It was impressive that nine area Methodist pastors issued apologies regarding the church’s past policies and practices toward the LGBTQ community (“Churches welcome inclusion,” Our Readers’ Views, May 14).
In 1844 the Methodist church split over the issue of slavery. Pro-slavery Methodists felt the practice of human bondage was validated by ancient Biblical texts. Similarly, conservative Methodists today believe these same ancient religious texts support excluding LGBTQ folks from ordination and marriage in their church.
The last 2,000 years of Christianity and Jewish history before that were largely fractious and violent. Notice the popularity of movies about Moses and the Exodus, but where are movies portraying the invasion of Canaan by Moses’ successor, Joshua? The Book of Joshua describes an Israelite soldier named Achan along with Achan’s family and his animals being stoned to death to gain God’s favor because Achan had sinned by taking war booty for himself and not handing it over to God (Book of Joshua Chapter 7).
I left the Methodist church several years ago not just because of its exclusionist policies toward LGBTQ people, but because Christians generally do not recognize, acknowledge and disavow woefully outdated belief systems that promote exclusion and degradation of other human beings in the name of God.
