Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States...

"At a certain point, I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."

PRESIDENT OBAMA, in an interview with ABC News.

Early today, as I was listening to the radio and at the same time working on this BLOG writing about my sense of shame for the Methodist Church’s vote in General Conference to retain condemning, exclusionary language regarding gay and lesbian persons in it’s Book of Discipline, the program was interrupted with the news that President Obama has come out publicly with a statement of support for the right of all people, including same gender couples, to marry and/or enter into domestic partnerships.  He gave me yet another reason to be proud to be an American... and another reason to be glad I am not a citizen of North Carolina.  So my heart is a bit lighter than it was when I began the writing.  

        ...So here's the reason for the continuation of the Methodist rule of order that excludes gay Christians from full fellowship and full participation in the life of the church... the reason that is being passed around to impatient progressive Methodists  (progressive is the adjective of choice of Methodists and other Christians who are known as "liberal" by their more "conservative" brothers and sisters)... Are you ready for this one?  It's the fault of those foreigners... you know, the people who are not like us.  We've got to give them time to catch up to the realities of life in the modern world.  What the apologists are saying is that everything may be up to date in Kansas City, but it ain't that way in Cartagena  and Mogadishu and Manilla.  It's a little like that slavery thing... You know, the notion by some people that God intended some folks to be slaves, to be owned by other people (most of them Christians, and many of them Methodists) in American for almost a hundred years after the nation was founded around the noble idea that "all men are created equal."  (There were a few people, I'm guessing mostly intelligent women, who had some trouble with the wording of that Preamble to The Constitution... especially the "all men" part) Give it time," the apologists are saying. Pray along (Did I say that?  Excuse me.  I meant "Play" along) for yet another decade or two with people whose notions about what it means to be Christian haven't changed much since the time of the Inquisition. (Sorry about pausing to have these little discussions with myself, but I have to consider whether or not it seems reasonable to capitalize "inquisition" in any written circumstance other than to begin a sentence.) 

For those of you reading this BLOG who aren't Methodists, or not Christians, or not even, I probably should add, Americans... here's what happened last week.  In Florida delegated representing United (not) Methodists around the world gathered for General Conference to make important policy decisions that should be used to guide ordinary lay Methodists in the conduct of their private and public lives and to instruct professional Christians, the people who are hired or are otherwise placed in official places of leadership and authority in the denomination known as The United (not) Methodist Church on how to conduct the worship and work of the church. Apparently they are pretty much agreed on what kinds of hymns may be used in worship and what kinds of music may be played; and for practical purposes they are obviously agreed that people of the LGBT persuasion (persuasion is the debated word here) may compose, direct, and otherwise produce the wonderful music that is, for lots of people, just about the only thing that keeps them coming to church.  On the subject of who "keeps on going to church," I wonder if the folks in conference in Florida noticed that the statistics for the United (not) Methodist Church in American aren't encouraging.  Lots of people are finding something to do with their weekends other than go to church.  Membership is down, and if many other churches are like the United (not) Methodist Church which I attend, the great majority of people who go to Sunday services regularly are... well... old... like me.  

I happen to know a couple of people who attended the Florida meeting, and they are as dismayed as I am over the refusal of the church to declare that excluding anybody is antithetical to the obvious intent of the Christian Gospel. A case in point is The Reverend Molly Vetter, whom I have known for at least ten years; and she continues year after year, General Conference after General Conference, to give her best efforts, which are considerable and brilliantly motivated, to the long term project of getting the church, her church, our church, to include all people in its ministry and outreach. Other pastors at the church I attend are also encouraging and welcoming to all people.  I am assuming they are all as discouraged as I am over the General Conference vote.  Recently they agreed to include in the weekly bulletin a declaration which makes clear that  “All people are affirmed and valued... that all means all.”  

More discouraging news came this week with passage of Amendment One in North Carolina which changes the constitution of that state to make illegal all marriages or domestic partnerships or civil unions other than those between one man and one woman. The people who continue to insist that God is unhappy, whatever that means, with the notion of two people of same gender loving each other and entering into a supportive relationship are clearly ignoring the central message of the New Testament.  Perhaps not in my lifetime but eventually those people who say they believe the Levitical Code of the Old Testament is the appropriate guide for social conduct will be gone. The majority of them are as old as I am, and we have already lived past the statistical age of an average lifetime.  That statistic should be a cause for alarm for church leaders with shrinking congregations,  and a cause for hope and celebration for those who believe all people should enjoy equal civil rights... and eventually will enjoy them in the United States of America.