By John Lomperis, Juicy Ecumenism
Lasting damage to the mission and ministry of the United Methodist Church continues from the recently announced joke of a “just resolution.” This effectively acquits retired Bishop Melvin Talbert for disruptively invading a newly elected active bishop’s territory to conduct a “sin blessing” service.
It is striking to consider the glaring hypocrisies we find when comparing the resolution statement with Talbert’s actual track record when he was the active bishop of the San Francisco area.
The resolution statement has lots of high-sounding rhetoric about United Methodists of diverse beliefs in practices somehow being in this together. But too often in our denominational leadership circles, “unity in diversity” (to use the unjust resolution’s phrase) has meant that bullying radicals like Talbert do whatever they want, while the rest of us are somehow morally obligated to respond with nothing but wimpy appeasement. No matter how much the Talberts betray of our denomination’s doctrinal standards or their own ordination vows, they seem to act as if they have a confidence that their more theologically moderate and conservative fellow bishops will ultimately do little more than fall over themselves to appease them.
As an active bishop, Talbert basically admitted that the fact that, in one reporter’s words, “not one evangelical has been appointed to a conference leadership position” was deliberate on his part.