Two articles in this week's addition of UM Reporter demonstrate the confusion that racks the UMC. One was an interview with Leonard Sweet about his new book, Jesus Manifesto. The other about the University Senate reinstating Claremont Seminary to full status as a United Methodist accredited school for educating UM pastors.
The title of the articles highlights the confusion I'm referring to. The former is titled, Q&A: Restoring the supremacy of Jesus, while the latter is Claremont’s religious diversity: Church affirms multi-faith project.
Sweet along with his co-author Frank Viola subtitle their book, "It's time to restore the supremacy of Jesus Christ." Claremont on the other hand, thinks that Jesus Christ is probably good thing for Christians to believe in, but is equal not supreme to the beliefs of Jews and Muslims. Sadly, the University Senate thinks that's ok and are giving the school nearly a million dollars in order to teach it to UM pastors.
I read about this kind of confusion and the rejection of the supremacy of Jesus by the UM hierarchy and I wonder why it is that these same people can't understand why people in local churches don't want to see their contributions used to pay apportionments. It's pretty clear to me.
If we want our churches to grow and to support the work of our denomination, then we had better figure out what our message is. It it about Jesus or is it about gathering everyone together and singing "Kum ba yah" where each person gets to decide which lord they want to come by.
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