The workshop also shared examples of recommended children’s books for church libraries, from cutesy stories of adorable preschoolers raised by same-sex couples portrayed as no less equipped for perfect parenting than any mother-father couple to a particularly disturbing children’s book about how a little boy found joy and wholeness when his parents finally let him dress and identify as a girl (rather than take him to counseling to address his struggles to accept the biological reality of his God-given sex).

Should young children be indoctrinated in LGBTQ ideology in United Methodist Vacation Bible Schools and Sunday schools?

The answer is a resounding “YES” if the LBGTQ “reconciling” movement in my denomination gets its way.

This was the focus of a workshop at last Saturday’s “Winter Warming” retreat for activist supporters of the extraordinarily well-funded Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN).

RMN is the main unofficial caucus group devoted to promoting the LGBTQ liberationist cause.  It boasts of having over 32,000 “Reconciling United Methodists,” but a spokeswoman at this event admitted that they count anyone who receives their emails or newsletters (some of whom, like me, do not support their agenda).

While “Winter Warming” was only a local event of RMN’s Chicago-area chapter, it featured some nationally prominent liberal UMC figures. The keynote preacher was Bishop Minerva Carcaño of Los Angeles. She was introduced by Chicago Bishop Sally Dyck, and gave a shout-out to retired bishop Sharon Rader, who was apparently also present. Bishop Carcaño claimed, without elaborating, that the 15 bishops, including Rader, who publicly challenged the UMC’s orthodox policies on sexuality at the 1996 General Conference, later “suffered a great deal.”

In addition to the three bishops, the closing worship featured the Rev. Tracy Smith-Malone, an endorsed candidate for bishop, sitting prominently up front. There was also a time of “commissioning” her and other Northern Illinois General Conference delegates there to advance the RMN agenda. (As an elected delegate from another conference, I declined to participate.)

A “Forum on General Conference” was led by Chett Pritchett, national leader of the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA), and Bridget Cabrera, one of several staffers of the Chicago-based RMN present. They plugged their usual petitions to delete the UMC’s official teaching that homosexual practice is sinful and to remove church policies prohibiting same-sex “sin blessing” ceremonies, the ordination of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,” and the use of denominational funds “to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.” They also touted like-minded proposals from the liberal-hijacked Connectional Table and formerly evangelical celebrity pastor Adam Hamilton.

The first break-out workshop I attended was entitled “Make Your VBS LGBTQ+ Friendly.” But the two women from the Chicago Children’s Museum leading it explained that the workshop’s intent was to help make all early-childhood programs in church and elsewhere LGBTQ+ affirming.

One of their big points was the moral imperative they saw to “drop the gender binary” from avoiding such language as “boys and girls” to having “all-gender restrooms” (they apparently didn’t see how this could possibly go wrong with immature, vulnerable little kids), lest one child feel undue pressure to conform to the gender binary.

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