I went to church yesterday. (Yes, I do go occasionally.) I grew up United Methodist and today’s sermon struck me as immensely ironic. I have a history at that church of getting up during the sermon and debating with ministers, but I held my tongue today as there were about 60 guests today and I didn’t want to make a scene. Plus, our minister gets nervous when the congregation gets large so me getting up and debating with him would have probably made him lose it.
If you watch television you have likely seen the United Methodist commercials, the “Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors” – some of them are actually quite good. Well, the commercials talk about different aspects including diversity and how Methodists are open to all diversity – including one with a woman saying that none of us are qualified to judge. The commercials are to an extent misleading given the facts of the past few years. While it is true that Gay and Lesbians are welcome as members of the UMC by the articles, there are many aspects that we are not technically welcome in or treated equally. For example, you can not be openly GLBT and serve as a minister – nor can a commitment ceremony be officiated by a UMC minister, so it is not an equal environment and the commercials are somewhat misleading. I will say though that the UMC is loosely structured and individual churches do have a great deal of say so ultimately more progressive churches will move us forward. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be mine that does it – there is a very delicate balance at our church and often the balance is maintained by my family and family friends as we have the balance control of the church committees.
But what is the point of this (there is method to my madness – now on to the sermon). The sermon listed in the bulletin was about family and loved ones, but the sermon he ultimately gave was a fire and brimstone type of sermon. The basic sermon was on how we have abandoned God and that in fact our tolerance of diversity and difference is what is bringing America into chaos. He went on about how the fact that we do not actively pursue non-members (harass them into the fold) is actually something that will result in sending us to hell. He preached about sex and sexuality and how we have lost the values of God. And he stood there and spewed statistics and so-called facts that were blatantly wrong. Basically for over 30 minutes he went on and on about this, with each second of it making me more and more irate. The only joy that I got was the fact that I take care of the sound system at the church so I just kept tinkering with it and making it squeal and squeak – just to distract him and throw off his sermon. But the reality is what the hell has happened to the church I knew. I grew up with the philosophy and ideology that God was a God of love, that everyone was his/her/its children and that went opposite of everything in that sermon. Additionally, I was always taught that diversity and differences were what gave character to a congregation – not so if he is to be believed. The reality is that the sermon was nothing more than conservative propaganda that served to promote intolerance within the congregation. I do have to say that he is a young minister (under 25) and that in fact he comes from a Baptist background and thus ideologically does have some issues.
Another little irony is that when he arrived most of the church thought that he and I would become close friends as I am basically the only one active in the church that is around his age. Let me tell you, he barely speaks to me – it is very clear that he is uncomfortable around me because I speak my mind and don’t care if he doesn’t agree with me (I don’t think he knows that I am gay).

Oh well, I am sure that no one really cares, but I needed to vent.