The 610 Loop

Sunday night I attended the Breaking the Silence plenary session at St. Paul's UMC. Breaking the Silence is a community of people in the Texas Annual Conference of the UMC who disagree with the UMC's opposition to ordination of homosexuals and same-sex marriage. That is the nice way of saying it. The official stance in the UMC Book of Discipline is that the "practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." Pretty much says it all.

One of the pastors who spoke is a man whose son left the UMC after seminary because he could not be ordained if he came out. Continuing to hide who he was he considered incompatible with Christian teaching. The son is now an ordained minister in the UCC.

In the past the father had not openly supported his son. He did so publicly at the Breaking the Silence luncheon at the Texas Annual Conference in May 2007. The father is the pastor at a UMC in Montgomery County. Since May 2007 over 100 families have left the congregation along with $250,000 in operating income.

I have no issue with the fact that there are those who believe that homosexuals should not be ordained or allowed to marry. That is so not new information to me. Irritating, painful, sad information, but not new.

The saddest part of this story is that the families that left think this sends a message to the pastor. They think their actions hurt the pastor. The reality is that their actions hurt the remaining members of the congregation - their friends and fellow Christians. The reality is that it hurts the UMC. The reality is that it hurts the Body of Christ.

In the long run it will not hurt the pastor - it will make him a more effective pastor. A more compassionate, understanding, just pastor. A more loving, tolerant Christian. A better man.

I have always said that you don't have to go too far outside the 610 Loop to see that we have not come very far in making this a more inclusive and just world.

I hate being right.