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© Merle Harton, Jr. | About | XML/RSS
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Avoiding the cruel tenderness. I checked today with the Letter of Complaint against United Methodists George W. Bush and Dick Cheney at TheyMustRepent.com and note that the Letter currently has 864 signatures. Hmm, that's 14 more than the last time I checked. [See my blog of December 5, 2004.] Also directed at Bush and Cheney is the Petition of United Methodists Calling for Accountable Leadership. The Letter and Petition will be sent to UMC leadership when they get 1,000 confirmed United Methodist signatures. Written by two UMC members, Rev Courtney Ball and Josh Steward, the Letter of Complaint calls for "accountability and repentance from these two members for their sinful behavior" and "for their chargeable offenses of crime, immorality, disobedience to the order and discipline of The United Methodist Church (UMC), and dissemination of doctrine contrary to the established standards of doctrine of The UMC." "Reproof is unavoidable. God's Word demands it when a brother falls into open sin. The practice of discipline in the congregation begins in the smallest circles. Where defection from God's Word in doctrine of life imperils the family fellowship and with it the whole congregation, the word of admonition and rebuke must be ventured. Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin." One is nevertheless left to wonder whether Bush and Cheney wouldn't simply resign their membership in the UMC and together just walk on over to the Church of America, whose impenetrable ecclesiastical forms apparently permit crime, immorality, and bold disobedience to the Holy Spirit. posted by Merle Harton Jr. | 3:05 PM |
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