Author Archives: La Peregrina

Global Relevance (Social Principles, Part 5)

Hats off to the General Board of Church and Society for undertaking the monumental task of revising the United Methodist Social Principles. It’s the first time in fifty years that the Social Principles have been looked at holistically! (Our usual … Continue reading

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Succinct, Organized, and Accessible (Social Principles, Part 4)

When my spouse and I went to get our marriage license, the county clerk asked us how many years of schooling we’d each had. When we told her, she didn’t believe us! “Not how old you are,” she clarified. “How … Continue reading

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Theological Grounding (Social Principles, Part 3)

What sort of theology could we see in the Social Principles? In part two of this series, I argued that political discourses are inadequate for theologically grounding our Social Principles. Better theological themes include: unmerited grace of God conviction of the … Continue reading

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The inadequacy of “rights” (Social Principles, Part 2)

A much-needed Social Principles revision aims to make the United Methodist Social Principles more succinct, theologically grounded, and globally relevant. United Methodists are invited to comment on the proposed revision before August 31, 2018. In my last post, I recommended … Continue reading

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A New Structure for a New Era (Social Principles, Part 1)

I spent a lot of time memorizing the 1996 and 2000 Social Principles. I needed to bolster my arguments with my high school boyfriend — a conservative Baptist on the debate team. Every time he brought up a social issue, I would go search … Continue reading

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Nevertheless, she…

“To say that God is not male or female is to deny the divinity of Jesus! It denies the Trinity!” Not true. My theologically orthodox seminary professor husband and I both got up on our annual conference floor to explain … Continue reading

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Hope in the Mountains

The UMC Family blog has been dormant for half a quadrennium! As we gear up for General Conference 2019 (and a 2018 annual conference revote on a constitutional amendment — which I will post on shortly), I (Diane) discovered a … Continue reading

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For those playing along at home

One of my frustrations being on the east coast/midwest is that I miss lots of the livestream.  (That’s not counting the hours I spend telling myself that I’m going to work instead of watching the livestream… and then I end … Continue reading

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2016…

It’s been four years since this blog has been updated… what a lot has changed! And yet here we are, as ready as we can be for another General Conference. I (Diane) am not sure how many blog updates there will be … Continue reading

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Breathe. The Kin(g)dom will survive.

I regularly send e-mails to myself in the future at futureme.org.  This time last year, Past Me was particularly helpful in sending words of wisdom for General Conference (Past Me is so smart!), and as we move forward post-General Conference,* … Continue reading

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