[riverdawg]

I know the Book of Discipline well. There has been no interference or even input from the Bishop in our congregation’s decisions over budgets, pastoral (re-)appointment, building renovations, foreign mission expenditures or anything else. Yes, the Bishop “appoints” the pastor, and in the early 70’s I was “appointed” by then-President Nixon to a mid-level job in his administration. I think I still have the appointment letter, signed by auto-pen of course.

To say that the Methodist hierarchy resembles even remotely the centralized, authoritarian bureaucracy of the Roman Catholic Church (which I also know very well from my involvement with our daughter’s Catholic middle school) is to say that Churchill resembled Stalin because they were both men.

[Louis Foxwell]

Tell it to the elders in the Baltimore Annual Conference. Autocracy is alive and well on the Council of Bishops.
You do not believe, by your comments, that the Book of Discipline is the mandating authority over the business of the local church.
The historical and ecclesiastical links between RC and UMC are inextricable. A good tyrant allows his minions to have the appearance of freedom without granting the authority of freedom.
Doze on, comrad. You may not live to see the revolution.