Lesbian “Bishop” Karen Oliveto delivered the sermon at the Ordination and Commissioning Service during the 2017 Rocky Mountain Annual Conference that centered on the ramifications of the Church rejecting the heart of God. We, as a body, “muse proudly at our own accomplishments,” “Photoshop God out of the picture,” and “close our hearts to the Holy Spirit.” Oliveto cited Micah 6:3, where God asks, “Dear people, where have I done you wrong?” In other words, what has God done to make us sick of Him? She describes God in this moment as “more like a brokenhearted lover than a righteous Almighty.” We have apparently forgotten the loving character of the Lord.
The “bishop” next described the demographics of the Rocky Mountain region, where the largest growing religious category is that of religious “nones,” people who have no religious identity. The Church is largely responsible for this, Oliveto argued, because of what she grievingly terms “vampire evangelism.” Churches suck the life out of people. Christians’ alleged hypocrisy and hyper-doctrinaire fixations have put the focus “on maintenance, rather than religion.” While God is crying out “like a heartsick lover,” most churches fail people by offering “a very church lady response.” We command participation in rituals and operate our services as transactions, as if “God can be bought off.”
Source: Karen Oliveto, “Vampire Evangelism,” and Dancing Queens – Juicy Ecumenism