It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks since I last posted here. On Sunday the 30th of October we officially became members of First United Methodist Church in Omaha. We've been attending for a while and finally made the committment to become members. It was a little sad for me (this is Nathan writing) because it meant that we were oficially leaving our church family at University Presbyterian in Tuscaloosa. Mostly, though I was excited about the prospects for being a part of this community of faith.

FUMC Omaha has a long history of social activism and inclusion. It is the church where, about 10 years ago, the pastor performed a holy union ceremony for a same-sex couple. All hell broke loose in the church after that happened. The conservatives left the church to form their own congregation. The pastor in question, Jimmy Creech, was removed from the church by the bishop and eventually lost his pastoral credentials. Luckily the conservatives didn't take over the church though. FUMC is still deeply committed to being an open and welcoming place to LGBT folks. Sheri and I wouldn't be members there if it wasn't.

I hope that eventually, the United Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church USA and the other mainline Christian denominations will come to realize that God doesn't discriminate based on who a person loves. The conservatives seem to think that grace is only available to those who meet a certain set of criteria. And that if they aren't careful and don't follow all the rules just so, that they will be damned. I simply can't believe that a loving God would condemn somebody to hell just because of who they love. But then, I stopped believing in hell a long time ago.

I'll come back to this notion of grace in another post maybe. We are reading a cool book in Sunday school called If Grace is True by Phillip Gulley and James Mulholland. Lots of good theology in there. Still a little conventional for my tastes but a good starting point for exploring the notion of grace. They stay firmly within the Christian tradition unlike some critics of traditional Christian theology. John Shelby Spong comes to mind immediately. Spong is a grenade thrower who is really good at tearing down the stupid doctrinal crap that separates us from God. I have read much of his work and really like it. Gulley and Mulholland are much gentler, more pastoral in their approach. Their book is a quiet reasonable introduction to the notion that Christianity isn't about following the rules so you don't get in trouble, but rather Christianity is a framework that allows us to live our lives from a place of freedom, gratitude and hope.

I'm sure I'll be rambling on about my discombobluated musing regarding theology. But I guess this is enough for now.