Leaving the United Methodist Church can be more harmful for churches in rural communities

Thousands of United Methodist Churches have disaffiliated.
(Photo by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder)

Amid ongoing debate over sexuality and Christian teaching, the United Methodist Church (UMC) faces more member tensions and congregations seeking to disaffiliate from the organization. The effects could be harder on rural communities," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. “Disaffiliation, the complex process a congregation may use to leave the United Methodist denomination, is a sore topic. Most churches that recently split from the UMC did so over concerns that the denomination may adopt a more affirming position on homosexuality."

The Rev. Katie Black had been serving her congregation “for less than a year when a member knocked on her office door and told her the congregation had been praying about withdrawing from the denomination,” Melotte writes. Black told her, “I had heard a lot of stories about churches [disaffiliating] in bigger cities and it becoming a very contentious and ugly fight. But this is a small town. There is no room for us to be breaking up friendships and families.”

Disagreements over whether to allow or not allow gay ordination, gay marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion have tested the denomination. "Since 2019, thousands of congregations have disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church. . . but many rural churches found hope by offering refuge and reconciliation," Melotte explains. "When a church splits in a tight-knit rural community, the pain can ripple throughout the entire town."

Ken Carter, bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference, told Melotte, "More of the churches that are disaffiliating tend to be rural." Melotte reports, "Bishop Carter said that disaffiliation skews rural because of the cumulative effects of the pandemic and political polarization. Polarization worsened, for example, when debates flared about whether masks should be worn in church and how the church should respond to racism, if it should respond at all."

The Rev. Truman Stagg, a UMC minister in Louisiana, commenting on the division, told Melotte, "We should just stop it and just realize that it’s all about loving people. Whoever you are, your sin might be the same as mine, or your sin might be different from mine or what I call a sin. You might not. But that’s for God to straighten out.”

Tyler Childers and Silas House break new ground, telling an Appalachian LGBTQ+ love story with song and video

Tyler Childers performs at the Railbird Music
Festival in Lexington, Ky. (Photo by Silas Walker, Herald-Leader)

Appalachian LGBTQ+ love stories are just as real as other love stories, and Tyler Childers' "In Your Love" song and video, a collaboration with Silas House, tells that story, reports Monica Kast of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Actors Colton Haynes and James Scully play two men in rural Appalachia who meet and fall in love while working as coal miners in the 1950s." Despite hostility from other miners and community members, the couple stays together, farming and loving one another. House posted on Instagram, "To our knowledge, it is the first-ever country music video with a gay storyline to be released by a major label."

Silas House (Berea College photo)

Childers and House, both Kentuckians, "wanted to tell a love story set in Appalachia. Childers pitched the idea for the music video to House and asked him to work on developing the story. Jason Kyle Howard, House's husband, wrote and provided creative direction for the video. He came up with the idea for the two main characters to be coal miners," Kast writes. "There are personal touches in the video, too. House, Howard and Childers used family photographs as inspiration for outfits in the video, making sure they were true to the period but also true to what people really wore. The cast is also made up of Appalachians and Kentuckians who represented the region."

House told Kast, "There are all kinds of different people in Appalachia and rural America, and they very rarely see themselves in the media, in film or TV, or especially in country music videos. . . . It's a gay love story, yes, but more than that, it's a love story. It's about gay people who love where they're from, and they don't want to leave it. Those men could have left not only the coal mines but they could have left the area. They chose to stay. A whole lot of people have done that, despite discrimination, because they love where they're from."

"At a time when Kentucky has seen an increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation and sentiments, House said he hopes the video will be 'a balm' for people who are hurting," Kast reports. House told Kast: "We just wanted to tell a human story that is rarely seen. Tyler Childers is one of the great storytellers of our time, especially in rural stories. This is another rural story that needs to be seen." Kast adds that Childers' album "Rustin' In the Rain" will be released Sept. 8."

