Special to United Methodist Insight
This morning I am again drawn to a re-reading of, “Three Simple Rules, A Wesleyan Way of Living”; Bishop Reuben P. Job, Abingdon Press, 2007.
If I was one of the delegates going to the February/Black History Month Conference, I would find Bishop Job’s small but inspirational book helpful.
‘Do No Harm’
Rueben Job
The late Bishop Rueben Job was the author of "3 Simple Rules: for The United Methodist Church.
“If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” Galatians 5: 15
Persons who have shared with me their personal testimonies of racial bias, have said their prejudice against blacks in time, had a boomerang effect upon them. They realized they were infected by the prejudice they imposed on others.
‘Do Good’
“Whoever does good is from God.” – 3 John 11b
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good.” – Acts 10: 38
“You owe your conscience to God; to one another you owe nothing but mutual love.” – Letters of Saint Augustine
I discovered early on that our now 14-year-old granddaughter loves to sing with me, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” In the United Methodist Church that Grace and I attend, there is a married male couple who have two wonderful daughters. I have wondered but never asked them, “How does it make you feel when you know that some in the UMC, believe your parents expressions of love to each other, are ‘incompatible with Christian teaching.’? Does it hurt to know the Book of Discipline says that?”
‘Stay in Love with God’
“Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually.” – Psalm 105: 4
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” – Colossians 2: 6-7
At the age of 85, I find myself wondering how I as the racial justice activist I am, because of my Mother’s encouraging empowerment, have remained in the Methodist, now United Methodist Church? The “weaponizing” of the Bible to justify anti-black racism, has been something I have sought to “call out” for all of my ministry. And, the use of the Bible to abuse and punish my same-gender-loving friends and colleagues, has exacerbated and expanded my deep dislike of Church-sponsored bias. When I read and hear the Bible-based rationale for discrimination against LGBTQI persons and same-sex couples, I am reminded of the same Bible-based rationale that justified the discrimination of blacks. The effort to distinguish race as being different from homosexuality is a smoke screen. There is an unacknowledged anti-homosexual attitude in the DNA of some people, much like the anti-black DNA.
It is no longer viable for United Methodists to use the Bible to justify their anti-black attitudes and actions. But, using the Bible to “diss” LGBTQI persons and same-sex married couples, has become since 1972, the cancer that is destroying us.
My prayer is that the 2019 General Conference unlike the 1939 Conference that built the “wall” of the Central Jurisdiction, will begin to build a “bridge” upon which all of “God’s children” might walk toward the freedom God has ordained for all of us!
Gilbert Caldwell
The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell. Photo by Mike DuBose, United Methodist Communications.
The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell of Asbury Park, NJ, is a retired clergy member of the former Rocky Mountain Annual Conference, now the Mountain Sky Conference.