{"id":495,"date":"2012-04-26T10:22:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T17:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=495"},"modified":"2012-04-26T10:22:24","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T17:22:24","slug":"be-not-afraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/be-not-afraid\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Not Afraid!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Against all logic and my own better judgment, I\u2019ve been a little obsessed with General Conference this time around.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read a rather unhealthy volume of the reports, legislation, and commentary that has been written in anticipation of this quadrennium\u2019s attempt at \u201cHoly Conferencing\u201d.[i]<\/a>\u00a0 I\u2019ve read the \u201cCall to Action\u201d (hereafter CTA) studies on vital congregations and church organization, the Study of Ministry Commission Report, the Church Systems Task Force Report, and a lot of the legislation that has grown out of these efforts. \u00a0I\u2019ve read legislation on human sexuality and other \u201chot button\u201d social issues.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read commentaries from all manner of people involved in drafting or opposing these legislative efforts about how \u201ccritical\u201d their passage or defeat is \u201cfor the future of the United Methodist Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have much admiration for many of the people involved in these drafting and analyzing these documents.\u00a0 They are talented and intelligent people who have devoted their lives to the church, worked successfully within its structures, and are now doing what they feel is best for the future of the church they love.<\/p>\n

But that being said, I\u2019m increasingly disheartened and disgusted by the use of fear to manipulate the deliberations of General Conference.<\/p>\n

Take the Call to Acton for example:\u00a0 I\u2019ve read stories encouraging mistrust and fear of those who disagrees with CTA, calling them \u201cfearful\u201d people, afraid of giving up their \u201ccomfort with the status quo.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve also seen stories that tell us to fear the CTA itself as a power-grab – by the Council of Bishops, by the pastors of large churches, by the South East and South Central Jurisdiction.\u00a0 I heard a pastor I usually respect give a very disappointing presentation supporting CTA that placed more emphasis on the fear of what may happen with no change than on how the proposed changes offer hope for the future.<\/p>\n

All that just today, all about one issue!\u00a0 I can only wait with dread for the coming debates on the global church, the study on ministry, and the legislation on human sexuality.\u00a0 All of these issues promise to raise plenty of anger and anxiety, and undoubtedly whole new choruses of people happy to tell the General Conference and the church at large who to fear and why.<\/p>\n

So if I could offer one my prayer for – one plea to – the delegates of the General Conference, it would be simple:\u00a0 Be not afraid!<\/p>\n

Fear is the enemy of reason, the enemy of charity, the enemy of wisdom.\u00a0 Remember the mantra from Frank Herbert\u2019s Dune<\/span>:\u00a0 \u201cI must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.\u201d\u00a0 Remember that \u201cThere is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear<\/em>.\u201d <\/em>(I John 4:18)\u00a0 Fear is the opposite of faith.\u00a0 It has no place in \u201choly conferencing\u201d, because it is anything but holy.<\/p>\n

Whatever issue is before you:\u00a0 Read well, ask questions, talk to others, pray hard. \u00a0Then cast your vote \u2013 based on your prayerful conviction, your logic, your sense of justice, your own experience of life in the church.\u00a0 Heck – vote your hunch, flip a coin even!<\/p>\n

But please – don\u2019t cast a single vote based on fear.\u00a0<\/em> Not fear of decline in the denomination, not fear of the power of Bishops.\u00a0 Not based on fear of losing status in the church or weakening the political leverage of your own \u201ccaucus\u201d.\u00a0 Not out fear of the \u201cother\u201d, no matter whom that \u201cother\u201d may be.\u00a0 Ignore the voices that tell you who or what to fear.\u00a0 Tune them out, put their flyers aside, delete their Tweets \u2013 they will not, can not, lead anyone into a brighter future.<\/p>\n

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[i]<\/a>After hearing that phrase a few hundred times in the last few days, has anyone else found themselves fighting back the urge to add the word \u201cBatman!\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Against all logic and my own better judgment, I\u2019ve been a little obsessed with General Conference this time around.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read a rather unhealthy volume of the reports, legislation, and commentary that has been written in anticipation of this quadrennium\u2019s attempt at \u201cHoly Conferencing\u201d.[i]\u00a0 I\u2019ve read the \u201cCall to Action\u201d (hereafter CTA) studies on vital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":510,"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":[48,47,49,30,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation","8":"tag-call-to-action","9":"tag-cta","10":"tag-fear","11":"tag-future","12":"tag-gc2012"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/BeNotAfraid.jpg?fit=600%2C407&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-7Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":497,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions\/497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}