A few rural Pride Month events marred by threats of violence

Photo by Kristyna Wentz-Graff, OPB

Entertainment, community building and a degree of fear have marked some Pride Month events. "Festivities have been tempered by a crisis of hate and discrimination that is unfolding nationally: an alarming rise in demeaning rhetoric and threats of violence, according to a sobering new briefing by the Department of Homeland Security," Jason Kyle Howard writes for The New Republic. "The situation is especially dire for members of the community living in rural America."

Logan Casey, a senior policy researcher at the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank, told Howard: "The threat is extreme. LGBTQ people in rural areas were already effectively at a disadvantage when it came to legal equality and policy protections. . . . It's not that rural life experiences are uniquely homophobic or transphobic. . . . But the structural conditions that make rural life unique really amplify experiences of discrimination. . . and now with this dramatic escalation of legislative attacks, [those] disparities are just getting worse and worse."

Rural Pride Fest events "have seen a spate of threats. . . including attempted arson using Molotov cocktails during a drag show at an affirming church in Chesterland, Ohio (pop. 7,400) and a pepper-spray assault at a Pride event in Bozeman, Montana (population 55,000)," Howard writes. "Organizers of an all-ages drag show . . . to support transgender youth in Pikeville, Kentucky, (pop. 8,000), in the heart of Appalachian coal country, were forced to cancel the event due to numerous threats of gun violence."

Many rural Pride celebrations had no trouble. Fests in Oregon and Louisiana highlighted a sense of community and acceptance with activities, performances, education and medical care opportunities.

In Dalles, Oregon, pop. 16,000, "celebrations range from marches and festivals to clothing swaps and boat rides," reports Rolando Hernandez of Oregon Public Broadcasting. "While Pride events can range from drag shows and arts and crafts, one resource. . . groups are offering de-escalation training." Laura Erceg, director of Southern Oregon Coast Pride, told Hernandez, "The unfortunate reality is that safety is a conversation that all of us have at all of our events." Hernandez reports, "Erceg is aware there may be people who want to protest, detract and scare others from attending Pride events, but believes that training like this can help educate the community and allow attendees to continue celebrating."

Calcasieu Lake is also known
as "Big Lake." (Wikipedia map)

Pride of Southwest Louisiana's third annual Pride Fest was held in a "remote corner of Calcasieu Parish. . . in the small unincorporated community of Big Lake. . . an unlikely setting for an LGBTQ+ celebration." Yet, hundreds came, reports Natalie McLendon of the Louisiana Illuminator. "A Pride flag with the slogan 'Abide No Hatred' marked the entrance. Outside, attendees shared conversation while waiting on the next drag queen to perform. . . . Vendors and organizations welcomed attendees under the shade of tailgate tents."

SWLA's Pride Fest also offered an area for attendees to receive medical care. "Nonprofits such as SWLA Harm Reduction, Comprehensive Care Center, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana were also present," McLendon writes. "SWLA Harm Reduction program coordinator Peyton Boozer told McLendon: "There are so many barriers to access to care in our rural community, so our mobile unit allows us to meet people where they are. I think people are reticent to enter a clinical setting, so we offer a different type of environment to talk about wellness and check your status."

Big Brothers Big Sisters board member Alex Richard "said he wants young LGBTQ+ people to know there are safe places for them in southwest Louisiana," reports McLendon. Richard told her: "Some people are brave enough to be out in public and can be a light for young people. In this region, when you feel like you're the only one like you, that's a lonely place. So it's important to be out and yourself if possible. Pride isn't always just one day or one weekend out of the year."

United Methodist Church is losing 'about half' its Kentucky member churches due to LGBTQ+ inclusion by some

The Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church continues to splinter over LGBTQ+ inclusion practices that the denomination's Book of Discipline does not support as Christian, but that some members and clergy have openly defied, Jack Brammer reports for the Kentucky Lantern. "Last December, the Kentucky conference announced that 57 of its churches had disaffiliated. Over the last four years, 80 have left the United Methodist Church in Kentucky." And now 289 of the remaining 663 more are leaving, following last night's 89 percent vote of approval by the conference on the first day of its annual meeting in Owensboro, lay delegate and Eastern Kentucky University journalism professor Ginny Whitehouse reports on Twitter and Facebook.

