Continued Gaslighting from Bishop Carter
We are disappointed that mistruth and manipulation are continuing to come from those entrusted with leadership over the UMC. Good faith negotiations could have already led toward a peaceful resolution of this conflict over churches seeking to depart the denomination over serious matters of conscience.
In his recent letter, Bishop Carter claims, “Somewhat ironically, it was leaders in the conservative wing of our church who originally wrote Paragraph 2553, perhaps as they envisioned it was progressives who would depart the church. Instead, the opposite is happening, and some conservative leaders are now claiming that Paragraph 2553 is too onerous.”
This is a recycled falsehood that has been long been discredited by direct participants in the General Conference passage of Paragraph 2553. Beth Ann Cook, who brought the legislation before GC 2019, says in her article, “Hypocrites and the Golden Rule,” "The proposal to offer a gracious exit was not intended for liberals … it was genuinely intended as a fail-safe for whoever could not remain in the UMC. We all went into that special session knowing that some people would feel, as a matter of conscience, that they could not remain UMC after that vote... I selected the “Taylor” plan as the minority report, even though I did not like some aspects of it, because I felt it had the best chance of passing. Taylor was NOT authored by a Traditionalist; I felt that anything authored by a traditionalists would have no chance of getting the necessary traction.”
Bishop Carter also fails to enumerate the onerous and unfair provisions our Florida Conference has added to the requirements of the Paragraph 2553 legislation. In addition, Bishop Carter chooses not to mention that the same GC 2019 passed legislation that reinforces our sexual ethics. Is he going to ignore that one while enforcing 2553?
We call upon Bishop Carter to end this unnecessary conflict and let us go under fair and equitable terms.