When I first signed up for this course, I mistakenly thought that the term "borderlands" simply referred to a geographic location along the Texas-Mexico border and that we would study the relationships between those two cultures. Of course, we as a class have studied it extensively. But this is not the extent of the border areas. My understanding of the borderlands wasn't entirely clear until the end of the course. Through study and examination, I have come to understand the concept of border zones as “relationships between two groups of people whose cultures and ideas converge and who might ordinarily disagree with each other.” This includes almost everyone we've talked about, and more. This includes Father Boyle and the Catholics in their relationship with the East Los Angeles gangs. This includes the volatile relationship between Latin America's native traditions and the Vatican. Furthermore, this could also include the relationship between liberals and conservatives, Protestants or Catholics, or theists and atheists. Furthermore, this includes the difficult and sometimes unpredictable relationship between the Methodist Church and the homosexual community, which has used narratives, counternarratives, and testimonies to fight for a voice in the United Methodist Church. This form of activism (or just doing something) has led to a boundary between both parties and a new understanding in the Methodist Church among some people regarding homosexuality. For almost the entire existence of the Christian faith, many people have declared homosexual acts and relationships to be a sin, even an abomination. Verses like Leviticus 18:22 (Thou shalt not lie with a male as with a woman; he is an abo...... middle of paper ......g. The only problem: marriage was for him son. In 2007 Frank Schaefer performed his son's wedding in Pennsylvania A month before the statute of limitations expired, a church member filed a complaint when he discovered that Rev. Schaefer had performed the wedding "It's his son. He loves his son I kind of felt bad for him," Boger said. "But he showed no remorse or repentance, or apologized to anyone" (Rubinkam, AP). guilty verdict, Schaefer was dismissed, the which means he can no longer be appointed as an elder of a Methodist church, nor will he be able to celebrate communions, baptisms or weddings in the future Works Cited http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ the-methodist-bishops-offer-support-for. -pastor-who-lost-his-credentials-due-to-his-children's-same-sex-marriage/2013/12/21/9acaf1e6-6a77-11e3-a0b9-249bbb34602c_story.html