so i asked for introductions from the people that made it to this blog and as part of the intros i asked for each comment to include a theological question that was on the brain. so i’d like to take a chance to make a response to those questions. in no way am i attempting to be the end all be all to these questions, but to be a conversation starter. this is one way of doing theology. it is called open source theology. we work out our theology together in community and allow all voices to speak and all ears to listen. so as i take a stab at these questions, please clarify if i’ve erred in your original question, and bring as many people into this conversation as you want to.

i thought i’d tackle carolyn’s question next, because i think it is an easy answer. the problem is that it isn’t an easy answer, but i’m going to speak on this issue out of a place of personal pain and that undoubtadly paints my answer which will be obvious as i try to answer this question. i could try to be an objective observer, but it wouldn’t work and i would still be left in a place of not voicing my pain and thus prolonging my recovery.
well, the question carolyn asked was, “can and/or will the UMC return to its Wesleyan
foundation of social justice, peace and love.” the answer is simply no. i do say that tongue-in-cheek though. the united methodist church is one of the most socially aware and active protestant denominations in the world. umcor is always one of the first if not the first agencies to respond to calamities and disasters throughout the world, usually beating the red cross and other similar agencies. a lot of that has to do with their lack of overhead and structure that keeps an agency like red cross from deploying right away. the united methodist church is far ahead of other mainstream christian organizations in terms of having non-whites and non-males in leadership. all that to say i’m not doing justice to the amount of work united methodists are doing in the area of mercy. this is also not to say that they’ve arrived either.

i’ve heard brian mclaren illustrate mercy and justice with an image of a person on a riverbank who notices a body floating downstream. then another body and then more bodies. so quickly this person wades out into the water and grabs one of these lifeless bodies and brings it ashore. then another then another. this is mercy. justice is going upstream to see what is causing all of these dead or near dead bodies and fighting to stop whatever the cause is. i would say umc’s are decent at mercy. i don’t know how we’re doing in the arena of justice. like most denominations, we gave up the role of doing justice to our government and then release statements either supporting or condeming the government in that effort.

so, while i agree that part of the umc roots are justice, peace, and love the other part of our root system is a culturally engaged gospel and holiness. these are two areas that we don’t even touch anymore. we left the holiness up to the wesleyans/free methodists/nazarenes and we left the culturally relevant message of christ up to the evangelicals who have since almost totally screwed that up too. so i’m putting all of that into my answer, which is more than what carolyn asked for. so my apologies. adding those two things doesn’t change my answer. it does make it more like a “hell no.”

my answer has been solidified by a book i just called good to great by jim collins. in it collins recognizes that the great organizations have structures that encourage debate while the average or good organizations are run in such a way that shuts people up. we have a word for that: “Bureaucracy is a concept in sociology and political science. It refers to the way that the administrative execution and enforcement of legal rules is socially organized. This office organization is characterized by standardized procedure, formal division of responsibility, hierarchy, and impersonal relationships.” this kind of set up forces creative people out. it keeps rebels quiet. the result is reform never happens. i say this because the united methodist church is run in this manner. this kind of system is great for keeping their agencies like umcor and vim running the way they are. this system is terrible for church planting and dealing with social justice. if the united methodist church decides to flatten out it’s structure and embrace the creative rebels that are working within it’s system and outside of it, then there will be a real hope for change or reform or a rediscovery of her roots. but i don’t see that happening.

local churches, for example, have taken on this same structure. and this is how the story becomes painful for me. local churches in the united methodist church are run by these small groups of people positioning for power. keeping people who challenge that power at bay. think about how adam hamilton and michael slaughter are treated in the umc. they are poster boys, but they are also only poster boys. the umc knows that if men and women like hamilton and slaughter have any real say and power, then they will revolutionize the church and destroy the structures. so the the umc puts them on the fringes, but keeps them in the fold because they provide the united methodist church with sex appeal. eventually those churches get so big, there is no longer a need to for a revolution if you see what i mean. so the local church does the same thing. they send the rebels into the basement with the youth group and bind their hands in everyway possible until one of two things happens: submission or departure. i chose departure from the church that i was raised in. i chose departure from a system that is ultimately unable to have a significant impact in the world that is emerging into new ways of thinking, living, and believing. most on the other hand simply submit to it and i can’t say that is the wrong thing to do. i just know that it would have been seriously wrong for me.

so carolyn hopefully all this is just my own little conspiracy theory that i can file under all the other ones i have. maybe the answer i’ve provided is wrong, but my experience doesn’t point in that direction. i hope there are those that feel as if they need to stay and work for change and maybe you’re one of them, only god knows such things. i think of kenda creasy dean, and stanley hauerwas among others. there are many beautiful things in the umc. some of the theology and practices that have come from the methodists is so good and life giving, but i fear those will only be passed on by those that have emerged out of the church and not the ones who stayed. sounds kind of like wesley himself.