Methodists: Out from Under the Gun
After three hours of tumultuous debate, delegates to the founding convention of the new United Methodist Church last week voted to drop a longstanding requirement that its ministers vow to refrain from drinking and smoking. Henceforth, the church will simply require clergymen to, pledge "to exercise responsible self-control by personal habits conducive to bodily health, mental and emotional maturity," in accordance with "the highest ideals of Christian life."
Dropping the explicit ban on alcohol and tobacco represents a significant change for Methodism. Since the rule did not apply to laymen, many ministers have long complained that the church was in effect imposing a double standard of personal morality. Interpreting the rule change, Methodist officials insisted that it did not really relax discipline, instead placed the burden of responsibility for living a moral life on the self-discipline of the minister himself rather than on a code of laws. "It is time we took seriously what we mean by a 'moral witness,' " said the Rev. Harold Bosley of Manhattan's Christ Church. "You do not make a moral witness under the gun; you make it because you choose to make it."
Most Popular »
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- An Italian Town's White (No Foreigners) Christmas
- Obama's Speech: Will the Plan Match the Stagecraft?
- Feeling Alone Together: How Loneliness Spreads
- Could the White House Party Crashers Go to Jail?
- Full Transcript of Obama's Speech
- The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell
- A Cop-Killer Crisis Ends, But Tacoma's Anxiety Lingers
- The Women of Islam
- Want to Boost Your Memory? Try Sleeping on It
- Feeling Alone Together: How Loneliness Spreads
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- The Draft: K.O. for Cass
- Waffles
- The Evolution of Blogging
- For Churches, Beefed-Up Security Is a Mixed Blessing
- Why Americans Are Adopting Fewer Kids from China
- After Maine, the Battle Lines Over Gay Marriage Harden
- Recession Sparks Global Shoplifting Spree
- A Mandarin Grade School in Minneapolis







RSS