I was looking back over some of my writings from over the years. I found this column I wrote for the United Methodist Reporter in 2012.
You can find my column HERE.
The last dozen years or more have indeed been a dark night of the soul, and I’m not just talking about the Church. We are living through a dark night in our culture. Lately, watching the news has felt more like a nightmare.
I closed the article with this: “The only uniquely Christian understanding of transformation is that it involves a cross and a resurrection, and you can’t work hard to create a resurrection. I’m afraid of what taking up the cross might mean for our beloved institutions, but I know that when a cross happens, God is in it. And something new and beautiful will emerge, even if it hurts.”
Something new and beautiful did emerge from schism, I truly believe. It’s like a breath of fresh air to get together with those committed to unity in all our diversity, who stayed in the main body of the UMC. God is moving. Maybe it also feels that way for those who left. I don’t know.
But what is going to emerge from this dark night in the United States? I remind us (with trepidation) that last time my denomination went through a major schism, 17 years later our country plunged into Civil War. History revealed that the South in general, and those sho separated from the Church in particular, were wrong. Yet, strangely, some of the same dynamics in our culture are back. It seems to me that here we are again.
Surely these next few years won’t look like civil war. But what will it look like to get out of this hole? And do I still believe that something beautiful will emerge?
