The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, along with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which includes the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and United Church of Christ, have stunningly endorsed Obamacare’s mandate that all religious hospitals and charities must provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization, despite religious objections.
In contrast, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, National Association of Evangelicals, Southern Baptist and Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod leaders and others have condemned the mandate as an assault on religious liberty. Megachurch pastor Rick Warren has declared: “I’d go to jail rather than cave in to a government mandate that violates what God commands us to do.”
It’s not stunning at all. TEC is solidly liberal and only marginally Christian, if they had not supported Obama I would have been surprised.
Seems like all the “usual suspects.” I think most people have caught on they don’t really represent Christians. However, times are very reminiscent of 1930s Germany at this point.
I believe that the UMC is also represented on the RCRC.
There is nothing suprising, much less “stunning” about these imposters and pretenders backing Obama. They fully believe that he will protect them. He will protect them about like KJS will protect anyone in TEC, just as long as they agree with him.
#1 I agree. Not stunning. Sad. But not stunning.
The whole thing is positively [b]revolting, disgusting, and abominable![/b]
You have to remember that the Methodists have a long history of involvement with Socialists, Communists and Progressives. There is such a strong undercurrent of salvation by works in the UMC that is not at all hard to understand how they are all to quick to endorse all sorts of governmental coercive action to create “heaven on earth.” Don’t forget that Wesley dropped a number of the 39 Articles of Faith when he created the Methodist Church, including the one on predestination. I can count on the fingers of my hands the times a congregational confession of sin was said in any UMC service I ever attended. The only sin talked about was the sin about not being a strong enough advocate for social justice.
When you don’t start out with a worldview that man is inherently sinful and can do nothing to save himself, it’s just a small jump to thinking that if you run the world you can create “heaven on earth” if you can just make people do what you know is right.
#7 Perhaps you prefer the Whitefield model of Methodism?
Yikes, #7, that’s pretty harsh. I’m not in the UMC, but there is certainly a strong evangelical wing still left in it. After all, Mark Tooley, the head of IRD and author of the article is United Methodist himself. As for a “strong undercurrent of salvation by works” in the UMC, that may be true of some, or even many churches and pastors that have been seduced by the prevailing culture. But it certainly doesn’t apply to all Methodists, and most definitely not to John Wesley himself. Nor to Francis Asbury, etc.
But as for whether or not the sort of absurdity reflected by the hardcore liberals who released this ridicular statement, well, I’m not stunned either, although I am disappointed. Love “hopes all things” and “bears all things” and keeps extending grace and forgiveness, even when the other person or group has sinned 70 x 7 times.
But no matter how predictable this sort of nonsense is when coming from ultra-leftist church groups, it is still profoundly disturbing and appalling. Maybe even “disgusting” and “revolting” as cennydd13 put it above. But the sheer irony of religous leaders applauding this gross abuse of government power that clearly is a flagrant infringement of religious liberty, well that’s just alarming. It’s that alarming condoning of Obama’s blatant assault on our First Amendment rights that I think Mark Tooley meant.
David Handy