Richey's Compact History ends in the year 2000, a time quite removed from the political and cultural forces shaping our current state in the UMC. However, the issues haven't changed much: Richey, in chapters 11 and 12, touches on racism, homosexuality, abortion, elder care, divorce, female leadership, and the Church's relationship to war. With the possible exception of elder care, each of these is still An Issue in conference conversations, especially in last year's scorching General Conference. Most of these are things that we increasingly don't want to touch in any one-to-one setting, preferring to leave them alone or contain them to the pulpit or denominational gathering.
Knowing that the most important things are rarely ever solved and thus of course keep returning but that our current trend of either ignoring them in hopes of politeness or grabbing hold of them with such force that we harm ourselves and others is unsustainable, how do we as United Methodist leaders take these conversations to the lay level? (How do we especially as Vandy students learn to have these conversations in ways that honor all the viewpoints brought to the table?) And in what ways can we partner with other denominations and faith traditions struggling through the same pains (e.g. Unitarian Universalism and their recent conversations about racism in leadership, the Church of the Brethren and their conversations about sexuality, the PC[USA] and its engagement in divestment and moves toward denunciations of war)? We must, after all, be careful to avoid "agitating conferences with resolutions and proposals" since "such advocacy had the effect of focusing United Methodism on itself" (202) and we should not be our own target audience.
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