I’m not condemning the UMC re: homosexuality. I’m just trying to say that I know so many absolutely great gay people (most of whom have been suicidal, or know someone who committed suicide or both). This country has about 3,000 gay children who commit suicide every year (per a psychologist friend) — an utter crime before God because religious condemnation, no matter how carefully it is couched, poisons our society.

And my understanding — I could be wrong — is that the UMC is the combination of the southern and northern Methodist churches. The southern being similar to the utterly outrageous southern evangelicals who always have someone to hate — blacks in the past, and now gays.

So the church finds itself in the middle, accepting gay people, but not gay behavior.

Its time the UMC did what the UCC, MCC, most of the Episcopal church, Jewish reform and some conservatives, Evangelical Lutherans, and parts of the Presbyterian USA have done: Accept gay people as part of Gods creation and treat them identically with str8 people.

And its not a “lifestyle choice” any more then str8 is a lifestyle choice. Every mainstream med group says that sexual orientation is a built in.

So open your hearts to these people. Virtually all of W. Europe, much of Latin America, Canada, NZ, much of Australia, 3 countries in Eastern Europe, Israel, Republic of South Africa, etc. have done: Accept gay people as equal in the eyes of God. And if you don’t want to sanctify their marriages that is your business.

But you should be pushing our society that gay people deserve equal legal rights of civil marriage, and trying to prevent the utter tragedy of a 9/11 every year of our gay children — in a poisoned irrational society that demonizes and pariahs them to suicide by the thousands every year.

I’m going one of these days to go to one of the gay marriage ceremonies at one of the UMC churches in the DC area to show my support for gay people to be respected, and their commitment to each other to be recognized by society at large.

Editor’s note: The United Methodist Church’s doctrinal statement on sexual relationships between persons of the same sex reads as follows:

“The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching. We affirm that God’s grace is available to all.” (¶161F, The Book of Discipline—2008).

To learn more, see the MethodistThinker post, “Why the United Methodist Church Cannot Condone Homosexuality.”

“Applying guiding principles from such previous decisions, the Judicial Council found that the Baltimore-Washington statement’s claim to communicate a ‘more authentic and truthful representation’ of the church implies the denomination’s position is less than authentic.”

What this shows is unadulterated arrogance on the part of Bishop Schol and the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Thank God the Judicial Council saw through it and reached a reasonable verdict.

I hope this decision will bring encouragement and hope to both Clergy and Laity that our polity does work and that our resolve to Godliness has been strengthened.