Replies

"Somehow, I'm not in the least bit surprised. It is certainly how you come across on this board. I hope you're not this way in person, or you risk a fat lip."

By the way, I am exactly this way in person. I've said nothing to you that I have not said IN PERSON to the two aforementioned UMC Bishops. And do note that neither have them has ever told me I was wrong.

Interestingly enough I've endured threats of violence mostly from the most liberal and "tolerant" people in the UMC. Your 'fat lip' comment sounds typical. As for myself, I have NEVER threatened anyone in the UMC but have received such threats more times than I can count.

On the one occasion in 1994 when one of the "loving and tolerant" people actually did attack me he came at me with a chair. I took the chair from him and then dislocated his shoulder, tearing his rotator cuff, all without hitting him. The police took him to the hospital and then booked him and released him. It was that incident that was key in my leaving the church.

What precipitated his assault? I had dared to say that homosexuality was wrong and should not be an accepted practice in the church. More specifically, this man was teaching Sunday school children ages 6-8 about homosexuality and lesbianism and one of the parents had brought a complaint to me. I acted on it.

My particular congregation had been an Evangelical Brethren congregation prior to the UM in 1967 and was fairly conservative and evangelical. Evangelism is anaethema to the UMC and the pastor the District imposed on us in 1991 was a liberal, pro-homosexual, pacifist (except when it came to his family - then he wasn't a pacifist), and vehemently anti-evangelical saying that Christians had no right to support missions or missionaries.

This is what caused me to become militant in defense of my faith and it also was key in my conversion from a life-long liberal to a committed conservative.

Anymore, I have no patience for you people. If you want to threaten me, have at it. Be advised that if you are so inclined to actually carry through with such a threat you do so at your own peril.

And why is it so hard for a bunch of people who get mad at me for saying how un-Christian they are to act Christian? I expect mature, grown-up people to handle themsleves without playground antics and I expect Christians to act like Christians - especially to each other.

So the threats and etc. I have received from UMC atheists, liberals, lesbians, and (ironically) one pacifist are all just so much more proof to me that you are not a Christian faith anymore.

It'd be much more fun for you to elevate your discourse above mere threats to perhaps discussing with me why the UMC calls itself a Christian faith whilst simultaneously rejecting 2000 years of Christian belief.

But there I go again being a hard-hearted and mean-spirited conservative who wants to talk about such trivialities as facts, faith, and Scripture.

Anymore, I have no patience for you people. If you want to threaten me, have at it.

I have not threatened you. My remark was relative to how some people might respond to the pervasive stream of caustic judgmentalism that you exude. It is sad, but true, that some people might be prone to become angry when someone who is full of self-righteous superiority pontificates at them the way you do. I'm not saying that such a response is right, simply that the human sin nature tends to lean that direction and one shouldn't take chances.

Be advised that if you are so inclined to actually carry through with such a threat you do so at your own peril.

What threat? Again, I did not threaten you in any way. See my above remark.

And why is it so hard for a bunch of people who get mad at me for saying how un-Christian they are to act Christian? I expect mature, grown-up people to handle themsleves without playground antics and I expect Christians to act like Christians - especially to each other.

Agreed. Likewise, I appreciate it when I am not apriori labeled an apostate and treated like something other than a Christian by someone who professes to be a Christian. Such actions un-level the playing field.

So the threats and etc. I have received from UMC atheists, liberals, lesbians, and (ironically) one pacifist are all just so much more proof to me that you are not a Christian faith anymore.

People sin; the sins of a few -- yes, your contacts reflect only a tiny a FEW of the 10 million United methodists -- do not reflect the majority, who are definitely Christians regardless of what you say or believe.

It'd be much more fun for you to elevate your discourse above mere threats to perhaps discussing with me why the UMC calls itself a Christian faith whilst simultaneously rejecting 2000 years of Christian belief.

The UMC calls itself a Christian Faith because it is built upon Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, depends upon His death upon the cross in atonement for our sins, proclaims His resurrection, and awaits His coming in glory. The United Methodist Church is growing in the Southeastern and Southcentral Jurisdictions, in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Africa, because, at least in these regions, there are large numbers of clergy and laity who profess and who teach the Articles of Religion, the EUB Confession of Faith, and the rest of the Doctrinal Standards, whose sermons are rooted in Scripture, and whose primary responsibility is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.