McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church

419 S. University Blvd., Norman

Service Times: Sundays at 8:30am and 10:55am

Welcome to a long-overdue installment of “Church-Hopping with Sarah.” I’ve gotten sidetracked with other things (i.e. grad school) over the past few months, as you may already know. Church-hopping was moved to the back burner.

Yesterday, it moved off the back burner and onto the front burner. My church-hopping buddy and I went to McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church in Norman, at her suggestion. McFarlin is tucked away behind Campus Corner, and I’ve always loved this church – it’s grand and majestic and very, very “church-like.” At least what I consider church-like. I was happy to finally get a chance to peek inside.

My friend, who’d been to this church before, explained that there are two different services at 10:55 (with a church this large, I guess you’d have the space to do that) – one traditional and one contemporary. We opted for Traditional.

The sanctuary was quite nice, and reminded me of the churches I attended as a kid. It was spacious, with a balcony and high, high ceilings. I was especially delighted to see a giant pipe organ up at the front, and after perusing the program, spotted Bach’s “Prelude and Fugue in C Major” listed as the Postlude. Yep, this was definitely the kind of place in which I feel at home.

As we waited for the service to start, my friend pointed out some “Instructions for Singing” in the front of the hymnal. Written by Methodist Church founder John Wesley himself, they included such sage advice as, “sing lustily and with a great courage.”

John Wesley sure knows how to make singing sound fun.

The service was unremarkable – it was in the traditional format of hymn / prayer / hymn / sermon – but I enjoyed the hymns much more than the bland Christian contemporary crap I’ve found at most other churches. The sermon was titled, “American Idols: Wealth,” clearly part of a series. It was, as you might suspect, about the emptiness of greed and the need for those that have more to give more. Preachin’ to the choir, my friend. No arguments here. Next week’s sermon is about “pleasure,” – which sounds a little more enticing.

I really had only two complaints about my experience at McFarlin. First, I wanted the organist to pull out all the stops and really whale on that thing. It seemed a tragic shame to have such a beautiful instrument and not play it “lustily and with great courage.”

I suspect John Wesley would’ve been disappointed, as well.

Secondly, the “children’s message” section of the service was kind of irritating. All the children went up to the front to hear a message from some college girl. I couldn’t see her from where I was sitting, but she had one of those annoyingly perky, sorority-girl kind of voices. The “message” was something about how being a Christian was sort of like being a college student – you have to study to do well.

I’ll admit to rolling my eyes a little during this section.

Since I know relatively little about the Methodist denomination, I did a little additional research. Thanks to the Wiki entry on the subject, I learned that the United Methodist Church (UMC) is the second-largest Protestant denomination (after Southern Baptist), and is the largest Methodist denomination. It’s also apparently quite popular with high-profile political candidates. George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are all members.

I guess that backs up the UMC’s claim that they encompass a wide range of theological and political beliefs.

After perusing the United Methodist site, I found that a lot about the UMC seems wonderfully progressive. Women can be ordained, with full rights. The UMC appears to have staked out an opinion on nearly every imaginable issue, even sustainable agriculture:

We support a sustainable agricultural system that will maintain and support the natural fertility of agricultural soil, promote the diversity of flora and fauna, and adapt to regional conditions and structures—a system where agricultural animals are treated humanely and where their living conditions are as close to natural systems as possible.

Score one for the UMC. Here’s what the church has to say on “Rights for Women”:

We affirm women and men to be equal in every aspect of their common life. We therefore urge that every effort be made to eliminate sex-role stereotypes in activity and portrayal of family life and in all aspects of voluntary and compensatory participation in the Church and society.

We affirm the right of women to equal treatment in employment, responsibility, promotion, and compensation. We affirm the importance of women in decision-making positions at all levels of Church life and urge such bodies to guarantee their presence through policies of employment and recruitment.

Score another one for the UMC. Intrigued, I decided to check out their positions on a few hot-button topics:

Equal Rights Regardless of Sexual Orientation:

We see a clear issue of simple justice in protecting their rightful claims where they have shared material resources, pensions, guardian relationships, mutual powers of attorney, and other such lawful claims typically attendant to contractual relationships that involve shared contributions, responsibilities, and liabilities, and equal protection before the law.

Okay, but according to the Wiki entry, they don’t condone same-sex marriage. I’m unclear where they stand on “civil unions,” though. Maybe it’s just a terminology issue.

Or maybe not. The section on “Human Sexuality” addresses the issue of homosexuality a little more. Although they say that homosexuals are “no less than heterosexual persons” and are “individuals of sacred worth,” the UMC “does not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching.” This confuses me. How can someone be equal if you disapprove of who they are? I still take issue with the description of homosexuality as a “practice” rather than a fundamental, unchangeable part of who someone is. I appreciate the UMC’s assertions of their belief in equality, but it seems to me that they have a little more work to do on this issue.

In the same section, the issue of sex education is addressed. Since I’m currently midway through Tom Perotta’s latest novel, The Abstinence Teacher, this was a very relevant topic to me. Here’s what I found:

We recognize the continuing need for full, positive, age-appropriate and factual sex education opportunities for children, young people, and adults. The Church offers a unique opportunity to give quality guidance and education in this area.

So they support comprehensive sex ed? Good for them.

Finally, I checked the “Abortion” section and found the UMC’s stance on abortion to be interestingly fuzzy:

Our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us reluctant to approve abortion. But we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother, for whom devastating damage may result from an unacceptable pregnancy. In continuity with past Christian teaching, we recognize tragic conflicts of life with life that may justify abortion, and in such cases we support the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures. We cannot affirm abortion as an acceptable means of birth control, and we unconditionally reject it as a means of gender selection.

Sounds pretty pro-choice to me.

Overall, I was pleased with what I discovered, both in my research and in my experience at McFarlin. If I were a Believer, the UMC is a church I very well might consider joining.