The General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) of the United Methodist Church has been raising money to pay the fees of Washington lawyer Gregory Craig -- so that Craig's client, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, can take his 6-year-old boy back to Castro's Cuba. But the decision has prompted a harsh and unprecedented rebuke from Methodist bishop Cornelius L. Henderson and the Florida Conference Council on Ministries. Henderson calls GBCS financial involvement with Gonzalez "unilateral," "presumptuous," and an "embarrassment" to Florida Methodists -- who "were not consulted," "do not feel this was wise action," and are "insulted by the action of an agency of the church to which they give their loyalty."
"It is painful to see one's church appear to lend support to a government whose record on human rights is not acceptable by Christian standards or the principles of the United Methodist Church," Henderson writes in a statement widely distributed (and just as widely ignored by the national media). He wants two things from his church's leadership. First, an apology. And second, stricter adherence to the "Social Principles" of Methodism's "Book of Discipline" -- in particular, section 68, chapter V, paragraph A, which obliges congregants to condemn and oppose all regimes (unmistakably including Castro's dictatorship) which abuse or ignore universal political and human rights.
THE SCRAPBOOK wishes Henderson well, but doesn't suppose he should hold his breath, especially about that last part.
Consider the latest missive from Foundry United Methodist Church of Washington, D.C. (which counts Bill and Hillary Clinton among its semi-regular parishioners). "Grace to you and peace," writes Mark A. Schaefer of the Foundry Democracy Project. He writes about "not some abstract political issue" but a real "moral issue that we as United Methodists and American Citizens should be concerned about," namely: Washington's delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, doesn't get to vote on the floor of the House.
And why should Methodists, in particular, be exercised about this state of affairs? Well, Schaefer notes, there's . . . section 68, chapter V, paragraph A of Methodism's "Social Principles," that's why: The "form and the leaders of all governments should be determined by exercise of the right to vote guaranteed to all adult citizens." And according to Schaefer, Cuba, unlike the United States, already permits this basic liberty. "Washington is . . . the only democratic capitol [sic] whose citizens are unrepresented in their national legislature. Even the people of the cities of Beijing, Havana, and Tehran have voting representation in their legislatures!"