Roger Wedell
The Edmond Trinity Christian Church in Oklahoma City became the second Disciples of Christ Church in the state to become open and affirming, according to the Daily Oklahoman. There are 170 churches in the denomination within the state.
It’s curious why this story has been all over the gay blogs, however. Midway Hills Christian Church in Dallas is a member of the denomination as well. According to member Roger Wedell, his church joined the Gay and Lesbian Affirming Disciples (GLAD) Alliance in 1992. And they were fairly late in actually aligning themselves with GLAD.
“Well, that’s when we took the vote,” he said.
The movement in the denomination began about 1976 but Midway Hills has welcomed everyone since its founding in the 1950s.
“Gays and lesbians have been in leadership throughout our history,” Wedell said.
The church was one of the few places that welcomed Turtle Creek Chorale to rehearse when the group organized 32 years ago and P-FLAG Dallas formed there in the early ’90s.
So what took so long for the church to officially become open and affirming, Wedell said, was simply taking the vote. There wasn’t a need before that, he said, but finally, the church decided to become a witness to the community and to make sure anyone looking for an open and affirming church would find Midway Hills more easily.
The history of Edmund Trinity appears to be similar. The vote to become GLAD-affiliated followed a history of welcoming a diverse community that included two years of study of the treatment of gays and lesbians in the church.
Wedell said things in the Christian Church, as it’s known, are done on a congregational level. Midway Hills was and apparently remains at the forefront in the denomination on the subject of LGBT inclusion. Only about 100 of the denomination’s 3,600 churches nationwide are open and affirming through the GLAD alliance.
It matters little if you blather on about a vengeful god or a loving god. It’s all a scam, and a socially destructive one. “God’s” will, his commandments, his intentions, and his authority have all been used to limit and warp humanity’s intellectual and moral progress for far too long. Theism is THE MAJOR justification for all kinds of injustices, including the persecution, discrimination, and killing of LGBT people all over the world. If you promote something as FACT without EVIDENCE, which is what religion does, then you are engaged in a LIE. It’s that simple! If we accept the beliefs and actions of people who follow a “loving” god without evidence to support them, then on what grounds can we reject the beliefs and actions of people who follow a “vengeful and judging” god, when there is no evidence to support them, either? None whatsoever! If we accept one without evidence, then we must accept the other. I, for one, am not willing to do this. And there is no middle ground here, either. It’s all or nothing. There are no half-lies, harmless lies, or beneficial lies. There are only damn lies! True moral and social progress will only happen once we shake off the chains of superstition and magical thinking which have kept gay people under the foot of church for centuries, thanks to people like these above. Shameful!
Verity, I’m sorry you have been so hurt by your religion, and I’m not Christian, so I’m not promoting Christianity.
However, here’s what Midway Hills has done: promoted integration in Dallas in the 1960s, sponsored refugees, taught English as a second language, co-founded, North Dallas Shared Ministries, founded PFLAG, delivered Meals on Wheels, provided AIDS care teams as well as being one of the first churches in Dallas with women on the board, gays on the board, lesbians on the board, welcomed transgender people. So I’m not really sure what these terrible, shameful things are that you’re referring to.
Don’t be patronizing David. You know nothing of my experiences, and my personal experiences have nothing to do with my opinions in this matter. All those good things that you mentioned can be done without resorting to superstition and magical thinking, or to telling people the bs of “god has a purpose,” and “god will answer your prayers,” and “god will show you the way,” blah, blah, blah. If I accept as fact someone’s statement that “god wants me to help people with AIDS,” then I must also accept as fact someone’s statement that “god wants me to kill gays.” Both carry the same weight, because both are put forth without evidence. If we really want to help people, then we must do so without the chains of superstition or any claims that we can know or understand the will and intentions of a god who clearly does not exist. Additionally, it is disingenuous for anyone to claim they want to help others by keeping them fettered to a mindset—and an institution—that has done such a disservice to humanity. Theism is, as I have mentioned, the JUSTIFYING force behind a majority of social injustices. If we deny it its authority, as we should, we can deny it its power over our society. We can do good things for people without subjugating them to more injustice through the lies of theism. You can be an apologist for them all you want David. I’m not buying it.
I just don’t see what your comments have to do with this blog post. I know of lots of churches that have done lots of harm to lots of people. This church is simply not one of them. Your “God wants me to kill gays” comment is as offensive and disgusting to every member of that church as it is to you.
Again, I’m sorry you have been so hurt by religion — and I don’t mean that to be patronizing. But rejecting religion does not make you a good person or a bad person any more than being religious makes someone good or bad. But the people who go to Midway Hills tend to be people who have made Dallas a better place. They’re a small group that’s made a huge difference in a lot of people’s lives. Just like you do not need religion in your life to make you a better person, some people use without abusing religion to become better people.
They are relevant because it ultimately matters not if you caress with one hand and end up hitting with the other. Theism itself is the problem, because it is a lie. Theists put forth fiction as though it were a fact, and this has had profound consequences on the lives of people and for our society. Just stop and think how people have suffered under the oppression and persecution of christianity, which has claimed a divine authority over the lives of men that it could not substantiate. EVIDENCE is the only basis by which we can assert if something is true or not. Since the so-called “good” theism can provide no more evidence for its claims than bad theism can, how can we reasonably choose one over the other? If it is simply a matter of freedom of choice, then which do people have a right to choose? Apparently either! If we accept one choice as valid without evidence, then we must accept the other. How can we reasonably do otherwise, if in the end it all boils down to what people choose to believe—if it is just a matter of personal preference? This is what I mean when I wrote that there are no good or harmless lies. By promoting one as acceptable you are obligated to promote the other. The only moral decision that can be made is to reject them both as fallacies. People are entitled to live their own lives as they choose, but they are not entitled to their own facts! Facts are based on evidence. And evidence is something that theism cannot provide, and yet it claims to do just that. Sorry David, but spreading lies (which is what all theists do) does make you a bad person, just as telling people that vaccines cause autism when there is no proof for that assertion, or that AIDS is punishment from god when there is no proof for that assertion, or that masturbation will make you go blind when there is no proof for that assertion, all make you a bad person as well. You can state your opinions, but it is wrong to masquerade your opinions as facts. Sure, rejecting religion does not make one a de facto “good person,” but it’s one hell of a step in the right direction. If the people at Midway Hills want to help people then they should. That’s commendable. They just shouldn’t help with one hand and hurt with the other. By sanctifying their so-called good religious beliefs, they sanctify all the bad crap that goes along with it. How can this be otherwise?