{"id":424,"date":"2012-04-25T15:15:02","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T22:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=424"},"modified":"2012-04-25T15:15:02","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T22:15:02","slug":"the-umc-needs-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/the-umc-needs-my-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"The UMC Needs My Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a friend and she\u2019s amazing. She\u2019s the kind of person that we all want to come through our church doors. Her smile easily lights up a room (even a sanctuary<\/em>) and she has an awesome sense of humor. I can see her working with the youth of the church (and them loving her<\/em>), I can see her warmly welcoming new families, and I can see her adding immensely to her faith community. My friend is someone we want and need in The United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n

But my friend is not welcomed into The United Methodist Church.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I met my friend in college where we were both living in the same apartment complex. She had a sassy sense of humor and was so fun, we were friends quickly. The more I got to know her, I knew she was a good person. She and I talked about Christianity.<\/p>\n

My friend is not welcomed in the United Methodist Church because of who she loves.<\/strong> My friend has a wife. A wonderful, healthy relationship that we all should strive for. But feels unwelcome in The United Methodist Church because of our official stance on homosexuality.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve had conversations about Reconciling Ministries, but for my friend, the official United Methodist position on homosexuality is quite clear to her. I can\u2019t say I disagree with her.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I was questioning why I was still a United Methodist. I am at least a fourth or fifth generation United Methodist. I agree with the church a lot, but I disagree with our stance on homosexuality. There are other churches that would welcome my beliefs, but someone told me, if you leave, who will be there to change the church.<\/p>\n

I want to change the church for my friend. I want the church to finally affirm my friend and say to her, we welcome you. During General Conference, legislation for an open and affirming church will be brought forth and I can only pray that it will pass so my friend (and your friends) will all be welcomed regardless of who they choose to love.<\/p>\n

My heart weeps for the United Methodist Church because my friend is amazing and the church would be a better place with her.<\/p>\n

**These views are my own and please comment in love as I would like to share this with my friend.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Flickr user\u00a0ElenahNeshcuet, Creative Commons.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a friend and she\u2019s amazing. She\u2019s the kind of person that we all want to come through our church doors. Her smile easily lights up a room (even a sanctuary) and she has an awesome sense of humor. I can see her working with the youth of the church (and them loving her), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/hands_1.jpg?fit=585%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-6Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}