Sing a New Song or “Same ole Song”

Sing a New Song or “Same ole Song”
UMW Assembly Report by Katy Kiser

As we sat in the Friday morning plenary session of the 2002 Women’s Division Assembly, titled “Sing a New Song,” my daughter Lauren turned to me and asked, “Are we in a Methodist women’s conference or the Democratic National Convention?”  It was a pertinent question for before the morning was out, we would be asked to support highly controversial legislation all in the name of improving the lives of children.  What was even more disturbing to my daughter and me was the underlying condemnation of our President’s response to the attacks of September 11.  But perhaps most notable, even alarming in the presentations was the absence of the name of Jesus and the message of the Gospel as it related to women and children. 

After a very passionate presentation by Marian Wright Edelman, the 10,000 women in attendance were asked to sign and turn in cards that had been handed to them as they entered the convention hall that morning.  The cards called for legislation sponsored by the Children’s Defense Fund to reauthorize the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant and increase its funding by $20 billion over the next five years.  Marian Wright Edelman claimed that a Missile Defense System would be developed at the expense of our children.  I wanted to ask her if she did not think it was necessary to protect children from attacks such as September 11, not to mention the possibility of nuclear attack given how close Iraq and others are to developing nuclear capabilities.  Besides her claim that this defensive program--one I might add that targets weapons not people--takes from children is preposterous.

What United Methodist woman is not concerned about children?  All of us want quality day care, health care, food and assistance for children.  For women in the church, the question is how do we accomplish these goals.  How can we in the church be a part of the solution? 

Were United Methodist Women asked to go back to their churches and start loving responsible day care programs?  No. Did they forget that there is a United Methodist Church in every county in the United States? Apparently.  What a missed opportunity to provide real leadership in the area of childcare.  The Women’s Division could have provided a pro-active solution that all United Methodist Women could support instead of the passive political response they solicited. They asked 10,000 women to look to our government for the answer.  In their minds, more tax dollars would solve the problem.  (It did not seem to be a consideration that there might even be other tax supported programs the women would prefer to endorse.)

Surprisingly, not once did we hear anything mentioned about the President's proposal for faith based initiatives.  For a group of church women that seem to turn to political solutions for all their concerns, you would think this federal program would have merited at least some discussion.

As the day went on, it became even more political.  In my daughter’s focus group, women would be asked to support the Food Stamp program and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Reauthorization (TANF) as well as the Health Care Access Resolution.  Never mind that these bills would take us back to a welfare system that was reformed and overhauled under the Clinton administration.  Under the reformed system, thousands of women have gotten the assistance they needed to leave the welfare rolls.  Do we really want to go back to a system that created dependency and failed those it proposed to help?   In the case of Health Care Access, the only cosponsors were 65 democrats--so much for a bipartisan solution to a very complicated issue.

Friday afternoon I would attend a focus group titled Parenting for Peace and Justice.  Teaching children the love of Jesus was sadly absent.  There was no message of repentance for sin or even an acknowledgement that sin exists and can be overcome.  Instead we were asked to teach children to accept themselves and others with all their limitation, errors and failings and weaknesses, and realize that they are accepted by God.  Furthermore, we were asked to “renounce dualism, the ‘we-they’ mentality.  This divides us into ‘good people/bad people’ and allows us to demonize the adversary.  It is the root of authoritarian and exclusionist behavior.  It generates racism and makes possible conflicts and wars.” 

Equally disturbing would be the message of Barbara Lundblad on Saturday morning. Ms. Lundblad used the story of Rahab to advance an anti-war agenda.  She failed to identify this as  a story of the faith of Rehab in the one true God and her desire to be on the side of God not man.  Instead she interpreted Rahab as a woman who lived on the wall between the insiders and outsiders of her day.  Lundblad portrayed Rahab as a woman who pleads with those who would conquer any land in the name of God and thus view the Bible as a story of conquest and holy war.  She reduced the story to one of insiders and outsiders, devoid of any value judgment. 

