Err on the side of love

Thank you for your article entitled “Dis-United Methodists” in the Friday, May 26, paper on the editorial page.

This is the most straight-forward, unbiased statement I have read concerning disaffiliation. It states the main cause of separation clearly and unequivocally: “… recognizing same sex marriage and ordaining LGBTQ clergy.”

Recently, Christian churches around the world celebrated Pentecost, the birth of the church and its mission to the world, fueled by the outpouring of God’s love for sharing the faith and works that are the foundation of the church.

A number of other denominations have already completed their disaffiliating process with varying results, one of which weakens the voice of the church in our world and places the disaffiliating congregations in the position of excluding a tenth of the children of God who, by no choice of their own, enter this world as different from the majority. Do they (GMC and others) not put themselves in jeopardy when they become complicit with more and more laws being passed at state and federal levels to repress, take away health care of, and generally persecute the community of the “different” among us?

These people are our biological brothers and sisters, parents, uncles and aunts, children of our best friends, trusted community contributors, lay leaders in churches, operators /supporters of our community businesses and contributing members of our communities in countless other ways. How can one reconcile secular “enhanced persecution” and the Church? If I err in my understandings, I choose to err on the side of love of all of God’s children. “Judgment is mine, saith the Lord.”

Ann Pfisterer

Bowling Green