Collateral Damage

I am currently a member of a United Methodist Church.  The UMC is in the throws of a great debate... what to do the with the LGBTQ friends.

It's a knock down, drag out, probably-won't-be-so-united-when-this-is-over fight.

People are expressing their opinions, as they have the right to do. Words being slung like bullets, back and forth.

And I found myself in the crossfire.

Wounded.

Why wounded?  I'm not L or G or B or T or Q.

But I am divorced.

And this whole issue is just "same song, second verse."

100 years ago I would not have been allowed to be a member of a UMC church.  Unless my husband had committed adultery. Which he didn't.  As a woman who was the one who filed for divorce, I would not have been allowed to be a member of the church, nor would I have been allowed to marry in the church.

Sound familiar?

Am I just lucky that the UMC decided to "conform to the world views" on my particular situation when they did?

But we can't just pick and chose what we want from the Bible.  Can we?  The Bible is MUCH MORE clear about divorce than it about homosexuality.  There's no denying that.

So when people call for our church to hold true to every word and letter of the Bible and not bend to societal norms, I can only make the connection that I am no longer welcome.  And then it hurts my heart for the LGBTQ friends, because now I do know how they feel.

A girl without a church.

Thank you GOD that You are not confined to the walls of a church.