Day 8

Well, we did it again. We, as a denomination, continue to discriminate against people. The 3 guiding principles that we are supposed to be operating under come from Wesley – “Do no Harm, Do all the good you can, and grow in love with God.” We say that, and then we vote to 501-417 to pass a change to paragraph 161G – Social Principles – to say talk about “sexual relations are affirmed only within the covenant of monogamous heterosexual marriage.” It was a very trying time to be involved in this process, where we intentionally hurt people.

I have met a man here from Omaha who wears a placard around his neck with the picture of his son on it that says, “My child is of sacred worth.” His son Scott is gay, and cannot be a part of this church. The picture is of his son when he was 8. On the back is a picture of his son (now 40) with his partner. When Scott came out to his parents during college, he said that when he was about 8 was when he realized that he was different. I said to Dave – your son is no different than you or I.

After the vote, there was a silent witness as many of us stood on the floor and in the visitor’s gallery silently. While we were doing this, there was a Judicial Council Ruling about the ability of the General Conference to dictate to the JC some rules. It is about 8 pages, and while it was being read, we just stood. Then someone started singing quietly, “Jesus Loves me (us)” It was somewhat surreal as we all just kept quietly singing and the Secretary of the General Conference just kept reading. The cameras that record and are showing the proceedings on the big screens just kept focused on the Secretary, never showing those of us standing. It was a very powerful statement, but reserved, dignified, and not at all disruptive.

One thing that was confusing was that it appeared that votes were heading in the right direction. On votes on amendments, I was voting with the side that prevailed in several of the votes.

I have signed a document to lift a change to the constitution from a consent calendar so that we might address the ruling from the JC. If we are successful, I think that we can also take the 3 petitions that they ruled unconstitutional, and link them to the constitutional change (cc) (with a cc change that Rod and I wrote and got passed 4 years ago to allow just that). We will see.

As I am writing this at 7:00 p.m. we still have 115 individual petitions to go. That may grow. I don’t know what is happening tonight.

We have a new Social Creed, but apparently we didn’t get rid of the old one, and this is just being called a liturgical addition or something like that. Very strange. I wasn’t on the floor when that was happening this morning because I was trying to get in touch with Deb – and I did – she got back from Lagos, Nigeria successfully this morning. Long flight, and she is tired, but Barrett’s 3rd birthday party was a true highlight of the trip. Under the most trying circumstances – not enough eggs, power going out 3 or 4 times – she got a cake made and put a fire truck and firemen on top. He could have cared less about the cake, but took the truck & firemen to bed that night.

Tie today - golfer on a par 3.

Midnight now. I think the codification petition will come up for a vote tomorrow. It is on Consent Calendar B05, and is calendar item 1241, on page 2357 of the DCA. Petition # is 80795. It is recommended to adopt and was amended to read, "The 2008 General Conference directs that the 2012 Book of Discipline . . ." be codified.

We only worked on about 6 or 8 petitions all day today.

After dinner, we had more of the same discriminatory kind of debate and results. We had a petition about membership that came as a result of Judicial Council 1032. This was the one where a Virginia pastor denied a gay man membership in the church. It was a very poorly written decision and had no real Disciplinary language behind it. So this petition 80088 would have fixed that. There was a minority report that was defeated 384-515, so things looked good. Then the main report which would have fixed things lost 436-448. 12 votes out of 884

But we weren't done yet. The next, and last for today was about paragraph 304.3, qualifications for ordination. Currently it says, "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in the UMC." The minority report was to replace that with, "The standard for candidates is to do good, to do no harm, and to continue to grow in love with God." (sound familiar?) The minority report lost 298-599, and then the main motion which was to reject a change to delete the offensive language lost 335-579.

The sermon this morning was, again, excellent. Bishop Violet Fisher on "The Necessity of the Call". She was at my table Monday evening at the higher education dinner - very nice lady, and a good preacher. At one point she really got into it, and said, "I'm not angry, I'm just passionate." She talked about Samaria, and then said that Jesus didn't need a meeting, and didn't need a 3-6 month new member class. It was good, but some obviously were not listening, or did not remember later in the day. She shared that we need radical hospitality - "Come into my Father's House."A couple of more people came up to me today and said that they voted for me on that first ballot. I think there are now almost 30 that voted for me to get 18 votes. Obviously there were some defective machines. Maybe I should push for a re-vote (like the Dems need to do in Florida and Michigan).

We are up to page 2372 in the DCA and adding more every day.Tomorrow Bishop Jung is preaching at the morning worship which is a Memorial Service for Bishops that have died since the last General Conference - there have been 14. Then in the afternoon we are hearing from Bill Gates. No, not that one, but close - his father.

Another long, tiring day. Only two to go. When I logged on to the PC tonight I had 33 emails, and about 1/2 of them were from some of you reading these. Thanks for all the supportive comments. There has been at least one comment on the blog site too.

Peace to all, Jack