Spirit of a Liberal

Mitt’s got some ‘splainin’ to do

Obie Holmen — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:38:44 +0000

News out of southeastern Minnesota tells more sad tales of teens who succumbed to bullying and committed suicide. Oftentimes it is the short one, or the heavy one, or the shy one, or the stutterer, or the gay, but thirteen-year-old Rachel Emhke didn’t seem to have any distinguishing characteristics except that she got on the wrong [...]

Shout it from the rooftops

Obie Holmen — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:32:44 +0000

Last week I received a comment that I refused to publish because it attacked an individual or a group. Apart from the personal attack, the commenter attempted to make the point that gay friendly resolutions by mainstream churches explain a general membership decline. Au contraire. Two years ago, a book entitled American Grace became a [...]

United Methodist General Conference (GC2012): Biblical obedience and ecclesiastical disobedience

Obie Holmen — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:14:18 +0000

To be sure, GC2012 was a huge disappointment for LGBT folk and their allies. After forty years of wilderness wandering, the church seemed poised on the banks of the Jordan, but after the setbacks of GC2012, the promised land seems ever farther away. At GC2008, the major gay-friendly legislation failed by 55%-45%, but this year [...]

United Methodist General Conference (GC2012): We sit in the darkness, waiting for light.

Obie Holmen — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:43:35 +0000

My mind plays with the metaphors of light and dark as I rehash what I saw, heard, and felt yesterday. This statement, “we sit in the darkness, waiting for light,” appeared on a social media post after the UMC General Conference in quick succession voted to retain the oppressive forty-year-old statement, “homosexuality is incompatible with [...]

United Methodist General Conference (GC2012): the wind bloweth where it listeth

Obie Holmen — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:59:20 +0000

Jack Tuell knew the law before he learned the gospel. Following law school and two years of legal practice, he entered seminary and became an ordained Methodist clergyman. He would eventually become a bishop, and he delivered the episcopal address at General Conference 1988, and he served as President of the Council of Bishops in [...]

United Methodist General Conference (GC2012): “You’re out of order”

Obie Holmen — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:16:54 +0000

This early put down of speaker Mark Miller served as prelude to the begrudging welcome GC2012 has thus far extended to gays and their allies. Miller, an openly gay delegate from New Jersey, had been allowed to address the plenary session in response to the derisive treatment received by some gays during the holy conferencing [...]

United Methodist General Conference (GC2012): Remembering the Sacramento 68

Obie Holmen — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:22:06 +0000

Yesterday, April 30th, I arrived at the site of the UMC General Conference (GC2012). I checked out the Tampa convention hall but then spent my time at the Tabernacle, home of the Coalition of a handful of progressive groups. I visited with half a dozen friends of the Wisconsin contingent and also leaders of the [...]

UMC General Conference 2012 (GC2012): A family reunion

Obie Holmen — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:50:02 +0000

A few years ago, our middle daughter spent a year at SCAD—the Savannah School of Art and Design—and we became acquainted with this stately city of the south that had escaped the destruction of the civil war. We spent a frantic first weekend trying to find a suitable apartment to rent. Sitting at a Waffle [...]

UMC General Conference (GC2012): Daily Report April 27

Obie Holmen — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:25:04 +0000

Before we get to the day’s news, we begin with a bit of history. In 1975, The first Methodist gay caucus meeting took place at Wheadon UMC Church of Evanston, Illinois near the Northwestern University campus. Steve Webster*, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was the principal organizer. Steve had been featured in [...]

A Jew and a Methodist …

Obie Holmen — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:06:44 +0000

I’m borrowing this line from Ariel Vegosen, a Jewish woman attending the UMC Conference in Tampa (GC2012). She states, “I am here as a Jewish ally to support divestment and to support my Methodist brothers and sisters as they make this important and historic decision.” With American support for Israel an unquestioned historical and political [...]