Willimon, Buncombe St UMC and One Battle After Another

    The  last ten days or som I hve been engrosed by Bishop and Chaplain Will Willimom  of Duke, Wofford and North Alabama and his book of August The Church we Carry. The following blog is random but the substance of the matter is reviewed at the Advocate, a podcast Plainspoken interview with Willimon and a scorching look at Willimon by Talbot Davis at Baptist News Global. Davis is a an Asbury Seminary grad and pastor in Charlotte in the vein of Ben Milstead of the voice of Clemson athletics The Roar.

      I hope there is further exploration of the matter by secular media to explore just how sophisticated and savvy the rightwingers at Buncombe Street who drove the disaffiliation of the historic, wealthy and influential congreatation in fact are. Willimon who was raised in the church, says there was a lot of secrecy and misinformation among the driving forces of the malcontents.

   I wonder how they fare compared to the christian nationalionalists in the movie One Battle After Anoter. The Movie is recently reviewed in the NY Rev of Books. Would be interesting to see how the influencers at Buncombe Street line up, and even if these savvy professionals in the eyes of Talbot Daivs can disinguish between their ass and a Hole in the ground in the larger contxt. I imagine Talbot churh in Charlotte  is aware of the implications in the world of Trump and this movie.

    Even less aware is my judgment on the FUMC of Guntersville Alabama who voted to break ties with the Wofford and Duke Brand of  Methodism. There are pockets of grand people in both congregations, but Guntersville Trumpers have all the markings of lobbyist for the gun Lobby.

   Interesting to note that Katie Britt, the former SGA president of U bama and member in good standing of the FUMC Montgomery Alabama doesnt say much about her standing in that congregation who voted to stay with Willimon Methodism. At same time FUMC Auburn voted to bail out but recently udge said the property and the money in the church stays with Willimon and the 40 or so who voted remain mainstream

   The vote at Buncombe met the two thirds majority to disaffiate roughty 663 to 307

 Will Williman the former Bishop in Alabama for about seven years chap at Duke longtime trustee at Wofford friend of my friend Tommy Brittain, who was chair of the trustees at Wofford about 10 years ago he has a big law firm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and his sister Was an influential pastor outside Davidson, North Carolina for some years in the best of the Methodist tradition of what I am about to report sounds like it had a lot of residence in the first United Methodist Church of Guntersville, Alabama likewise a fairly wealthy and influential congregation in North Alabama so there is a great interview Analysis of Willie‘s new book. The ch  The Church We Carry  at the advocate, which is a Methodist news reporting concern take a look at it. Also podcast interview with Willman at plain spoken. The last 30 minutes gets right down to the real nitty-gritty roughly Williman born in 1949 or maybe 46. I think he graduated from Wofford so between 65 and 69, which would make him six at least six years older than me so Willimon he was other things fascinated with the lynching of really Earl. He was one year old when that happened and he did a big conference at Wofford about six years ago on the lynching of Willie Earl a back in September there was an hour and a half discussion of his new book at Furman and then a few days later at Wofford

     and then this upcoming weekend at a large United Methodist Church in Columbia so Willimom  spent about a year after his church that shaped him BUNCOMBE Methodist Church in Greenville LA One of the wealthiest and most influential Methodist churches state of South Carolina according to Willimon , a group of right wing Methodist. I met secretly and spent a lot of of misinformation and it was brought to a vote and they voted to withdraw from the historic Methodist Church and go with there’s a name for the global Methodist Church or something they’re calling themselves so this was a punch in the gut for Willie, who was had his tractors, especially as his time in the bishop as a bishop in Alabama, but he did in 2010 so take a strong stand for immigration and compared the law that was a past in Alabama as comparable to the decisions on slavery during the civil war, specially I know I can’t think of it right now the decision it gave robbery among other people to cross into northern territory and Gather up escape slave so Wilman, for whatever you say about him is on the side of Harriet Tubman as disposed and Abraham Lincoln and judge Frank Johnson to the historic witness of George Wallace and Strom, Thurman and and Robert Lee, if you investigate the nuances, etc., etc. so of course this is comparable to some things that happened in Baptist churches did the nomination I think of all episode when Rocky Purvis, who became a trustee at Furman when they had the big vote for Furman to separate from South Carolina Baptist, when Jerry vines came to Southeastern seminary in 1987 Rocky was a student there after graduating from Furman and he had a secret meeting with jerry vines  and people of the peace committee it was vines. He became a pastor at Jacksonville, Florida thoroughly marinated in the fundamentalism and the takeover of the SBC and a mentor to Tim Tebow‘s mother who was the eagle forum woman of the year in 2018 so it appears that Williman was facing that mentality at this church in Greenville right off their famous Main Street and it was a similar mentality that he faced down that he was disturbed outraged about 30 years after the fun is taken over the southern Baptist convention. What are the thing about Rocky? He had a brother I think his name is Paul who is president the student government association at Furman in the early 1990s and they pause about as disgusting as Katie Britt the senator from Alabama who is complicit with Donald Trump and all his shenanigans she was the president of the student government association at University of Alabama so there’s a lot of ways to compare this mentality and finding another traditions and even in a secular politics and there’s a lot of overlay with the secular politics I haven’t read Willman‘s book yet I doubt he can connect these people to the Heritage foundation Which is a rabbit in certain pockets in upstate South Carolina, but it seems to have that same kind of mentality in there seeing in scripture I believe in a scripture bubbles up to these conversations about sexuality and which has a similar mindset to originalist interpretation of the constitution so I talk about that a little bit in my recent blog on authentic Baptist, so Williman‘s out there he’s 82 year old man now it was a punch in the gut and I’m gonna link this to the Facebook page of the Collinsville United Methodist Church Willimon spoke there about 2007 the Baptist pastors of John Morgan who died earlier this year his son Mark went to Duke and had some conversations with Williman. Mark now lives in Fort Payne, Alabama about 15 miles up the road from the red light at the Baptist Church in Collinsville, where my mother was baptizedso