More than 600 Methodist clergy and church members are bringing formal church charges against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, invoking a rarely used church procedure to condemn the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families at the US-Mexico border. [...]
“I really never would have thought I’d be working on charges against anybody in the Methodist connection, much less a lay person,” Pastor David Wright, who organized the effort to charge Sessions, told the United Methodist Church’s news service (UMNS). He expressed hope that the charges would prompt Sessions to reconsider his views. “I hope his pastor can have a good conversation with him and come to a good resolution that helps him reclaim his values that many of us feel he’s violated as a Methodist,” he said. [...]
David F. Watson, a professor of New Testament studies at United Theological Seminary, told Religion News Service that in the past, charges have typically been brought only against clergy who perform same-sex marriages, a hot-button issue that continues to divide the Methodist Church. (Currently, both same-sex marriage and LGBTQ ordination are officially prohibited by the UMC handbook, but a proposed plan would delegate authority to make decisions about celebrating LGBTQ weddings or ordinations to the church level.) [...]
The UMC is just one of many Christian religious organizations that have taken action to condemn Trump’s migrant policy, particularly in the wake of the White House’s assertion Thursday that it is acting “biblically.” Last week, the evangelical Southern Baptist Convention unanimously passed a resolution affirming the dignity of immigrants and condemning nativism. Attendees at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops likewise slammed Trump’s migrant policy. Even Franklin Graham, the son of the late evangelical preacher Billy Graham, and a longtime Trump ally, spoke out against the policy, although he did not criticize Trump by name.
No comments:
Post a Comment