[RMC News] [2008 General Conference News] Delegate Reflection May 1. Philip Cardin

[Strickland, Skip]

[2008 General Conference News] Delegate Reflection May 1.  Philip Cardin
The first reserve lay delegate, Philip Cardin, writes the following remarks.  Philip is a layman from Christ UMC, Salt Lake City, Utah.  Philip reflects from Forth Worth, Texas as he is attending the 2008 General Conference:

May 1, 2008 – General Conference Report


Delegate Reflections from Ft. Worth
For Thursday, May 1
 
 
“Continuing to Flog the Same Old Dead Horse”
 
 
Greetings to every one in the Rocky Mountain Conference!
 
I am writing this to you during the dinner break on Wednesday evening. It has been a trying day for most of the folks in the hall. The title above reminds me of a very famous scene in one of the all-time classic movies, “Gone with the Wind”. Remember back with me to the movie when Scarlet O’Hara is trying to return to Tara, to try to return to the old, genteel life that she had there. However, she is almost literally swimming up-stream, with the human wave of refugees leaving Atlanta, and the Union troops burning the city. Scarlet commandeers a horse and buggy to facilitate her trip, except that this horse is on its last legs (pardon the pun), yet she continues to whip the horse to get him to press on. As she nears her beloved Tara, she takes the whip to the horse one last time, and he drops dead on the spot. I won’t get any more detailed with my explanation than that.
 
Over the last few days here in Ft. Worth, we continue to beat the same old horse(s). I have witnessed Parliamentary Obstruction at its finest with amendment after amendment being proposed by a well-orchestrated group to try to kill, neuter, or just wear-out a petition. We discussed the use of the words “shall”, “should”, or “may” for three hours one evening in the Legislative Committee that I was monitoring. We were told earlier today, that we needed to spend just 10 minutes on each of the 120 remaining items on the calendar in order to finish by Friday night. We took three hours on the very next item.
 
That “very next item” was a biggie. The Church and Society Committee had done very good work taking the myriad of petitions on the issue of Human Sexuality (paragraph 161.G), rolling them into one piece of legislation that passed the committee by a vote of 39 to 27. It dropped the odious “incompatible with” language, and carefully crafted a compromise that appeared to meet the needs of the body. Out of the blue, came a minority report, championed by the same old group, lead by the same old people. It was a very interesting presentation. The chair of the committee was a very articulate attorney from New York, who was exceptional at presenting the necessary argument
(I want this guy as my attorney, if I need one!). He got so “into character” at one point that he referred to the presiding Bishop as “Judge”. He presented the majority report, as the committee’s work was called. The minority report was presented by one of the leaders of the usual group. After about three hours, when the dust settled, the minority report had become the majority report, and had prevailed, as amended. There was some softening of the language through amendments, but the “incompatible” wording remained. While many of the delegates and gallery stood and sang “Jesus Loves Me”, the Secretary of the General Conference read yet another mind-numbing opinion from the Judicial Council, saying that petitions trying to limit the scope of the Council, or have the General Conference limit their powers, were unconstitutional. At least, that’s what I think I heard. By then, the singing of “Jesus Loves Me” had almost drowned out the Secretary. More on that later.
 
Friends, don’t get me wrong. There is much to be thankful for. We have experienced some powerful worship times, with some outstanding sermons from some of the great speakers of the day. We heard from Bishop Mark Hanson, President of the Lutheran World Federation, and the leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with who we are now in full communion. We have heard from President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, the only democratically-elected woman head of state in Africa, and an active United Methodist, to boot. (An invitation was extended to the other United Methodist head of state, but he just sent a letter. You can all guess.) We have elected what appear to be rational, reasonable people to the Judicial Council, one of who is a Westerner, Angela Brown of the California-Nevada Annual Conference. We were not so lucky in the University Senate elections. C’est la Vie!
 
We will continue to work for our church. As many of you know, I was born in one of the many towns named Decatur, after Steven Decatur, hero of the War of 1812. There is a famous quote attributed to Commodore Decatur that I would like to paraphrase and adapt to the situation right now.
“My Church. Right or wrong, my Church.”
 
Blessings to all of you.
In Christ’s Love,
Philip Cardin
1st Lay Reserve Delegate
Christ UMC – Salt Lake City, Utah
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