Texas Flooding, ‘Gazafication’ and ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
United Methodist Insight Updates July 8, 2025
Florida Everglades June 28, 2025 – Protesters line the highway in the Florida Everglades to oppose the construction of "Alligator Alcatraz", a new immigrant detention center. The UMC’s Florida Conference leaders have denounced the facility’s construction. (Shutterstock Photo)
United Methodists are actively seeking to relieve suffering around the world, as Jesus Christ commands in Matthew 25:31-46.
Grieving Church Brings Comfort In Texas Floods
Kerrville First United Methodist Church in Texas opened one of the first shelters available early July 4 as the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet within 45 minutes. Church leaders have been providing respite for waiting families.
Texas Flooding and the Providence of God
Martin Thielen rejects the theology of providence because it doesn't answer the question of why God would let one person live while dozens of girl campers were killed by the Guadalupe River flood July 4.
Florida Conference Denounces 'Alligator Alcatraz'
Florida Bishop Tom Berlin and other United Methodist leaders have denounced the construction of an immigration center nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz" in the environmentally sensitive Everglades.
UM Kairos Response to Host Webinar on 'Gazafication' of West Bank
Israel is bringing to the West Bank the horrific disdain for human life and international law seen in the Gaza War, asserts United Methodist Kairos Response, which will sponsor a webinar on the issue July 9.
Congo-Kinshasa: Conflict Brings Increased Sexualized Violence to DR Congo
Funding cuts to international aid organizations mean that medical assistance has dried up for vulnerable people affected by conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Center Provides Hope for Women in Congo
The United Methodist Church built the Mama Lynn Center to give hope to abandoned, stigmatized and vulnerable women in eastern Congo.
UWFaith to Co-sponsor Immigration Update Webinar
United Women in Faith will co-sponsor a July 17 webinar to bring the latest information on the U.S. government's actions regarding immigration, especially birthright citizenship.
A Critical Assessment of the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
Overall, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined the "One Big Beautiful Bill" will create the largest transfer of wealth from the nation’s poorer economic classes to the wealthiest – the opposite of what biblical prophets urged.
Going to Beyond Elsewhere, a physical vacation can become a spiritual vacation in which we encounter God beyond our beliefs and expectations, God who lives in the timelessness of Love.