Lu-Ann Farrar, a member of Lexington’s First United Methodist Church, told Brammer, "It’s a very sad time for our denomination." In Arkansas, more than 15% of churches have left. Leonard Fairley, resident bishop of the Louisville Area, which includes the Kentucky Conference, said before he announced the vote approving disaffiliation, "This is not about winning or losing; none of us should feel victorious." He asked delegates "to seek out those with different views and pass the peace," Whitehouse reports, quoting him: "We are not going to leave this place enemies."

Disagreements over whether to allow or not allow gay ordination, gay marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion have tested the denomination. "Even though the denomination has repeatedly voted to keep its traditional stance on marriage as only between a man and a woman, conservatives complain that progressives in the denomination have repeatedly ignored the rules," Brammer reports. "The debate reached a boiling point in 2016 after hundreds of United Methodist clergy across the nation came out as gay and when a Western regional conference elected the first openly lesbian bishop. . . . In 2016, at the denomination’s worldwide meeting, held every four years and known as the General Conference, a special commission was formed to review the church’s policies on sexuality. . . . The General Conference signed off on a plan at the 2019 session to allow churches to disaffiliate based on views on sexuality. Disaffiliation votes have been occurring over the last few years. They are to end this year."

LGBTQ+ Eastern Kentuckians are refuting Appalachian stereotype of intolerance, creating a regional community

Cara Ellis, left, at Pikeville Pride's booth at the Hillbilly Days
Festival in Pikeville, Ky. (Photo by Ryan C. Hermens, Herald-Leader)

LGBTQ+ Eastern Kentuckians aren't big-city transplants, as you might think; they're native Appalachians reaching out to break stereotypes and form a supportive community, reports Rick Childress of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Childress' visit to the "Pikeville Pride" booth during Hillbilly Days, Pikeville's annual festival "celebrating all things Appalachia," provides a good example. "Members of Pikeville Pride sat at a booth strewn with rainbow flags and banners. The grassroots organization works to highlight Eastern Kentucky's LGBTQ+ community. . . . In a town and region long assumed to be unwelcome to LGBTQ+ people, members were met with honest questions, smiles, thank yous and even a 'grandma' who got their grandson their 'first pride flag,' said Cara Ellis, who is Pikeville Pride's president and a Pikeville native." Ellis said, "I never thought we would have this in this town."

Outreach allows the group to support young people who may struggle. "It's never been necessarily easy to be gay in the mountains, and a ratcheting up of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation, both in Kentucky and nationally, will make life harder for those who are out in rural communities," Childress writes. "The suicide rate among LGBTQ youth is much higher than their peers. A national survey conducted last year by the Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis help for LGBTQ youth, found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in the past year. . . . But that suicide rate goes down if students come from households that affirm their gender identity, attend an LGBTQ-affirming school or live in an accepting community."

The group's presence at events like Hillbilly Days provides a human face inviting conversations that educate the region. "They also defied a common misconception that Ellis said she's encountered in her work with Pikeville Pride," Childress reports. "Many assume that those in the group have moved in from bigger cities and aren't native Appalachians. Ellis told him, "It's like, no, we've been born here. . . . We've been raised here. We're from here; we stay here." Childress adds, "According to Jonathan Coleman, a historian and co-founder of the Faulkner Morgan Archive, a nonprofit that saves and shares Kentucky's LGBTQ history, the typical narrative about Eastern Kentucky is incomplete. Coleman said: "The story of what it is to be queer in Eastern Kentucky is always a really flattened-out, simple narrative. . . . You leave if you can, as soon as you can. You're traumatized, and then you try to escape. That, of course, is not accurate for lots and lots of folks."

Pikeville's 2020 population was 7,754.
(Sperling's Best Places map)

Pikeville Pride continues to provide a supportive community "especially in a place where an accepting group of people hasn't always been easy to find," Childress reports. "The group started in 2017 as an organized counter-protest to a white-nationalist march in the city's downtown. After that protest, about 20-25 people continued to meet. They decided to put together Pikeville's first pride event in 2018 in an attempt to 'highlight the diversity and inclusion that we actually do have here in Pikeville, that maybe people don't realize,' Ellis said. . . . . Tonya Jones, who, along with her wife, has fostered multiple LGBTQ+ youth in Pike County, was among the original group that started the organization, said they had a free hugs booth at the first event." Jones told him, "I had someone just come up and just wrap their arms around me and just start bawling. Because they said it was the first time anyone accepted them for who they truly were."

