Bishops, Twitter, and Churchquake

I was looking at my twitter feed featuring tweets from ChurchQuake 2013 (#cq13) and decided to tweet something.  

‪#wjumc has the coolest bishops ever hands down. We do what the LORD requires of us not what the ‪#BoD wants. ‪#umc ‪#cq13

I didn’t know that my tweet was going to cause so much controversy. A blog post in response in response to my tweet can be found here.

Having spent quite a bit of time with two of the bishops in the Western Jurisdiction (thanks Grant and Elaine), I know a bit about their personal involvement with the Reconciling Ministries Network movement.

With that being said the Western Jurisdiction is on of the most if not the top progressive Jurisdiction in the United Methodist Church. We like to do things a bit differently around here. Our jurisdiction and many of our conferences including my own (PNW) passed resolution saying we will ignore what the Book of Discipline says about marriage being just between a man and a women. Instead we agree that marriage should be available to all Gods people.

I went to a conference with young adults from our jurisdiction and the one thing they said that they liked about the church is that we don't follow the Book of Discipline exactly as it says we should. We do what the Lord requires of us not what a book says. I agree. The basic message of God is that we should love everyone no if ands or buts.

My ability to be bold in my witness to God and the church was needed to show everyone on all sides of the table that we will not be silent any longer on the topic of LGBTQI equality in the church. I stand with the bishop of the Western Jurisdiction. The table if open for ALL.