Crackers and Grape Juice

By a slim margin the 'traditional plan' was selected to be the way forward for the United Methodist Church. Disciplinary action against LGBTQIA clergy will be swifter and without the benefit of due process. In all reality, the plan selected by the Special General Conference does not meet the UMC's constitutional requirements. Just an hour after the Special General Conference was adjourned, Crackers & Grape Juice sat down with our favorite thoughtful pastor, Christy Thomas, the debrief and talk about what is next as the UMC becomes more divided, and LGBTQIA persons are delivered a legislative knife in the back.

The team caught up with Diana Butler Bass on the eve of the conclusion of the UMC's Special General Conference. She offers thoughts about the historical and theological significance of a denomination's discernment over human sexuality.

In an effort to provide honest conversations from the 2019 Special General Conference, the Crackers & Grape Juice team invited supporters of all of the plans being considered by the United Methodist Church’s governing body to explain why the plan they support is the correct plan.Former alumni of Bob Jones University and current members of the West-Ohio Conference, Rev. Jeff Mullinix and Steve Shamblin-Mullinix share their thoughts on the Special UMC General Conference, recalling their calling into ministry and forced removal because of their sexual identity.

In an effort to provide honest conversations from the 2019 Special General Conference, the Crackers & Grape Juice team invited supporters of all of the plans being considered by the United Methodist Church’s governing body to explain why the plan they support is the correct plan.Rev. Christy Thomas, author of the Thoughtful Pastor blog, offers her reflections after Day 2 of the Special 2019 General Conference of the United Methodist Church. Christy has been a vocal advocate for the full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the UMC.

The team sat down to talk about day two from the Special General Conference in St. Louis...

In an effort to provide honest conversations from the 2019 Special General Conference, the Crackers & Grape Juice team invited supporters of all of the plans being considered by the United Methodist Church’s governing body to explain why the plan they support is the correct plan.Mark Tooley explains why the Traditional Plan from the Commission on the Way Forward is the best plan to help the United Methodist Church move forward in this ongoing conversation about human sexuality.Mark Tooley is an American Methodist layman and writer. He is a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church, who became president of the Washington-D.C. based Institute on Religion and Democracy, in 2009, a conservative religious think tank noted for its opposition to religious and social liberalism.

If an effort to provide honest conversations from the 2019 Special General Conference, the Crackers & Grape Juice team invited supporters of all of the plans being considered by the United Methodist Church’s governing body to explain why the plan they support is the correct plan.Anna Golladay was removed from her appointment because she officiated a same-sex wedding. She has traveled to St Louis for the called General Conference as a lay observer, present to ensure the LGBTQ voices in her Bible-belt community are not ignored as the United Methodist Church meets to find a way forward.

The team talks about the early legislative session from Day 2 of General Conference 2019 as we prepare for the first debates about the proposed plans from The Way Forward.

The team had a chance to sit down with Bishop Will Willimon to talk about the Special General Conference, hopes, challenges, and the call to keep muddling.

Why do I get the feeling like we're on the Titanic and we're all acting like Billy Zane? The team from C&GJ is in St. Louis for the United Methodist Church's Special General Conference on human sexuality and this is the first of many uploads about our experience.