I’m a little behind the power curve on this one, but I found out about these via an e-mail from Michael Zimmerman of the Clergy Letter Project.
The first resolution is #80990 (tracking) which includes the line:
* endorses The Clergy Letter Project and its reconciliatory programs between religion and science, and urges United Methodist clergy participation;
That one goes in the Social Principles, and the legislative tracking shows it as adopted.
Even though the letter tells me the following two were passed, I don’t see them adopted or placed on one of the consent calendars according to the tracking. Perhaps one of my more politically savvy UM readers might comment on the procedure or where I may have looked in the wrong place.
Resolution #80050 (tracking)added the line:
We find that science’s descriptions of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution are not in conflict with theology.
… to ¶160 E in the Book of Discipline, amongst other changes.
And finally, #800839 (tracking) added the following to the Book of Resolutions:
WHEREAS, the United Methodist Church has for many years supported the separation of church and State (paragraph 164, Book of Discipline, 2004, p. 119),
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the General Conference of the United Methodist Church go on record as opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools.
I should probably pay more attention to my own church’s politics, especially since I regard church politics as necessary. But to be honest, I’m just terrible at keeping up with these things. Nonetheless, I am pleased by this result, even if it is only the first of the three.
Hurray for sense!
Quick(ish) question, Henry – I heart your setup with the one-wide two-skeeny column layout – but how do you get three columns? I’m on blogger, and to be quite honest, I don’t know much about what I’m doing with layout. I haven’t found a three-column layout on blogger itself. Do you know how to set such things up, or could you point me to a helpfile?
I think it would be specific to the setup. I’ve never worked with blogger. This is a wordpress theme that was available (there’s a link to the theme maker at the very bottom right). I did one (example here, but mine isn’t as nice. I know WordPress themes aren’t going to work on blogger.
Do they allow you to write your own css code for your blog?
*grin* I don’t know. I think so, but I don’t know my way around CSS, so I can’t say for sure! I did fiddle around for a bit and I found a couple of helpfiles on how you can edit the template you’re using. So I’ve got it set up… only thing is that my recent-comments widget seems not to be working for some reason.
[...] (hat tip to Henry Neufeld.) [...]
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[...] reported some time ago that the United Methodist General Conference had passed some resolutions in support of evolution and opposing teaching faith based ideas in the public school science classroom. There’s a [...]