The Crossroads of Christianity and Culture

God, or humans? The key questions dividing Christians from Christians have changed. They have moved from being questions about doctrine to being questions about the fundamental assumptions Christians bring to the ordering of human society . These in turn hinge on different understandings of the nature of revelation and who has the authority to interpret it. The recent Vatican Document on Human Dignity has, along with the recent division of the UMC (and earlier divisions in other Christian groups) further lay bear these differences within Christianity.  On one hand there are those who believe that the ordering of human society, and thus what it means to be human in society, was fixed by God from the beginning of creation. Any deviation from that order is an offense against human dignity. On this view same-sex marriage diminishes human dignity because humans were created for the union of a man and a woman or to be celibate. This doesn't mean humans in a same-sex marriage have no dign...

Really? In response to a recent blog by Dr. Stan Copeland of Lovers Lane UMC (https://um-insight.net/general-conference/general-conference-2024/who-really-speaks-for-african-united-methodists-–-r-hetoric/ )  one person wrote that "Africa will not accept the regionalization of the Bible." It would be interesting to know exactly where the idea of "regionalization of the Bible" came from, but a good guess is that it came from Good News Movement propaganda based on recent writings by Rob Renfroe and others.  So it needs to be stated that the regionalization amendments to the UM Constitution do not regionalize the Bible. They place certain types of decisions in the hands of regional and local church leaders in order for those decisions to be made in culturally sensitive and socially appropriate fashion. Specifically regionalization gives to the regions the following types of decisions: 1. Criteria for ordained and licensed ministry:  Regional conferences would set the mi...