Religion
Related: About this forumPastor risks church for his principles
June 10th, 2012
04:00 AM ET
By David Mattingly, CNN
St. Paul, Minnesota (CNN)Before Sunday morning services, the Rev. Oliver White looked at the rows of empty pews in his tiny St. Paul, Minnesota, church without regret.
"If this was a mistake," White said, "then I will make the mistake all over again."
In 2005, White made a costly decision.
At the United Church of Christ's annual synod in Atlanta, White was among delegates voting in favor of a resolution supporting same-sex marriage.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/10/pastor-risks-church-for-his-principles/
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)Good on him, shame, shame on them.
Julie
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)in this supposedly "progressive" church apparently outnumber the decent people by a considerable margin. Seems religious motivation isn't quite all it's cracked up to be.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)He has endured a lot of blowback so far, including death threats.
Perhaps this article will lead to the support he so desperately needs.
I hope so.
Laochtine
(394 posts)Its almost hard to believe
cbayer
(146,218 posts)dimbear
(6,271 posts)is providing Christians what they prefer.
Of course I'm just assuming that 20 million is more than a handful.
dmallind
(10,437 posts)The man deserves kudos certainly. This place is not too far from my old home and is in one of the few heavily black-populated parts of town. Religiously active blacks are one of the demographics with the lowest support levels for gay rights. so his principled stance was never without risk and I'm sure he knew it.
But just like the much higher profile minister Carlton Pearson lost almost all his congregation for preaching universal salvation (the only salvific theory that posits anything other than a genocidal sadist god) and just like Rob Bell did the same in a largely white church (the racial divide is there sadly, but it's the theological divide that yawns much wider when it comes to equality), he's found out that preaching love and equality to most Christians is a loser's game, and that the majority only value such things for themselves, not others.
He's got three choices.
1) he can knuckle down to preach triumphal hateful exclusionism as expected and get his flock back
2) he can keep to principle and try to reform his church and even his faith to a more enlightened morality even if it will likely stay smaller
3) he can appreciate the strong link between religiosity and retrograde social norms and either accept or avoid both
2 is the hero's option. Great good luck to him if he tries it.