Well, judging from this press release, Bishop Bruce Ough (Liberal, West Ohio) and the leadership of the United Methodist Church have fallen prey to the propaganda and marketing machine of Hamas. Rather than call on Hamas to quit receiving weapons from Iran and other places, rather than call on Hamas to quit using civilians as human shields and civilian areas as bases of operations; the United Methodists are instead calling on Israel to cease defending herself. They are calling on George W. Bush to do something about it as he leaves office, to "heighten the moral standing" of his administration.
Uh, excuse me, Brucie, but you opposed the freeing of 7,000,000 people from Saddam Hussein. You opposed the action that has brought more of our soldiers home alive (the surge). You opposed the action that has allowed Christmas in Baghdad to again be openly celebrated. You opposed us removing a heinous dictator from power. Meanwhile, you sit idly by and do nothing but talk and talk and talk while Methodism in the States continues to dwindle, year by year. Do you know why? YOU ALL lack the moral standing to sit in judgement of anyone else. You allow more gay pastors, more gay leaning bishops; in stark contrast to YOUR OWN BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. You continue to preach the gospel of many roads to the mountaintop, even while your own people disagree. You have become nothing more than a social corporation, feeding off of the generosity of others. Where is the MORAL leadership of the church in regards to an incoming President who believes in killing babies who survive abortion attempts? Where is the moral leadership on an incoming president who wanted to sign as one of his first acts, a right to abortion bill? Where is the moral leadership on that, Brucie? Or are you, like other milquetoasts, trying to get invited to all the cool parties and get people in the media to like you? Is it about moral and spiritual leadership, Brucie, or is it about bending and breaking covenant just to get more butts in seats and create megachurches so your spreadsheets show a pretend growth? See, folks, Brucie will show you how some churches in his Conference are growing, but he will not tell you how he has worked to close other churches and force others to merge to make that spreadsheet look better. That is the dirty little secret of Brucie. He is all about the numbers, all about the physical, not so much about the spiritual. Oh, he can talk a good game about being the 2nd book of Acts in our time, but you don't see him skipping out on expensive retreats and trips to save the churches money that could be used to help the poor. You don't see Brucie giving up his expensive office palace in Worthington for lesser facilities to save the churches money that could be used by its member churches for outreach. You don't see Brucie giving up his free car or his free house or any of his perks. Heck, with an attitude like this, Brucie should be in Congress! He is just as much as a blind sheep to the pr of Hamas and Co.
So, Brucie, you and your fellow bishops who believe terrorists over Israel and believe peace at all costs, even the freedom to exist on Israel's part, should kindly shut up. You have no moral authority in this case, and increasingly, in any other. It is no wonder that organized denominational churches in the states are falling by the wayside to independent churches, because the leadership of said denominations are morally equivocal; willing to bend church beliefs for butts in seats, and only care about money, money, money. Keep fiddling, Brucie, while your own little Rome burns around you.....
