OOPS! I don’t know what happened there- it wasn’t intentional. Sorry.

I think it is fixed. I couldn’t tell what the problem was even using the comment editor.

Also, I intend to refer to your comment in a new post titled “Unity, Diversity, and Confusion.” (I’ll edit this to provide a link as soon as the post is available. I like the type of thinking reflected in your comment and am fairly receptive to your rewording of the statement on scripture, though it is perhaps more radical than I would be by just a little bit.

• The nature of God is best represented by the doctrine of the Trinity: that there is only one God but within the one God exists three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, who died on the cross for our sins, and he rose again bodily in victory over death, [and has ascended into heaven]. – The Acension is taught by the Bible and the Apostles creed- it is basic Christian doctrine.
• [Humanity is sinful] and in need of salvation, which is made possible by the death of Jesus [the Christ], and can only be gained by grace through faith. -I made your wording inclusive, and noted that it is as God, not as radical carpenter, that Jesus atones for our sins.
• I would radically change the wording of your third point, saying “The Bible is the only authoritative record of God’s action in the world, as recorded by many human witnesses.”

Instruction in these points should be a part of new-member classes.

For pastors I would add two Wesleyian distinctives and two United Methodist distinctives. These should be presented to prospective members, but agreement to them should not be manditory for laypeople.

The Wesleyian distinctives are:

• Infants can and should be baptized, and one baptism suffices for the remission of all sins. Rebaptism is blasphmy against the work of the Holy Spirit.
• The redemptive work of Jesus Christ is sufficiant for the sins of all humanity. There is no such thing as a person whom God has reprobated. TULP Calvinism is incorrect.

The United Methodist distinctives are:

• The ‘Submission’ passages in the Pauline Epistles are temporary directives aimed at unusual situations. Christian marriage is an equal relationship of mutual submission to one-another under God. Women are called to the eldership and can biblically serve as sole or head pastor of a congrigation, or as the DS or Bishop of a region, and can validly celebrate all the rites and Sacrements of the Church.
• We believe that John Wesley’s theology was grounded by Scripture and enlivened by Tradition, Reason, and Experiance.

I’m glad that I’m not a candidacy mentor or sit on a DCOM or BOOM. I’m so afraid of the apostasy of much of liberal Methodism that I’d be inclined to blackball those too outside of my theological point of view.

I sympathize with you on the board thing. It’s hard not to! But right now I think we have a general problem here. We are not really following the standards as written, so the real standards are different than the ones actually applied. Various people use the kind of fog that is the UM doctrinal position (the practical position, not the statements–those are reasonably clear) to pursue their own agenda within the framework of a church.

>>The UMC is way too big a tent.

The UMC is way too big a tent.