16-Mar-2006
Dear friends,
On Tuesday night I began teaching a 3-week class on Writing and Spirituality at Bellarmine University. One of the issues that came up, as it always does, is that the (adult, mid-life) students are hesitant to put their thoughts and feelings on paper.
On the one hand, I work to assuage their concerns by creating a safe and affectionate environment. On the other hand, I acknowledge that their caution is justified, because writing truthfully and authentically can lead us down paths we neither expect nor desire to walk.
This morning I learned that a piece I wrote last August would appear in this week's edition of Louisville's alternative newspaper, Leo. You can read "Has God Been Demoted?" at the following website:
http://www.leovia.com/?q=node/765
Last month I revised the piece to bring it up to date on events in the UMC. At the end of the revision, I found myself a different person than I was at the beginning. Accordingly, I have advised our good bishop of my withdrawal from the ordained ministry in the UMC.
As you surely know, any such decision is multi-layered. The only layer I will mention aside from what I've laid out in the Leo piece is that, for people both lay and ordained in the UMC, it is far more acceptable for a heterosexual person to be single and in a loving, committed relationship than it is for a homosexual person.
I benefit from this dichotomy. In benefiting from it, I am also (albeit unintentionally) affirming and sustaining it. I can't, in good conscience, continue to do so.
I will continue to love and to honor the UMC. Like each of you (and like Martin), I am looking to the day that justice will roll down upon us like a river. I do so in full confidence as a child of God that our participation in the work of justice brings the day of its rolling down upon us a little closer.
