Human Sexuality is Devil's Rope and the brilliance of "The Way Forward"

Roman Mars' story on Devil's Rope is one of the great episodes in his already great podcast. The story of Devil's Rope (AKA barbed wire) is an abridged history of the fencing in the United States. Those of you who have read this blog for a while now, may recall a post about Devil's Wire and perhaps even a sermon on the matter. And if you have seen those, then you may have already seen how the plan dealing with human sexuality proposed by the Bishops of the UMC, called "The Way Forward" is Devil's Rope. 

View fullsize

Credit: Logan King

When some people see Devil's Rope they will find it scary and dangerous. It is thorny and can make you bleed if you are not careful. So, for reasons of self preservation and safety it make sense that when we see an issue that is just as prickly that we would think twice before touching it. For many of us, the issue of human sexuality in the UMC is a thorny and potentially bloody issue to handle. And so, many see human sexuality and turn the other way. 

Others might see Devil's Rope and get angry that such a material exists to divide and chop up the land. As Mars' points out, there were the famous "Fence Cutting Wars" beginning in 1881. There are those who see human sexuality and do not understand why this is an issue that divides us as a denomination. These people have clear beliefs thoughts on the presence of Devil's Rope. In human sexuality, one camp sees the presence of Devil's Rope to be a good thing as it keeps the boundaries of what is orthodox/Christian/True while others see the presence of Devil's Rope to be an affront of what it means to be orthodox/Christian/True. So we have within the UMC a group of people maintaining the integrity of the fence while others are cutting it. And just like the fence cutting wars that were ended with the intervention of the larger body in 1885, so too the UMC has appealed to a larger body in the Bishops to put an end to these wars. 

The Way Forward is the attempt of the Bishops to put an end to the wars. It is not perfect and we can talk about overreach or kicking the can or whatever, but the fact of the matter is in doing so we overlook the brilliance of the Way Forward. It is the similar to the same brilliance that was embodied in the early inventors of the telephone. I yield to the concise words of Roman Mars on this point:

"Right around the same time that barbed wire was invented, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. At first, telephone companies were laying telephone wire in cities, but they weren’t interested in the rural market. Still, farmers also needed phones, which meant that they needed a network of wires to connect the farms. Barbed wire fences could serve this purpose. The barbed wire couldn’t transmit a signal quite as clearly as a nice insulated copper wire, but for many years, they did the trick. A dozen or so farms might be connected on one system and for about 25 dollars, farmers could buy a kit to rig themselves into the network. In 1907 there were 18,000 independent telephone cooperative serving nearly a million and half people.  Because of this, farmers were some of the earliest adopters of telephone technology."

Rather than steering clear or cutting we see an alternate response to encountering Devil's Rope: building connection. This is what the Way Forward is and this is also it's brilliance: using one of the more thorny issues of our time, the same issue that some avoid, or build up or cut down, the Bishops saw the Devil's Rope as a potential tool to connect the denomination. 

It is my prayer that we the people of the UMC will be willing to have the same creativity and courage of our Bishops, to see even the most difficult things as the very conduit of the Holy Spirit to build up the Body of Christ in the Kingdom of God. 

May it be so. Amen.

Has the Golden Rule Lead to more Violence?

The following was originally posted by mistake on June 17th, 2016. It was scheduled for the incorrect date and this is why it is now being re-posted to the correct post date. Thank you for reading.

---

"Love your neighbor as yourself" - AKA the Golden Rule. This commandment is expressed a number of different ways, and in my tradition we first see this commandment in Leviticus 19:18. 

This expression of the Golden Rule makes me wonder if our acceptance of violence on others is a result of the violence we accept on our own selves. 

Many of my people believe that humans are sin sick souls that can do no good and are all hell bound. As a result we do all sorts of spiritual violence to ourselves in order to try to purify our souls. 

Culture shames people for their body and we do all sorts of physical violence to our bodies in order to meet these unreal standards.

