EDITORIAL: A church fractured by gay rights rift
In June 2015, a U.S. Supreme Court decision legalized gay marriage across this land, but no court decision or law can change hearts and minds, and many people remain opposed to LGBT rights in this country and abroad. As a result, the United Methodist Church, as we have known it, is likely to splinter.
Delegates to a conference of the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination voted this week to strengthen the church’s bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy, rejecting a proposal that would have allowed gay-friendly policies to be decided by local and regional church bodies.
Former Methodist pastor Rebecca Wilson of Detroit told the Associated Press she was devastated by the vote. “As someone who left because I’m gay, I’m waiting for the church I love to stop bringing more hate.”
The vote was close. The so-called “Conservative Plan” prevailed by just 438 votes to 384. Conservatives from this country, who are in the minority here, were nevertheless in the majority overall because of support for their plan by delegates from overseas, particularly Africa. The delegates from outside the U.S. overwhelmingly back the LGBT bans.
The Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia said “the church in Africa would cease to exist” if the bans were eased. “We can’t do anything but to support the Traditional Plan – it is the biblical plan.”
The church in Africa might survive intact, but the overall Methodist Church, particularly in America, is headed toward a tremendous upheaval.
Before the vote, one supporter of the opposing “Liberal Plan” predicted that many individual Methodists and some regional Methodist groups now will be leaving the church, though others might “stay and fight,” with some clergy performing same-sex marriages, regardless of the church punishment that might bring.
“If we bring this virus into our church, it will bring illness to us all,” said the Rev. Thomas Berlin of Herndon, Va., of the Conservative Plan.
Berlin’s prediction was underscored by a tweet from the Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill, a Methodist pastor from Portland, Maine, who said, “I will not participate in your bigotry, sin & violence.”
And an organization of Methodist theological schools said passage of the Traditional Plan means the church “will lose an entire generation of leaders in America,” the AP reported.
One has to wonder why, in this supposed age of knowledge and enlightenment, people choose to cherry-pick a few Bible verses (while ignoring many others) to continue discriminating against LGBT people. Anyone with a modicum of common sense understands that people are born with a sexual orientation. It is not something they choose. One might ask a heterosexual supporter of discrimination against LGBT people when they, themselves, decided to be “straight.”
The Rev. Scott Hagan, a pastor from Bonaire, Ga., said approving the liberal delegates’ alternative would have sent a mixed message.
“To have each church – possibly in the same town – offering a different perspective and practice would surely be confusing to the public that comes to the church looking for guidance,” said Hagan.
We disagree. There would be no confusion. It would be clearly evident that the churches that pursue the “liberal” course when it comes to LGBT people are offering love, compassion and inclusion, while the other churches simply are not.