Arkansas United Methodists allow 67 more congregations to leave; conference has lost more than 15% of its churches

Wye Mountain United Methodist Church in Bigelow, Ark.
was cleared to disaffiliate. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette photo)

UPDATE, Oct. 16: The Arkansas conference voted to let another 62 churches leave, the Democrat-Gazette reports.

Amid continued debate over sexuality and Christian teaching, the annual Arkansas conference of the United Methodist Church voted to allow 67 additional congregations to disaffiliate from the denomination, "bringing the total number that has left in the past six months over 'issues related to human sexuality' to 102," reports Frank E. Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Though there was plenty of debate, none of the congregations wishing to leave were forced to stay. . . . [after this decision] the Arkansas conference has lost more than 15% of its local churches."

Disagreements over whether to allow or not allow gay ordination, gay marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion have tested the denomination "for a half-century, revisiting the issue every four years," Lockwood explains. In 2019, Paragraph 2553 was approved for the denomination's Book of Discipline. "It allowed local churches to disaffiliate if they were dissatisfied with the denomination's stand on issues such as same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay clergy. . . . Thus far, theological conservatives have repeatedly triumphed ... ensuring that the denomination continues to define 'the practice of homosexuality' as 'incompatible with Christian teaching'. . . . They have struggled, however, to get some church officials to uphold provisions in their Book of Discipline."

Roy Patterson Smith, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Little Rock, told Lockwood, "I realize there are people who are going to leave and need to leave. The thing I want to do is to see that processes are fair, that we pay attention to all the people in the church -- whether they want to stay or whether they want to go, ultimately -- and that people make decisions out of good discernment, not misinformation, disinformation or fear tactics." Lockwood reports, "Conservatives, including many of the Arkansans cutting ties with the denomination, are frustrated by the flouting of church discipline in some of the U.S. church's 54 regional bodies. . . . Progressives are fed up with denomination-wide positions they view as unjust. . . . Although Methodist congregations traditionally hold their property in trust for the broader church, Paragraph 2553 created a temporary exit ramp."

Not all past exits have gone smoothly. "Thirty-five congregations were allowed to disaffiliate in November, while three others were blocked," Lockwood reports. "Each of the churches completed a discernment process of not less than three months before deciding to depart. . . . . Two of the three denied disaffiliation, Jonesboro First United Methodist Church and Searcy First United Methodist Church, subsequently filed suit. . . . Thus far, the conference has spent $212,147.76 on legal costs. . . That figure could well double if the Jonesboro case proceeds to trial in January, as currently scheduled. . . . [Paragraph 2553] sunsets on December 31, 2023."

Gay rodeos in Texas include gay and straight competitors and are a somewhat confidential comfort in polarized times

The calf-roping competitors pose for a portrait.
(Photo by Dawn Bottoms, The New Yorker)

Gay rodeos in Texas offer marginalized groups a place for competition and open-minded hospitality. "The urban-rural divide is as politically polarized as it's ever been; fans of gay rodeo have come to appreciate it as a place where rural signifiers—big hats, big trucks, George Strait songs—have a different valence," reports Rachel Monroe for The New Yorker from the Texas Tradition Rodeo in Denton: "The parking lot slowly filled with trucks bearing bumper stickers that said things like 'Been doing cowboy &$#! all day.' A tractor circled the arena, raking the dirt. . . . After everyone stood for the national anthem, an announcer came over the crackly PA system and offered a prayer, asking God to bless that day's competitors, 'the cowboys, cowgirls, and those in between.'"