Pressures from all places show us how we are all not as smart or as wise as we need to be. We do all sorts of mental violence to our minds in order to try to put on the front that we are not idiots and are worthy.

When there is tragedy we are given a time period to grieve and then move on, but if we are not able to move on in that window then we begin to think there is something wrong with us. We commit all sorts of emotional violence to ourselves in order to try to "move on" and "be better" since it seems "everyone else has."

We beat ourselves up because we are often our own harshest critic. However, doing so much violence to our own selves results in accepting it and then assuming that a certain level of violence on others is also acceptable since we tolerate a certain level of self inflicted violence. 

The point being that as long as we are continuing to tolerate self violence then we will continue to tolerate violence on others. 

Among the last things that Jesus said to his disciples in the gospel of John (13:34) we read: "I (Jesus) give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." 

Jesus loves without violence of any kind and this slight modification of the Golden Rule for me is more significant than just semantics. This modification of the Golden Rule moves the center of the love from the individual to Jesus the Christ. Rather than Love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus frames this rule as Love one another as I have loved you.

I wonder what it would look like if we stopped loving others as we love ourselves and love one another as Jesus the Christ loves.

Love from Truth or Truth from Love?

Since the United Methodist Church's General Conference in Portland, Oregon I have been reading and listening more than I have been writing as a way to better understand my sisters and brothers around the connection who hold different positions than I do. It has been a mentally and spiritually exhausting discipline and through this work, I believe I am drawing closer to a foundational difference in Christ's church. I will phrase it in a question: 

“Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’

Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’”

— John 18:38 and Matthew 9:13

Does Love come from Truth or does Truth come from Love? 

If love comes from truth then truth effects the expression of love. For instance, the person on the street corner with a megaphone or those who make videos trying to convince others of a truth are (in my experience) doing these actions not out of judgement but out of love. The megaphone preacher has a love for people and fears that people are going to hell. As an act of love driven by this understanding of truth, the person stands and yells in order to get people's attention. One preacher told me that if you saw someone walking into the street and they did not see a bus coming down on them, wouldn't you yell about the bus to the person? There are a number of videos put out by groups in the UMC that are operating out of this understanding of what is fundamental. Their love for others, Christ and his church are such is rooted in a Truth that drives their actions. 

However I have noticed there are others who see truth comes from love. That is that love is the primary or foundation of action and that truth is in service of love. Which means that there would be times when truth might be withheld or not shared or even hidden in order to more fully express love. When someone comes into my office and asks why did their beloved get run over by a bus I don't tell them the truth that their beloved was drunk as a skunk and wandered into the street and due to the full impact of a two ton bus their body could not handle their heart stopped. While this may be true, this is not the response that is needed. Rather a shared weeping and mourning is the response. 

Some might say that Truth and Love are one in the same, that they are both needed and required. That in fact, Truth and Love are inseparable. Scripture is cited and stories of Jesus are shared in order to make the case. I get it, perhaps they are correct. But for as many scriptures they cite, I can cite that many more on how love stands alone and that all things flow from it and it has no equal. I can make the Biblical case that Truth comes from Love, but in me doing that I become a person who acts like love comes from truth. I have a truth that I want to convince others and try to do it as loving as I can, but in the end my loving actions are filtered through a desire to communicate truth. 

Therein lies the problem that I struggle with my more zealous sisters and brothers on the left and right. When Truth is the primary value we are not able to hear one another. We are too busy trying to convince each other, as loving as we can, what is correct or true. 

My friend and colleague Rev. Ryan Kiblinger is a wonderful witness for me. He and I disagree on theological and social issues and yet I could not find a better example of a person who can practice disagreement with great love as his foundation. Be it on social media or in person Rev. Kiblinger is a person who I give thanks to God for because at his core he lives out a Truth from Love. I hope to also be a person who lives with the foundation of Love - even if that comes at the expense of Truth.