Right or Wrong


When you retire from a business such as General Motors, Microsoft, Ford, Chevrolet, Alabama Power, Exxon, and similar corporations, you will be assured of receiving continued support from the corporation through medical insurance, pension and so forth. We all know this and we all expect this from the reputable companies that have been around for a long while. 

It is unthinkable for the corporations such as these to not do what they plainly stated they would do. To not do what they said they would do would cause their reputation, integrity, and trustworthiness to be compromised. For example, if you retired from Ford, and you decided after you retired to associate with Chevrolet, Ford would still live up to what they said they would do and continue to support you for the work you did for them. Maybe you worked for Exxon and retired from them. Exxon would still support you even if you were affiliated with Shell or one of the other gas companies.

You would think that these standards would be at least as strong in a religious organization. But that is not the case, especially in the United Methodist Church. In the Alabama-West Florida conference of the UMC, where I served for 28 years, not long after I retired the conference stopped my medical insurance. It didn't happen to just me either, it happened to many retirees. Why did they do this? Because many of the retirees, including myself, decided to affiliate with the Global Methodist Church. The UMC dropped us fast! This became a major problem for many retirees. Many of these people put in long periods of work at the UMC, and the UMC rewards them with dropping them like a hot potato. Yet, those people in the UMC that made the decision to do this, when they took their ordination vows made an oath to "do not harm."

It is not surprising this happened though considering who was making the decisions. Many of them can be as uncaring, unethical, and dispassionate as is possible. 





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