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Originally Posted by antonyh
I'm trying to understand the "power" structure here. Did the Judicial Commission find a loop hole in the General Assembly's ruling and exploit that to bar ordination or are they overstepping their bounds? In the Methodist Church the Judicial Council can be overridden by the General Conference.
It seems that conservatives have been good at stacking the Judicial Commission and Judicial Council with their people.
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As a United Methodist "wonk," let me clarify this, Antony. I believe that United Methodist General Conference can only "override" the Judicial Council in the same way that Congress can override the Supreme Court--that is, by adopting legislation that changes the basic law in question.
I'm curious if the Presbyterian Judicial Commission has been "packed" by right wingers the way our Judicial Council has, or is their ruling a fair ruling given the actual letter of the law?
I know a member of the Presbyterian Church's Task Force on Peace and Unity--I'm sorry about this decision, but I always kind of questioned how effective their action really was. They really never challenged the demeaning language against LGBT people in the Constitution of the Church, they just tried to make a way for individuals, sessions and presbyteries to get around it. It appears that was not a very satisfactory solution.
My friend defended the Task Force's approach as "moderate" and "compromising" and discounted Soulforce's more "radical" approach as "counter-productive." Seems to me now like the only way forward is a radical rejection of all church teaching and polity that demeans God's LGBT people--no compromise!
Sorry. I'm particularly sorry that this seems to mean that another church Task Force or Study Group has met (in this case the Presbyterian Task Force on Peace and Unity) and issued it's report after so much hard work and pain and suffering all to no avail! These internal studies have gone on for over 30 years amongst Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians and others--all to no avail!
Steven Webster