now the wca is just making stuff up

 Bless his heart.

Scott Field of the WCA has gone from making arguments of substance - which means ideas that can be debated and considered - to just making stuff up. I have no other way of describing his latest missive against the United Methodist Church. The rhetoric is good. The truth is entirely absent.

Seriously. 

Look, I'm strongly in favor of regionalization and somewhat opposed to allowing a paragraph 2553 style path to disaffiliation in central conferences.  If you read me regularly you know this. But there are rational reasons to disagree. I could have a healthy debate with someone about this. But these aren't the reasons. Field has become like an American politician, seemingly believing that if he just says things long enough and loud enough some of it will stick.  

First, I hope I am not the only one who is tired of U.S. traditionalists telling me what all the people in Africa think. This was the message I directly gave to one traditionalist leader who emailed me wanting to negotiate on behalf of "African allies." My message was that Africans don't need U.S. traditionalists to negotiate on their behalf. We are all capable of talking with each other. In fact, it would be more fruitful for those in the U.S. who have left or plan to leave the denomination to just get out of the way. 

Second, how presumptive is it for Field to reduce the central conferences to simply one continent? He may not need their votes at General Conference because of their smaller numbers, but the legislation he is endorsing is equally relevant to United Methodists in Asia and Europe.

Now to Field's piece. 

It's just. not. true. None of it. 

1. It is not true that progressive groups and others "want to decide the future for African United Methodists." (in all cases, emphases in original). Field says not passing a new 2553 "cut off any option for disaffiliation" and "presumes African United Methodists cannot be trusted to make their own decisions." I will remind you again that the Global Methodist Church has celebrated when churches in Africa and whole countries in Europe have left the denomination. The only people I hear saying it is impossible for churches outside the U.S. to leave are the people who want churches outside the U.S. to leave. And, just to be entirely clear, there is no process for progressives in the U.S. to block those churches from doing so. 

2. It is not true that "regionalization decides for African United Methodist [sic] how far and for what matters their voices and votes will be allowed." Let's start by acknowledging that the first regionalization proposal, The Christmas Covenant, was created by people in central conferences including in Africa. Then let's remember how General Conference works. People from around the world, including Africa, will be there. Regionalization will require constitutional amendments, which takes a 2/3 vote. That can't happen without support from people in Africa. Then it has to be ratified by a 2/3 aggregate vote of the people at annual conferences. You don't need a visa to get to the U.S. for that one. It is literally impossible for ratification to happen if there is not significant support from Africa. All of us who have spent any time thinking about the political process of our denomination understand that there is no path to regionalization be enacted without that support. African votes will decide whether or not we have regionalization.

3. It is not true that the Fair for Some Fair for All campaign actually wants things to be fair for all. Here I am not judging, just observing the numerical and political truth. Our current Book of Discipline allows conferences outside of the U.S. to make extensive changes to the Book of Discipline to meet their contextual needs. It does not, and without constitutional amendments cannot, give the U.S. that same privilege. Assuming that there is not a mass exodus from outside the U.S., the U.S. will have a minority of votes beginning with the next regular general conference after this one. Math dictates that this means without regionalization the next general conference could in theory pass something with no U.S. votes that would only be in force in the U.S. To take the current hot button concern and flip it on its head, Africa, the Philippines, and Europe could vote to forbid same-sex marriage (as we currently do) and then at their own central conference level vote not to follow that rule. Obviously that specific example won't happen, but you understand the point. It is patently unfair for a majority group to bind a minority group to a rule that the majority themselves are not bound to. That is exactly what a rejection of regionalization will create.

If you haven't read Field's post, you can stop here. If you did read it, I will take just a moment to debunk his conspiracies.

1. Why have invitation letters been slow to arrive? That's a fantastic question that I promise we are all asking. For the record, there are people who I am confident will be voting for regionalization that have also not received their invitation letter. It is incredibly frustrating to all of us, and it is an embarrassment to the General Commission on General Conference. There should be accountability for this as well as for still today not having a full list of who the delegates to General Conference even are.

2. UM News Service is doing their job. It is not the job of a UM organization to promote the cause of people who have left or are leaving the denomination. I'm reminded of the local churches in our conference who, I'm told, called District Superintendents asking for pastors after they had disaffiliated. The DS has to say, "I'm sorry, we only appoint pastors to United Methodist churches." You can't bash the UMC at every opportunity and then expect our news agency to assist you. 

3. In addition to calling out misstatements of traditionalists, one of the roles MainstreamUMC has taken on is stating uncomfortable truths. It is NOT the position of Mainstream that the U.S. should "call the tune" because the large majority of denominational funding comes from the U.S. It is a practical reality that, just like many traditionalist churches withheld apportionments when they disagreed with denominational decisions (the WCA at one point actually actively encouraged this), without regionalization many U.S. churches are likely to pay less to the denomination. Mainstream is not advocating for this, simply acknowledging it is true.