Mac McMillan, who has been involved with the Texas Gay Rodeo Association for decades, told Monroe, "It started as a social club, and then AIDS came along. . . We did this to raise money, to take care of people. The medications were astronomically expensive, plus food, housing. We had to do what we had to do." Monroe reports, "Mac grew up in rural Texas. He realized at a young age that he was attracted to men, but he didn't see a way to reconcile his sexuality with the country lifestyle he preferred. . . . For Mac, the gay-rodeo world was a revelation. The scene was vibrant and defiant, a place he could feel fully himself. Daytimes were devoted to competition, and in the evening, everyone would gather for some sort of entertainment. . . . At the 1982, Joan Rivers served as grand marshal, ten thousand people packed the stands."

In Texas, political sentiment toward differences in sexual identity can be tense. "Conservative politicians in the state have increasingly turned their attention to controlling the public expression of gender and sexuality," Shaw writes. "This year, the state legislature is considering bills that would prohibit gender-affirming care for trans youth, impose fines on establishments that host 'sexually oriented' drag performances when children are present, and ban classroom teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity. . . . Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the Denton rodeo had a clandestine air. . . . . Nearly everyone I spoke with in Denton had no idea that the rodeo was happening, or even that there was such a thing as a gay rodeo. . . . Partly a response to the unsettling political atmosphere in Texas, where drag events regularly meet with belligerent protesters."

The rodeo is open to all walks of life. "Wade Earp, a longtime TGRA participant (and a direct descendant of Wyatt Earp's brother Virgil), said that he's been happy to see the growing number of allies who come to gay rodeos as participants and spectators," Shaw adds. "In part, that's due to Wade's recruitment efforts. . . . A few years ago, he met some straight female bull riders at the Fort Worth stockyards, who told him, 'The men won't let us ride,' and Wade responded by saying, 'Come to the gay rodeo!'. . . . A half-dozen showed up at the next event, and soon they started bringing friends."

Amid calls to ban books, rural Texas county votes to keep libraries open while lawsuit over book removal continues

A crowd gathered for the county commission meeting in Llano County, Texas. (Photo by Phil Reynolds, The Highlander)

Photo: Aaron E. Hernandez, American-Statesman

Not all big decisions are made in big places. Here's one from the Texas Hill Country. "When commissioners in Llano County, population 21,000, voted Thursday to keep its three-branch library system open, the moment was closely monitored by the biggest news organizations in the country," write Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent of The Washington Post. Technically, commissioners voted "to remove an item from their agenda to consider whether to 'continue or cease operations' of the Llano County Library System “pending further guidance'," The Highlander of Marble Falls reports, under a heading saying the commissioners voted to "postpone" the vote. But other stories cast the idea as dead.

Niki Griswold of the Austin American-Statesman reports that county officials made the decision "despite an ongoing push by some residents to close the facilities if certain books they claim are sexually explicit remain available for check out." There's a lawsuit, which "is part of an ongoing legal, political and cultural battle over what books children should have access to in public and school libraries, especially content that touches on race, LGBTQ+ issues and sexuality."

The Post explains, "Like many other similar conflicts, this one was triggered by a single Llano resident, Bonnie Wallace, who objected in 2021 to library books she pronounced 'pornographic filth.'. . . One of the big surprises of these sagas has been outbreaks of resistance to book purges in the reddest places, and here again, some locals dissented" and filed suit. Griswold reports, "A federal district judge in Austin issued a preliminary injunction in the case at the end of March, ordering the county to replace the books it had removed from libraries and prohibiting officials from taking away any other books while the court case is pending."

Llano County (Wikipedia map)

"Thursday's meeting drew dozens of residents from both sides of the issue," Griswold reports. "Michael McDavid, 60, who held a sign that read 'We love our library,' has lived in Llano County for 35 years. He said that closing the library system would cripple the community: "Our little library is our community center. . . . That's where everything goes on, from internet access to exercise classes, books, DVDs, and without our library, we're kind of a rudderless community."

Griswold reports, "Fifteen people addressed the Commissioners Court during public testimony with more than half vehemently against closing the county's libraries . . . Speakers included former teachers and librarians who defended libraries as "safe spaces for gathering" for children and adults. . . . Other speakers read explicit passages from select books. . . . one resident asked the commissioners, 'Does Llano, Texas, want to be known as the town that closed the public library?' Joanie Castleman, who attended the meeting but did not testify before the commissioners, told Griswold, "I'd like to see the library closed if they're going to leave those books in the library. It's not about banning books or burning them. It's about protecting our children."

