THIS ONLINE DISCUSSION IS PROVIDED BY THE STUDY COMMISSION ON DOCTRINE – SCOD. In the life of the church there are three levels of authoritative documents. Within the Free Methodist Church we define the three levels in this way: First Level is the BOOK OF DISCIPLINE: Official documents approved by the delegates at the General Conference. Second Level is the STUDY COMMISSION ON DOCTRINE: Guidance provided to the church by those assigned the task. These are not personal opinions, but are vetted by scholars who have various expertise. Though not binding on the church, they are meant to be helpful scholarly works. Third Level is this FREE METHODIST CONVERSATIONS. This online discussion is where various individuals express their own opinions about a variety of issues. These are not authoritative, nor are they necessarily meant as guidance, but God may use them to do so. There are SCOD documents on this site and the members of the SCOD will be participants. We are inviting the entire church to join the discussion. Our intention is not to limit discussion but to elevate it by assuring that God’s love and respect is always expressed. We will therefore post those comments which further our mutual understanding and assure that every person is being treated with dignity even when disagreement is being voiced. Specifically: 1. The SCOD encourages respectful, intelligent and impassioned discussion and debate. 2. The SCOD encourages a Wesleyan method of looking at the topic from a Scriptural perspective as well as that of Reason, Tradition and Experience. We recognize the Revelation of God in Scripture is our primary source of truth, with Reason, Tradition and Experience serving as supportive resources. 3. Any personal attack will keep the entire comment from being posted. This includes not only attacking others within this SCOD conversation but anyone within the larger secular or Christian world. 4. Any libelous, defamatory, profane, vulgar, threatening, harassing abusive, hateful, racially or ethnically objectionable comments will not be posted. 5. Any invasion of another’s privacy or any post that emulates or pretends to be someone else will not be posted. 6. This online conversation is not to be used to solicit or advertise personal blogs. 12. The SCOD, in our sole discretion, retains the right to remove individual posts or to revoke the access privileges of anyone who we believe has violated any of these standards. For more informal conversations with Free Methodists: LIGHT AND LIFE CONVERSATIONS – Facebook page LIGHT AND LIFE MAGAZINE – Facebook page – Online Issues FM RADIO – Facebook page or iTune episodes If there are any questions contact our moderator, Dr. Denny Wayman: dwayman@fmcsb.org.
By Denny Wayman
Rik Cryderman grew up in a Free Methodist parsonage. I first met him in seminary and enjoyed his intellect and depth of love. His journey of faith and life did not take the path he expected when as a seminarian he first recognized that he was gay. Now in his 60s his daughter, best selling author Kelle Hampton, blogged an interview with her father and asked him questions that help all of us.
One of the modern self-described abolitionist is black photojournalist Johnny Silvercloud. He writes about race and justice in ways that require a thoughtful consideration and response. To begin the conversation here are two of his writings:
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THOSE OLD RACIST WHITES FROM THOSE CIVILE RIGHTS PHOTOS:
“All those angry, yelling, vulgar white faces. What ever happened to them? When the Civil Rights Act was placed into law,
Language is important. In this article studies were done and found that female doctors are often introduced by their first names while male doctors receive the title they have both earned of “Dr.”
The question this raises is whether in the church we also introduce our female pastors as “Pastor” or only use their first name. The result of such continual referencing is noted in the article as dishonoring. For the entire article click here.
A culture that claims to value women while also accepting pornography is self deceptive. The research on the damage that pornography is doing to our culture is clear. Here is a representative website that has information. In this post the FIGHT THE NEW DRUG website suggests an insightful way to talk to children and youth about the damage.
In part it says:
Pornography.
It’s been directly linked to physical problems like early erectile dysfunction,
One of the indicators that American culture is uniting the races in shared life is not only the number of intermarriages but also in the increased support of these marriages. In a recent PEW study the increase in both has been found to be significant in the last twenty years in the United States. The authors are GRETCHEN LIVINGSTON AND ANNA BROWN
In part the research has found:
In 2015,
By Dr. Denny Wayman, Lead Superintendent of the FMCSC.
At the 2017 Annual Conference in Southern California I presented the findings of an informal study I made asking Free Methodist Women Leaders what it is that women bring to the leadership position that is unique. These are my findings and presentation:
In Genesis we are told that the curse of the fall is such that women have been subjected to men (Gen.
Listening to the experiences of our people of color is vital to our understanding, compassion, wisdom,identification and unity: Read this account. This articles is written by a Jamaican who loved to walk and then came to the U.S. His name is Garnette Cadogan.
Excerpts:
“My only sin is my skin. What did I do, to be so black and blue?”
–Fats Waller, “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue?”
On my first day in the city [New Orleans],
In the Catechism of the Catholic church this is the teaching on Chastity and Same-Sex attracted people. What do you find that you appreciate about this teaching and what questions does this raise for you:
Chastity and homosexuality
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex.
In his book released May 2, 2017, Richard Rothstein writes about the United States’ government programs that segregated our neighborhoods and created much of the economic and educational inequities we experience today.
Rothstein presents a comprehensive explanation of various government programs and how the result of many was the segregation of the poor into areas of a city which then produced a lower tax-base with inadequate funding for education,
By Denny Wayman
As a pastoral counselor I have had both formal and informal training in cross-cultural counseling. However in that training we often think that we have a window into the lives of people from another culture. But the truth is that we often only have more informed prejudices.
One of the areas in which this occurs is in many forms of micro-insults and microaggressions.
The university of Minnesota created a chart to help explore what people of color experience as a microagression: Click Here
Wikipedia describes a Microagression this way.