Social Principles, Week 1

We had a great first class!  Tonight, I started with introductions- everyone went around and said names and why they wanted to be in the class.  I was surprised to hear that a lot of people had no idea that the UMC had the Social Principles and wanted to learn more about what they are, etc.  Some were there to learn about the UMC in general and were curious about what the SP say.  Some were there to be part of an interesting class, and of course, many were curious.  It was also nice to hear that some people wanted to take the class simply because I was teaching it and they enjoyed the classes I offer.  That was encouraging!

I did a quick and dirty run down of the structure of the church (local church, districts, annual conference, jurisdictional, general conference)- we talked about the Book of Discipline, the UMC history, and how and why the Social Principles came together and they they change and evolve over time at General Conferences.  We also talked about basic UM beliefs and the Wesleyan Quadrilateral- the importance of using Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience when we engage in issues of faith to understand our faith through different lenses and way we view the world.

We did a class covenant as a way to make sure that we were going to respect each other throughout the process and agree to disagree if it came to a heated issue.  There were some great things said about the importance of listening, not judging, and keeping an open mind about people's differing opinions.  The class also decided that it would take action if it became passionate about a topic that could have a petition or community action, which was really cool to see.

We ended the class with a "Cross the Line" activity, which was really fun and people enjoyed a lot.  I read  series of statements, and if it applied to you, you crossed over the line of tape I had on the floor.  The statements were meant to give the group an idea of people's backgrounds, beliefs, and opinions on certain issues.  The statements ranged from "I am an oldest child" to "I know someone who has had an abortion" or "I know someone with HIV/AIDS," and "I believe that gambling is harmful to society."  There were some interesting responses to the questions.  Some were divided evenly among the group, some statements had one or two people on one side of the line while everyone else was on the other side.  We had some laughs, we had some people want to explain why they were on one side of the other, and we had some people say, "Huh, I never knew that about you!"  Either way, it was a fun activity that A) got us up and moving and B) got us to see where people are on certain issues and C) was a good way to break the ice among the class members. The first thing I asked was "Do you consider yourself liberal, conservative, or moderate?"  Liberal was one side of the tape, conservative was the other, and the tape itself was moderate.  I was surprised to see it split pretty evenly on both sides, although a lot of people chose to stand on the tape.  I learned quite a bit about some of my parishoners tonight :)  I look forward to learning more.

Check back for next week's class when we dive into the Natural World section of the SP!