A Dog's Wedding

So I performed an outside wedding for a lovely young couple. The handsome young man was in his tuxedo and the bride was beautiful in her long dress. Not lavish, just nice. People sat on hay bales and the family dogs roamed about. 

It was the dogs that stole the show. They followed the woman down the aisle and then nuzzled her legs at the beginning of the ceremony. I was going to shoo them away but they said they wanted to include the dogs. So they stayed. They eventually parked themselves just behind me and looked at the audience. One was a little poodle mix and the other was a basset hound with soulful eyes.

I kept an eye out to make sure one of them didn't hike a leg over my foot, or that they didn't start humping each other while I said my words, "Do you solemnly take this man...." 

But the dogs behaved well. So did the groom and the bride and their attendants. In fact, they were all beautiful to the eyes of this gray haired pastor. At the end of the service, the bride and groom donned sunglasses and danced up the aisle to the song, "I Feel Good!" with the attendants following suit after them. 

I felt good too.

What It's About

This is what I’m thinking before the General Conference of the United Methodist Church:

It’s about right and wrong. It’s about good and evil. 

It’s not about the decline of the church nor its financial welfare. 

If we must choose between goodness and the preservation of an institution, even if it’s the church, then choose goodness.

When all the anger, shouting, abuse, scripture hurling, threatening, fear mongering, hateful confusion is swept aside, I want it to be clear that I said this:

Anything less than love, respect, dignity, and full recognition of rights for the LGBTQ community is wrong.