putting the pieces together about who he was and what he was supposed to do. We might think of him as the Rock of Ages, but he was more like a hunk of clay, forming and reforming himself in relation to God.
As one person put it: ‘Jesus wasn’t a know-it-all, he was also learning God’s will like any human being and finally he changed his mind…if Jesus didn’t have to know it all innately, but rather could grow into new and deeper understanding through an openness to God’s people [even those he formerly discounted], maybe if Jesus could change his mind then maybe so can we!”
When it comes to the Christian Trinity, it’s said that Catholics obsess over God the Father, the dealer of punishment and guilt, shorting the whole “Salvation” via the Son and Spirit bit. Evangelicals, on the other hand, focus on the spirit, sometimes to the detriment of the authority, and often to the shorting of the humanity, of Christ. And mainline American protestants? They focus on the Son – the redemption, the forgiveness – sometimes shorting the authority and the spirit.
But other than gutting the traditional understanding of who and what Christ was…
…well, she’s LGBTQ…
Perhaps they value their standards of professionalism, and the virtue of fair and equal treatment, over the egotistical public flaunting of their personal views?
If Jesus had identified the Demon Asmodeus by name as he cast him and his Legion out of the Canaanite woman’s daughter I doubt that Bishop Oliveto would portrayJesus as a well meaning dufus who had “changed his mind”
In the olden days, religion told the masses: “Yes, this world sucks, but everything will be wonderful in the next world. He is risen!”
Nowadays, religion tells the masses: “Yes, this world sucks, and you shouldn’t have to wait for the next world for everything to be wonderful. Rise up!”
I’m confident the Architect of the next world was capable of building it to perfection. I’m less confident about the capability of the central planners rebuilding this one.
Jason Lewis suggested that everyone get the United Church Of Christ newsletters. Those guys are nuts. Totally political. Acting out for a niche to get power and money.
When it comes to the Christian Trinity, it’s said that Catholics obsess over God the Father, the dealer of punishment and guilt, shorting the whole “Salvation” via the Son and Spirit bit.
Not in my experience.
If I may quote myself, from my novel “Wolf Time,” there’s a scene where someone asks a pastor the difference between conservatives and liberals in his church. He answers that the liberals say the Jesus was a woman, while the conservatives merely say that He was a hermaphrodite.
Academia and media have been infiltrated and taken over by the left. The church is taking a little longer, mainly due to the old traditions of encouraging abstinence, defending life at conception, and the rejection of homosexuality. Much more for them to overcome. But as always, leftists are the masters of incrementalism and playing the long game.
Emery, the statements there are not “professional” in a theological sense. In all authentic Christian traditions, the role of the pastor/overseer and bishops (in episcopal churches) is to clearly expound doctrine, not cast doubt on the sovereignty, omniscience, and omnipotence of the Godhead. The “bishop” here is coming pretty close, IMO, to the Arian heresy.
Maybe I’m thinking of a different lawya, but didn’t the one in question and his partner/wife run into their own legal trouble. Seems to me they were sentenced for fraud for the manner in which they were going after the so called “violators of ADA”.
Sorry! My comment should have been on the thread for the Char Broiler.
Re: Bikebubba’s 9:57:
It is difficult to reconcile the idea that God is eternal and unchanging with Oliveto’s statements that Christ was growing and changing throughout his ministry.
The error behind the Arian heresy was that it copied the belief, common in mystical religions and philosophies of the Classical age, that the divine and the earthly could never be reconciled. God could not become man. Christ was a man, therefore he was lesser than God.
MP: Bingo. And with a couple of theology degrees under her belt, she knows better.