IRD + MFSA to merge into new "Institute of Methodists Federated for Religion, Democracy, & Social Action" (IMFRDSA)

Well, not quite.

But one of the tasks I and others did for my former employer, the UMAction program of the Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD) at the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church was hand out copies of our daily GC newsletter to delegates and others as the entered the convention center.

Among those alongside us were many folk similarly handing out newsletters and leaflets from other United Methodist caucus groups with radically different perspectives like the Reconciling Ministries Network, the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA), and Affirmation.

While one of these, Jeremy! Smith, was always friendly and never rude during our few interactions (which is much more than what can be said for several of his fellow liberal hand-out distributors!), our worldviews appear to be about as far as the East is from the West.

So it seemed noteworthy that he recently made a point on his blog with which I actually happen to strongly agree, namely that a lottery amounts to "a tax on those who are poor that is disguised as a chance to achieve the American Dream."

The context of his post is a thoughtful discussion on the more complex ethical question of churches profiting from lottery money.