[Oe List ...] Gen. Conf. Analysis (From Salman)

[Tim Wegner]

(I'm posting this for Bill Salmon)

Colleagues:
The following was sent to a friend and church member who is attending 
the United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Florida. She is 
helping to staff the "Tabernacle Tent" representing the LGBTQ 
(Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning) 
homosexual community; she lobbies the delegates about this topic. 
Saturday, she wrote about how tired she was and about a chance 
encounter in the prayer room during which she was driven to tears of 
tiredness. In this same email she recalled an incident in one of the 
legislative committees during which an African woman stood and cried 
out her frustration on any approval of the LGBTQ screaming that if 
passed the result would be the depopulation and end of the world. In 
a phrase, those at the General Conference are filled with fearfulness 
and deep angst.
The following is my message to her. It is my message to you. We are 
living in "In-Between Times" in which we are experiencing the death 
knell of the Modern Worldview characterized by modern science, and 
the New Post-Modern Worldview of those so-wired after 1985. Please 
read on.
Inner Peace,
Bill
PS:: When you find this is helpful, please send it out as needed. WES
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Beverly,
It is early Sunday morning, and I awakened to read your email about 
Saturday's work and your personal experience in the Prayer Room. 
Interesting. However, the women's screaming episode also caught my 
attention. In many ways it is silly, yet it has profound 
implications. Perhaps, your weariness and her angst have something in 
common.
Bev, you are standing in one of the epi-centers of history, and the 
reason why is that we are living in a "end times" (not capitalized) 
very similar to the time surrounding Jesus and the Early Church, and 
then again between the 15th to the 17th Centuries. During these 
periods they experienced an "end times" associated with the collapse 
of the Early Church's societal model and the birth of the Scientific 
Method (Renaissance, Reformation, Industrialization and Urbanization 
i.e., the Modern Worldview). 
At this very moment the General Conference (GC) is experiencing the 
death knell of the Modern Worldview and the excitement at the birth 
of the Postmodern Worldview!
The Death and New Birth of our Contemporary Worldviews:
Notice two things. First, the previous two global changes took place 
over long extended periods of time: 1500 years between the Early 
Church and the Modern systems in the 15 to the 17th Centuries. Our 
Modern Worldview has been in the process for 600 years! The death 
knell of the Modern Worldview began in 1917 with Einstein and E=MC2, 
and we have lived on the cusp of the old and the birth of the new for 
just 100 years! In terms of global change, this is very quick. Add to 
this the rapid changes associated with the Baby-Boomers and then the 
establishment of Generations X-Y-Z that occurred in the last 25 years 
since 1985!
The Global Breakdown:
How do I know this is the case? Observe the global breakdown of our 
Economic, Political and Cultural systems!
For the first time ever each and every member of this General 
Conference are experiencing the collapse of the Social Process!! 
Think for a moment about Global Economics and what is happening to 
the entire banking, business, service and resource-distribution and 
manufacturing systems. Think for a moment about what is happening to 
Global Politics. Think for a moment about our Global family systems: 
Educational policies, and the collapse of Global Religious symbols 
and stories.
What this is telling us is that every delegate and observer at the GC 
are hurting! In particular, you are standing at the center of Global 
Christian Faith that is the last bastion of security in an insecure 
world, AND THIS IS RADICALLY BEING CALLED INTO QUESTION. 
Unfortunately, the majority of delegates and observers do not 
understand this context.
People are scared shitless! They need to be hugged, and soothed and 
supported. Instead, they are greeted by signs and symbols and 
activities that represent the collapse. In your case, the collapse of 
our understanding of THE FAMILY and its new and more inclusive birth.
On the other hand, you stand at the cusp of what was launched 100 
years ago with Einstein. This is one auspicious time during which a 
new baby is born, a birth that could shape the next 500 years!
Our task now is to rewrite the story of faith by pulling it through 
the metaphors and symbols of the Jesus Story; these are archetypal 
stories on which every global civilization finds meaning, each 
according to its metaphors. Are all of the stories the same--not at 
all, but they all have the same Ur-Texts. Christians name these texts 
as the Jesus story.
The New Assignment:
What does this mean for you at General Conference.
Well, for one, get this context into the hands of as many people as 
possible, because this describes the angst at the heart of the 
proceedings. I plan to share this with as many others involved as 
possible.
Second, instead of agitating, be a lover. Now you can reach out in 
sympathy to each and every hurting person. Work to offer them the 
hope for a new world instead of signs of the collapse. Our hope lies 
in the Love of God that reaches out to the hurting and frustrated of 
all persuasions.
Get a ribbon that says, "No matter what happens now -- God will see 
us through."
Yawl become lovers of those you see as the enemy. It seems to me that 
this is where you'll find Jesus.
What do you think?
Pastor Bill