I've been paying attention to several "official" United Methodist Church internet outlets recently in the wake of the acquittal of the so-called "Reverend" Karen Dammann, in order to understand exactly what's going on here.¹

A key talking point that keeps coming up is the need of Methodists to, as the latest article puts it, "[stay] in Christian conversation". There's been a distinct whine from officialdom about the need for everyone to remain civil and let's all be friends while the ship sinks. This fits into the model I've generally observed:

-Supporters of Karen Dammann, who are generally favorable to homosexuality, "tolerance", and "diversity". They generally don't get wrapped up in this resurrection of Christ nonsense, and prefer to focus upon political action.

-"Centrists", for lack of a better word, who tell everyone to be nice. "Stop shooting the nice xenomorphs, Corporal Hicks. If you wouldn't shoot it, it wouldn't bleed all over you as it tore your head off."

-Supporters of the traditional UMC. They're usually labeled 'fundamentalists' or something similar, always a pejorative.

You can, of course, guess which bloc I fall into; I'm squarely behind backing the UMC's on-paper laws. To me, the Karen Dammann thing was yet another event where left-wing social revolutionaries shirked their institutional duty in order to advance a social agenda that was incompatible with the establishment they swore to uphold.

At this point in time, it is difficult to imagine why I ought to be "civil" to someone who holds a diametrically opposed view of things, and who would run over me if given a chance. Charles Schulz's Peanuts used to have an on-going gag about Snoopy and the Cat Next Door. In an anthology I've got from the 1970s, Snoopy extends a paw with the proverbial olive branch to the Cat, but pulls back a mauled wreck. I get that kind of feeling from assessing the other side.

They're not interested in peaceful discussion nor are they particularly interested in anything but what they want, because they "know" they're right. This is actually a bad thing. Just "knowing in your heart" that you're right and therefore anything is justified is a dangerous scenario. After all, Adolf Hitler didn't get up in the morning to the sounds of George Thorogood singing "Bad auf der Bone"; the Little Corporal thought he was doing the right thing. And no, I'm not trying to smear the other side as having common cause with Adolf Hitler, but I bet their ranks will call me a Nazi simply because I think we ought to stick to the established rules.

At any rate, I don't see how maintaining "civility" is going to do much more than make me fight with one hand tied behind my back. The other guys are going to fight as dirtily as possible, but lo if I retaliate proportionately, then it's Yankee Air Pirate time in the UMC. This seems like the Geneva Convention and other assorted rules of war in that they're great if everyone follows them, but the one who decides not to is in a good position to win, especially when the referees let them them do it. In a way, it's like the conflict in Vietnam: The North Vietnamese were free to do whatever they wanted---rape, torture, murder, assassination, the like---but U Thant (or whoever) forbid that we use B-52D Stratofortresses against their military-industrial complex.

The North Vietnamese ran a pretty intelligent PR campaign and it worked very well on what Ben Kenobi would have called simple minds. The mess of it is that traditionalists in the UMC are in the same boat as the United States back then. A favorable media establishment reports all claims of the pro-homosexual forces with great gusto and scorn for our side. The other side demands, and has an ally in a mindless center, that we play fair while they don't.

Augh. After a long conversation with a friend of mine, we came to the conclusion that I'm far more comfortable with a 'humans fix it' approach instead of hitting the floor to send some 'knee-mail' to the Almighty for help. I've read a couple of message boards discussing this topic that seem to reflect a similar split in attitudes.OK, so I'm going down the same path as others, but I still am not able to see the value of being polite while being punched in the mouth.

¹ On background: The United Methodist Church (hereinafter UMC) is governed by a set of rules called the Discipline. While I've yet to buy a print copy of the thing, I will get it sooner or later and I'll see about providing the relevant information here.

These rules proscribe openly homosexual men or women from serving in the ministry. Recently, the Reverend Karen Dammann wrote a letter to her bishop (two steps up the ladder and who head the UMC's national administrative regions) proclaiming her practice of homosexuality. As such, she was brought before a jury of churchmen in the area for trial, but was acquitted.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 843 words, total size 5 kb.