Hypothetical scenario: someone comes to you on the street, offers you a cell phone FREE OF CHARGE for two weeks, and in return they ask you vote for someone. Also, during the week, they will text message you and tell you how to vote. Would you consider that buying a vote?
If yes, then step right up, kids. That's exactly what the Institute of Religion and Democracy has done.
This past week, delegates from around the world gathered for General Conference for the United Methodist Church. Their mission? To listen to the Holy Spirit to give them guidance as they determine doctrine and polity for the UMC for the next four years.
Notice the "listen to the Holy Spirit" part? To those anti-gay forces that will use any means to continue to bash gay people, that means to them they only have to answer the phone.
The IRD has attempted to thwart the movement of the Holy Spirit by buying votes at General Conference and telling delegates how to vote.
Delegates from Africa, South America, and other countries were given cell phones for the conference, complete with an attached list of people to vote for. As evidence, here's a videotape showing the distribution during an event, and photographs of the "instructions" attached to the free cell phones.
The video is here at YouTube. You can see in the first and last minutes of the video the side table where delegates get a box. What's in the box? A cell phone with "instructions" on it.
The relevant sections are as follows. First, from the front side of the "instruction" sheet given with the cell phones:
We have purchased cell phones for each of you to use during General Conference. There is no charge to you for the use of the phones.
Even though they don't get them, they get the free service for a week. That is providing a service for no fee. That's nice of them. Surely they are not buying votes, that would be illegal. Whew, move along...
...Oh, there's a back side to the instructions?
Please consider voting for the following persons.
Clergy: re-elect Keith Boyette (U.S.) and elect Dr. James Karblee (Liberia) and Gloria Brooks (U.S.)
Laity: re-elect Mary Daffin (U.S.) and elect Dr. Raymond Mande Mutombo (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Alternates: Larry Baird (clergy) and Judge Ron Enns (laity)
Your Friends in the United Methodist Church
Nice of them not to sign it. They will sin and not stand behind it? As Martin Luther is alleged to say, "Sin Boldly" not slink into the night hiding behind ambiguity.
Finally, sources tell me that the cell phone numbers are all plugged into a program, and during the conference, delegates receive Text Messages telling them how to vote.
In conclusion, the IRD has
(a) provided a service free of charge
(b) expected votes in return for the service, and
(c) plans to thwart the Holy Spirit by text-messaging delegates as they are voting.
The IRD continues its tradition of buying votes at General Conference because they see their impending doom in the United Methodist Church. Their 12 point agenda has mostly failed, they have failed to provide results at most of the bullet points, and the only arrow in their quill is their success at gay-hating. But as the winds constantly move forward to inclusivity, if they are unable to keep this last bastion, then the writing is on the wall. Thus, they spend enormous amounts of money to buy cell phones and then tell delegates how to vote.
They are so desperate that they resort to the cardinal sin in the United Methodist Church when it comes to General Conference voting: Listening to a cell phone rather than listening to call of the Holy Spirit is a sin. By enabling and encouraging this, they are sinning mightily.
May the Spirit which sustains us all ring in our hearts louder than a cell phone, and may the buzzing in our guts telling us how to vote bring us more peace than a buzzzing text message.
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