Lundblad would go so far as to say that, “Sometimes it is necessary to bear false witness to save our neighbor.”  She would have us believe that all conflict resolved militarily is wrong.  Is this what the majority of United Methodist women believe?  Of course, none of us would advocate war just for the sake of retaliation when and if peaceful solutions could bring about desired results.  I believe that far more United Methodists support our President and Operation Enduring Freedom than was evident at the Assembly gathering.

Of course, the blatant political message was not all that was disturbing.  For all the talk about the needs of children, their need to know the liberating life giving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was sadly missing from the agenda.  Thursday evening a new children’s musical was premiered.  The scene of this musical is a sanctuary where a group of children are “playing Church.”  A staff woman, Holly is asked to play God.  She has the children go out over the whole world and bring all they find to her banqueting table.  All are welcome.  The theological message of this beautiful well written musical was closer to Spong than Wesley.

This inclusive message was also present in a focus group my daughter attended on the Energy Crisis.  There she heard the presenter, Dr. Guy Dauncey, begin his discussion by announcing that he believed in Jesus along with his belief in Buddhism and Hinduism.  After the session, she approcahed the facilitator, Carlene Triplett a Deaconess with the Women’s Division. Lauren told her that she believed at a United Methodist Women’s meeting, a speaker should have been found who could have presented this subject from a Christian perspective and not one influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism.  Lauren was told by Ms. Triplett that there are many paths to God. God the Son was one path. Buddhism and Hinduism were also paths.  Lauren pointed out that the Scripture is clear. The way to God is through Jesus Christ His only Son.  The facilitator told her there were many people who did not agree and implied that Lauren was in the minority in the United Methodist Church by believing what she did.

So what else is new some would ask.  The Women’s Division has been sponsoring a leftist agenda and inclusive theology not to mention Re-Imagining for years.  Before I attended the 2002 Assembly, I believed that the majority of United Methodist would be concerned, if not appalled, by the political agenda of the social action policies as represented by our boards and agencies if they were but known.  While that may still be true of many good grassroots United Methodists, I saw at the Assembly something quite disturbing.  There I met women who had joined this denomination, not for the life changing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not for the rich Wesleyan theological heritage embodied in our Book of Discipline.  They had joined this denomination because of the social action policies of our boards and the liberal theological understandings they represent, many of which would be outside the parameters of Christian teaching.  And, I saw women who, because of their long exposure to the Women's Division's liberal worldview, have personally embraced the things the Division advocates. 

The old ways of looking at the problem of the Women’s Division and their leftist political agenda cannot continue.  United Methodists cannot continue to turn a blind eye.  The time has come to stop talking and take action. Why?  I can guarantee that my daughter Lauren will not stay in a denomination where the mission of the church and the truth of the gospel is compromised as it was at the Assembly.  She is a believer looking for a body of committed Christian believers not political activists.  She can join a political party for that and has.  How many more young believers will feel as she does?  And what about those young people who have not made a decision for Christ?  What does the Methodist Church have to offer them?  The opportunity to lobby Congress? 

I believe it is time for the talented leaders of this denomination to find ways to change the policies of the boards and agencies. The fact that some good is done is not reason enough to continue to support these agencies.  Was no one infuriated to hear that the Women's Division's Washington Office came out against John Ashcroft at his Senate confirmation?  Was no one grieved that the Women’s Division and the Board of Church and Society stood with Clinton when he vetoed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban? Surely we can go beyond preserving our theological integrity as important as that was at the last General Conference and purify the mission of our church. 

The events of September 11 have changed everything. Our President has defined the problem as one of good and evil.  Is what has happened to us as a nation and what has happened to the United Methodist Church just a matter of perspective or competing ideas – of insiders or outsiders?  Or could it be that the President of the Untied States has shown more moral clarity and the courage to define our dilemma than those who speak for the United Methodist Church?

The RENEW Network has documented the problems of the Women’s Division and called for United Methodist Women’s groups around the country to be a part of a Call for Reform of the Women's Division.  Many are joining this effort.  Some have opted to withhold or designate their Undesignated Pledge to Mission until change is made.

Those within our churches need to come alongside the renewal movements and this call for reform and add their prayers, their expertise, their influence.  The time to discuss this problem has come and gone. Forgive me if I have only added to the discussion.  A plan of action is long overdue. I for one am ready to do something.