Once the agenda item was dropped, administrative County Judge Ron Cunningham "read a two-page statement, condemning the ongoing litigation and its cost to the county and acknowledging the division the debate has brought to the community. He said, "This has been a very contentious situation. This is not what Llano County is about, ladies and gentlemen; we're better than this. . . . The library will remain open. We will try this in the courts, not through social media or the news media."

To keep the faith and the peace amid gay-rights debate, largest Methodist church in Arkansas splits three ways

Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas 
(Photo by J.T. Wampler, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

To follow their faith and avoid further disaffiliation efforts, Fayetteville Central United Methodist Church members approved a compromise that split the church into three churches, reports Frank E. Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat- Gazette. "The two new congregations both favor traditional church teachings on gay marriage and ordination." The United Methodist Church has internal tensions over homosexuality. "Some members feel strongly that the church should uphold its current stances regarding gay clergy and marriage," its website notes. "Others strongly advocate for inclusion of LGBTQ Christians in all aspects of life in the church." Under a provision in the United Methodist Church's Book of Discipline that was added in 2019, U.S. congregations can disaffiliate 'over issues related to human sexuality.'"

Before the split, Fayetteville Central was Arkansas' largest United Methodist congregation and one the nation's largest. The "Amicable Reconciliation and Separation Agreement" spells out the terms of the division: Fayetteville's Central United Methodist Church will remain part of the United Methodist denomination. Genesis Church, the congregation's South Fayetteville satellite campus, will spin off, becoming independent. . . A third congregation will also be formed in the coming months. Carness Vaughan, the current senior pastor, said that he and other members will be leaving to launch what they're calling Christ Church."

Vaughan told Lockwood, "God has been at work throughout this process. There's no way we could have done it without that. I really do believe that God is going to bless what's happened here." Lockwood notes, "By finding a compromise, Central members avoided the need for a lengthy discernment process and a divisive congregation-wide vote on whether to 'disaffiliate.'"

Bill Kincaid, a leader of United for Central, told Lockwood, "There is sadness around those who may depart, but we will keep them in prayer as we all seek to serve our community. Bruce Johanson, a leader of Central Wesleyans, which had favored disaffiliation, also welcomed the outcome. He told Lockwood, "We are also thankful that Genesis Church is now an independent south Fayetteville church."

Opinion: Legislators in Iowa [and other states] deny human nature with bills aimed at children who aren't like others

By Art Cullen
Storm Lake (Iowa) Times Pilot

If there were one thing Iowa could agree on, you would hope it would be compassion for everyone. This life is complicated and confusing. Some boys like to play with GI Joe. Some like to play with Barbie. The discerning parent or teacher leaves them be and makes certain they do their arithmetic homework. They advise the boys with the GI Joes to be nice to the boys playing with the Barbies. Don’t bully them. People are different.

Art Cullen

Iowa Republicans controlling the legislature are in a mood to hassle people who may be different from them. All sorts of bills float around. This week, a legislator had to tell parents of transgender children that he doesn’t agree that this is right. Queer has no place in the classroom, the committee voted.

Under this law, a teacher would not be able to tell the boys that the boy in the corner is different, it is not his choice or the choice of his parents, and that people have been different from each other for time immemorial. The art teacher might remind the legislature to look up those Italian sculptors and their heroic nude males — hello in there! Or, the art teacher might remind us that the greatest artist in Iowa history, Grant Wood, hung out with other great artists and writers whose sexuality would draw rebuke from the morality police then and now. That’s why they hung out in Stone City. The bankers in Cedar Rapids looked the other way, thank goodness.

The reality is, and always has been, that human beings are not strictly heterosexual. Some people view reality through a moral prism predicated on the shame of St. Augustine or some other tortured soul. Recall that Augustine lived a playboy’s life of debauchery, saw the shallowness of it, and went on to saddle Catholic moral theology with an obsessive sexual predilection. Unfortunately, it finds its way into the legislature, where people forget the New Commandment: to love your neighbor as yourself.

