It was about three years ago that I discovered that the United Methodist Church as defined by its official doctrine was not a church at all, but was in fact an extreme left-wing, socialist political party. After discovering what the UMC was really all about, I couldn't get out of that organization fast enough.
The unfortunate thing is that most of the good people in the UMC focus on their local church and have no idea what the UMC is really all about. They don't realize that their contributions are being used to fund political action that they would find repugnant.
The local UMC churches in my area operate primarily as social clubs and are used as such by people who don't even attend the UMC church. I know many Catholics who send their children to the UMC church for social activities and for day care -- but that's another story.
Schliemann took his duties seriously. His vision of those duties was clear, and quite at odds with the notions of most newer priests. He had little patience for the social-activist clergymen, whatever their denomination. They seemed to want to make their churches into gathering places for the envious and self-pitying. They were infinitely willing to use politics to impose their visions of good upon others. Father Heinrich Schliemann led no marches, signed no petitions, and never talked politics. While the prelates of the American Church tacitly permitted the social-activist priests to convert the legacy of Saint Peter into a stained-glass staging area for the crusades of special interest groups, the pastor of Onteora parish remained exclusively a man of God.
My readers were almost unanimous in their expressed wishes to have, or to know, a pastor like that.
What was it Christ said about rendering unto Caesar? Our clerics and prelates seem to have forgotten.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
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