Given that the Oklahoma Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church voted this morning to adjourn until May of 2025 rather than extending this year’s conference to finish voting on affirming our LGBTQ2S+ siblings, I feel compelled to ask the Oklahoma Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church: When is it a “timely” moment to affirm our LGBTQ2S+ siblings? When will it be convenient for us?

Do there need to be more Nex Benedicts who are bullied unto death by suicide? Will it be convenient and timely then? Do there need to be more laws passed in our state attempting to erase the existence of our LGBTQ2S+ siblings? Will it be timely and convenient then? Do we need more LGBTQ2S+ persons and their families leaving The United Methodist Church in Oklahoma because we felt like adjourning the Annual Conference instead of voting to affirm them and advocate with them? Will it be timely and convenient then? Did we see one person who was LGBTQ2s+ stand up today and say, “let’s please put off affirming us for another year?”

Since Martin Luther King Jr. came up in our discussion about delaying our affirming of our LGBTQ2S+ siblings for yet another year, here is an MLK quote for the Oklahoma Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church to chew on until we get back together a whole year from now to take this up again (hopefully with enough time given in 2025 for us to actually have a vote on the resolution):

“First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” – Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

And in the same letter, MLK stated: “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

How long? Not long? But for the Oklahoma Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, it will be at least until May 2025 before we have another opportunity to vote to affirm our LGBTQ2S+ siblings. Will it be timely and convenient then?