If you loathe yourself, in a Calvinist sort of way, you are compelled to heap it on your neighbor. A little bit of that is going on in Des Moines. Iowa should be a place where we can approach each other with an attempt at understanding — especially in the classroom, where children need every bit of support as they sort out a confusing and mean world. Don’t lock Grant Wood in the closet. Don’t rebuke the goodwill that writer Tennessee Williams brought to the University of Iowa. Don’t shun that boy to the corner and deny his reality. It is possible to take a different point of view without being a heretic against God.

Too bad that this is how we have to learn. A lot of innocent children take the lumps. A lot of lives get traumatized. Eventually, we will appreciate the reality of a reckoning for cruelty. That’s a sin in anybody’s book.

Methodists splitting amid sexual and theological debates

A gay pride rainbow flag flies with the U.S. flag in front of the Asbury United
 Methodist Church in Prairie Village, Kansas. (Photo by Charlie Riedel, AP) 

Methodists are fracturing over sexuality and theology: "At the heart of the schism is a decision by the United Methodist Church to allow for the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy and for churches to host weddings and other celebrations of same-sex unions. It’s often described as a liberal-versus-conservative debate," reports Martha Quillin of the Raleigh News & Observer.

The decision pushed some congregations to leave. Last month, the church's North Carolina Conference "approved a split that clears the way for nearly a third of its churches to separate from the denomination over its more inclusive LGBTQ policies." Quillan writes. "The move, decades in the making, allows congregations that voted earlier this year to leave the United Methodist fold to join the new Global Methodist Church."

Much the same is happening elsewhere in the nation and abroad. "In annual regional gatherings across the U.S. earlier this year, United Methodists approved requests of about 300 congregations to quit the denomination, according to United Methodist News Service," reports Peter Smith of The Associated Press. "Large United Methodist congregations are moving to the exits, including some of the largest in Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas."

Bishop Thomas Bickerton, president of the church's Council of Bishops, told AP, “The United Methodist Church is not interested in continuing sexism, racism, homophobia, irrelevancy and decline . . . What we are interested in is a discovery of what God has in mind for us on the horizon as the next expression of who we are as United Methodists.”

The Global Methodist Church was formed as "Conservatives grew impatient with the lack of clarity over the issue and launched a splinter denomination for congregations that wanted to stick with the Book of Discipline’s language on homosexuality," Quillin writes. Churches could also join another denomination "or become non-denominational."

Stigma, limited privacy, lack of sex education, shortage of health insurance hamper rural efforts to fight HIV and AIDS

President Trump said in his State of the Union address that he wants to stop the spread of HIV in the U.S. within 10 years. "In addition to sending extra money to 48 mainly urban counties, Washington, D.C., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, Trump's plan targets seven states where rural transmission of HIV is especially high," Jackie Fortier reports for NPR. Health officials in those states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina) welcome the funding, but told Fortier that ending or slowing rural HIV transmission is a big challenge.

In rural areas,there is still a stigma attached to being gay and/or having HIV or AIDS, says Dr. Michelle Salvaggio, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Institute at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, a federally funded HIV clinic. It employed a case manager to serve a nearby rural area, but eliminated the position because no patients went to see her, Salvaggio told Fortier: "They didn't want to be seen walking into the HIV case manager's office in that tiny town — that can only mean one thing."

That lack of anonymity is not just a problem in small towns. When Native Americans, an at-risk population in Oklahoma, "go into an Indian Health Service clinic, it is possible that they will see their cousin behind the desk, and their cousin's brother-in-law working in medical records, and their niece's boyfriend working in the pharmacy," Salvaggio said.

An HIV-positive Cherokee, Ky Humble, told Fortier that rural Oklahomans with HIV and AIDS need more than medical funding; they also need more access to related services like food pantries, mental health therapy, and transportation assistance.

