The signs they are a changing

Does weather get you down?

My mother always attributed all sorts of things to the weather. She foresaw good things by signs and such and she saw bad things by signs and such. But mostly it was things like if cold weather was coming, our joints and things like that would be out of sorts.

I'm out of sorts.

It's miserable out there this morning, black as a politician's heart, raining, cold threatening to become colder.

My hips are screaming. My knees are protesting. My back is my back.

Signs they are a changing.

Jesus said of such things: "And jun the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is read and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."

What are these signs of the times today?

I read a story yesterday that said this:

"The co-founder and president of the NE Tarrant Tea Party in Tarrant County, Texas, has said that Republicans should vote for a straight-laced fellow Southern Baptist instead of a Methodist for a vacant judgeship because Methodists believe 'everything goes. Julie McCarty of Grapevine, Texas, wrote this on her Facebook page. Opponent Arlington lawyer Don Hase, a Methodist, replied, "God does not want politicians spinning to the public." In another Facebook comment, Mccarty said that the United Methodist Church should be criticized for having women as pastors and welcoming gay worshipers."

And the back of my heel hurts, too.

I'm going out on a limb here because I have a cousin who lambastes everything about the so-called Tea Party and I'm about to agree with her.

First, there are 211 different denominations that call themselves Baptist in the world including the largest, the Southern Baptists, of which I assume Ms. McCarty is a member. To assume that all United Methodists think and act and believe in exact same ways is to assume that all 211 Baptist denominations do as well. I happen to know they don't.

To believe that the majority of United Methodist Churches believe the same is simply, well, dumb and short-sighted. To believe that even members of one congregation all believe the same thing is even more short-sighted.

Do we allow women in the pulpit? Yes. I'm rather proud of that fact, and can show Biblical scholarship that says it happened in the early church despite all odds.

Do we invite gays into our churches? Yes. I'm extremely proud of hat fact, and can show Biblical scholarship that says it happened in the early church despite terrible persecution.

Does that mean we, us United Methodists are united about all these issues? Not a chance.

My elbow is hurting now, too.

It's a dark day, a windy day, a cold day, a wet day. The signs I'm reading say it will be raining meatballs before the denominational, theological skies clear.