Please, don’t get the wrong idea, this editorial is not against religion, or against LGBT+, so relax.
If you didn’t know, the United Methodist Church is, yet again, going to split, this time into the Global Methodist Church which kinda adheres to religious scripture and will not support LGBT+ versus the Peoples United Methodist Church which will support LGBT+ and other gender identifications. The problem? Either you adhere to your principles, whatever they might be, or you don’t, and historically Methodists consistently pick-and-choose whatever is socially and politically popular over scripture. How do you trust people who don’t adhere to their own beliefs? You can’t, you shouldn’t. As a fifth generation preacher’s kid of Methodist clergy, I’ve personally observed and been the recipient of the hypocrisy of Methodism.
My father, Rev. Dr. Everett S. Reynolds (1928-2011) said to me, “Well, let me tell you about my religious position, for as many have said, the church, including the United Methodist, Baptist, Catholic and all others are racist in practice though not in belief.” Common sense.
As published in the 1984 Discipline of the United Methodist Church, John Wesley, a biblical purist, chartered the first Methodist Church in the United States in 1784, by 1786, there were 1,569 Methodists in the United States of America; all were Black except for only two-(2) White members. Then, in 1816, Richard Allen, an emancipated slave and Methodist preacher who was mistreated because of his race, left the church and organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.).
Then, in 1792, James O’Kelly founded the Republican Methodists Church (RMC) because he believed bishops held to much authority over local pastors. The RMC eventually became the United Church of Christ (UCC).
My grandfather, Rev. Dr. Clarence C. Reynolds, Sr. (1903-1961) said, “There can be no improvement in race relations, until there is an acceptance of the Christian ideal of humanity.” Credibility.
Due to continued discrimination, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E.Z.) was begun in 1821; and in 1870 even more Black people left to escape the blatant racism and hypocrisy of "White-privilege-based-religion" to create the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (C.M.E.). The C.M.E. Church is 94% Black.
Even after the Civil War, and without regard to geographic location, all Black Methodists were confined in its Central Negro Conference, its “religious reservation,” and continued to be so confined after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and then finally broke-up the “reservation” with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
My great-grandfather, Rev. Abraham Lincoln Reynolds, Sr. (1873-1965) witnessed his two brothers, John and Harry, sold on the slave block, after the Civil War, and never saw them again; and he hated White people, and never allowed a White person in his house, or let a White person to set foot to his pulpit. My father watched, in 1939, when his grandfather said to six visiting White bishops, “You can come to this church and sit out there, but you can not put your foot in this pulpit.” Rev. A.L. Reynolds, Sr., stood there and waited until the bishops sat down, and then he directed the congregation to sing the hymn. Character.
Nothing prohibits LGBT+ individuals from writing their own Bible or creating their own church. Conversely, the overwhelming majority of Black people left the United Methodist Church because it consistently discriminated against Black people. Point of fact, the overwhelming majority of people leading the LGBT+ movement within Methodism are White, and the upcoming split of the church in support of LGBT+ is funded by the UMC! Black Methodists were never compensated for leaving the Methodist Church. Oh, the hypocrisy.
When you examine the UMC’s Great Plains Conference, which includes Nebraska, you’ll discover churches are constantly closing because memberships continue to drop as more people die than join, and more pastors retire than are ordained. So does this latest split finally signal the end of Methodism? Nope, and here’s why. Historically, you can count on Methodists to consistently pick-and-choose whatever is socially and politically popular over scripture, because “principles” such as character, credibility, and common sense don’t matter. Amen.
I welcome your feedback.
Trip Reynolds
trip.reynolds@yahoo.com
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Reynolds' Rap First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. |