Ouch
"The church is not free to disregard the standards of justice and inclusiveness that are preached by Jesus Christ ... and are a part of church law."Of course that doesn't mean that the Church should adhere to God's revelation: which includes justice and mercy and morality. The quote means "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." I'm sure John and Charles are spinning.
COMMENTS
I think it was the same sort of things that happened in other "mainline" denominations: politics took over where theology left off... For the SBC (and the various non-Denominatins) it was right wing politics. For the UMC (etc) it was left wing. Given the source of protestantism - every man an infailable pope - is a point of departure from the revelation of the faith, the final destination should not be a surprise.
That quote... "god love being wave good force oneness threeness of the universe make this the revelation of you and help us love our friends". I see the odd newagification of the correct theology there. It starts out in the right place... wafts and blows about for a while, and ends up being PC-ised and nullified.
Still, that quote needs to be a t-shirt!
About 10 years ago I'd never been to a Methodost church. But I'd read a lot of John's writing and had sung many of Chuck's songs while I was a boy. Well, when I was 27 I moved into a building that had a Methodist church for next-door neighbor. I was very excited by the opportunity to worship there. So the very first Sunday, that is what I did.
Thre were three hymns. The one that came closest to being Christian was the one about the "Creator of Nature" and how nice it is to see trees and birds and stuff. The others were just songs about how nice it is to get together with like minded people. "Hmmm", I thought to myself, "This isn't quite what I expected."
Then the pastors sermon "Love your friends". Well, it wasn't quite as radical as Jesus' "Love your enemies", but hey, it was a start. Baby steps. Baby steps.
Then came communion. I'll never forget the words of consecration: "god love being wave good force oneness threeness of the universe make this the revelation of you and help us love our friends" I almost laughed out loud. I didn't receive but I listed. As each went up to partake (of what?) the pastor said something vaguely trinitarian but nothing specifically about Jesus, and nothing that couldn't be called exclusively Christian.
I'd like to see a history of the Methodist movement. I'd like to know what happened to them.