Mary Grant isn't gay and doesn't have a gay child. She's not sure what has led her to push for a broader welcome for gays at her church, Woodbury United Methodist, and in the denomination at large."This issue touches my heart," said Grant, 70, of Maplewood. "I want to help change our society's view of homosexuality. God doesn't want exclusion and condemnation."
But to Dale Droogsma, also a Methodist, homosexuality is like alcoholism. "You love and help the person, but you don't OK the behavior," he said.
Droogsma, 52, of Elk River, was caught by surprise recently when his pastor, the Rev. Phil Strom of Elk River United Methodist Church, told his congregation that this week's convention of Minnesota Methodists will include votes on whether to back ordination of gays and gay marriage.
People on both sides will open the state Methodists' annual convention today in St. Cloud. Their votes during the session, which lasts through Friday, will constitute a recommendation to the denomination's General Convention, which meets in 2008.
The struggle for justice and equality continues.
2 comments:
I just tried to go to the MN United Methodist discussion board to see what was happening at the Conference Meeting in St. Cloud today. I see I won't be able to get any good information there.
I have a friend from college who pastors a United Methodist congregation in Redwood Falls, MN. I wonder whether she is at the conference.
Through a post on the More Light Presbyterian listservice, I read a portion of an article in The Advocate that the MN United Methodists approved resolutions supporting GLBT ordination and for the ability of pastors to perform same-sex marriages. If I knew know to do the link, I'd cite it. But I couldn't get it to work.
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