Another difficulty: Oklahoma, and many other states with large rural populations, don't require comprehensive sex education that could help teens learn about cheap, effective methods of preventing HIV, such as use of condoms. Lack of health insurance will also likely hamper efforts to get rural residents tested and treated, especially in states that did not expand Medicaid, Fortier reports.

Iowa editor, fired in May for anti-gay post on his personal blog, is suing for religious discrimination

UPDATE: Feb. 2, 2015: Bob Eschliman has started a new publication called The Iowa Statesman, which plans "to cover all levels of government and politics through a combination of on-staff mobile journalists and strategically placed writers who will provide crowdsourcing coverage," says the outlet's website. "We will make strategic partnerships along the way with other national media outlets that will expand our reach, and provide the rest of the nation with a better look at the first-in-the-nation caucus state." The outlet, which was seeking donations for funding, only received $4,656 of its $100,000 goal.

The editor of a community newspaper in Iowa who was fired in May for making disparaging remarks on his personal blog about religion, homosexuality and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is suing his former employer for religious discrimination, Daniel Finney and William Petroski report for The Des Moines Register. (Petroski photo: Fired editor Bob Eschliman, right, with attorney Matt Whittaker)

Bob Eschliman was fired from the Newton Daily News after writing on his blog: "I’d like to talk a little bit about deceivers among us, most notably the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo effort to reword the Bible to make their sinful nature 'right with God'." Eschliman was referring to a book called the Queen James Bible, which "seeks to resolve interpretive ambiguity in the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality" by editing eight verses in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible, according to the site.

Eschliman filed a complaint last week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Milwaukee arguing that he was terminated because of his religious beliefs, Finney and Petroski write. "If the dispute isn't resolved to Eschliman's satisfaction, he could sue in federal court to seek financial damages."

Eschliman said he "has had difficulty finding employment since his dismissal, 'particularly here in Iowa'," the Register reports. "He said his writing, which some considered objectionable, was posted on a personal blog that was read mainly by family members and friends." John Rung, president of Shaw Media, which owns the Daily News, disagreed, writing in May: "While he is entitled to his opinion, his public airing of it compromised the reputation of this newspaper and his ability to lead it."

But Mark Kende, a constitutional law professor at Drake University, said Eschliman has a potential case, Finney and Petroski write. Kende told the Register, "I am not saying the newspaper does not have an attempted defense, but federal laws generally prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion. (Eschliman) is arguing that they are firing him for his religious beliefs, and to the extent that the comments he made are based on his religion, that doesn't seem frivolous. But having said that, if I were the company, I would say that we are not firing him for his religious beliefs. We are firing him because his job is to be an impartial reporter, and as an impartial reporter he has lost his credibility, so it has nothing to do with his religion." (Read more)

Iowa editor fired for anti-gay post on personal blog

Bob Eschliman

The editor of a community newspaper in Iowa was fired recently for making disparaging remarks on his personal blog about religion, homosexuality and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Bob Eschliman was fired as editor of the Newton Daily News for an April 29 blog posting in which he wrote: "I’d like to talk a little bit about deceivers among us, most notably the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo effort to reword the Bible to make their sinful nature 'right with God'."

Eschliman referred to a website about a book called the Queen James Bible, which "seeks to resolve interpretive ambiguity in the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality" by editing eight verses in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible, according to the site.

Eschliman wrote: "The editors are very keen to let folks know they didn’t remove passages from the Bible, but instead reworded them to 'make it more relevant.' Calling other versions of the Bible 'anti-LGBT versions,' the editors are very clear about their intent. They want to erase all references to sodomy as a sin." Eschliman also used the term "homo."

John Rung, president of Shaw Media, which owns the Daily News, wrote in a column for the paper: "The First Amendment does not eliminate responsibility and accountability for one’s words and actions. Last week (Eschliman) expressed an opinion on his personal blog that in no way reflects the opinion of the Newton Daily News or Shaw Media," Rung writes. "While he is entitled to his opinion, his public airing of it compromised the reputation of this newspaper and his ability to lead it." (Read more)

The newspaper has received several letters in support of the firing and in support of Eschliman. To read the paper's letters section, click here.