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A UMNS Report
By Heather Hahn*
12:30 P.M. EST March 2, 2011
A call from 36 retired bishops for The United Methodist Church to
eliminate its ban on gay and lesbian clergy has outraged some members
and encouraged others.
In the past month, United Methodist-related groups on both sides of the ordination dispute have issued strong responses.
And the debate has hit home for individual United Methodists who are
either gay or have struggled with unwanted same-sex attractions. Two men
in particular, coming at the issue from different personal
perspectives, have shared reactions of both hope and dismay in
interviews with United Methodist News Service.
The retired bishops’ statement has focused new attention on the issue as
the church approaches the one-year countdown to its 2012 lawmaking
assembly. When bishops talk, people tend to listen.
Condemnation and praise
When the retired bishops issued their Jan. 31 statement, the first responses came from fellow bishops. Some expressed support and others disappointment, but all of them affirmed their commitment to uphold church law.
Other United Methodists are also having their say.
The Renewal and Reform Coalition, representing six unofficial
evangelical renewal caucuses in the denomination, called the bishops’
document “woefully inadequate” in a Feb. 17 statement.
The retired bishops did not address “the clear pronouncements of
Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments and almost 2,000 years of
Christian history,” the coalition said. “The teaching of The United
Methodist Church on human sexuality is consistent with the teaching of
the church universal.”
However, the retired bishops received an “Amen!” from the Common Witness
Coalition, which encompasses three unofficial church caucuses that
advocate for greater inclusion of gay and lesbian members.
In a Feb. 25 statement,
the coalition said it hoped the bishops’ call will become “a catalyst
for a new ‘watershed moment’ in the life of the United Methodist
Church!”
The Black Methodists for Church Renewal,
an official caucus for black United Methodists, also endorsed the
retired bishops’ statement at its annual meeting on Feb. 25, though the
vote was not unanimous. The other ethnic caucuses have not officially
weighed in on the retired bishops’ statement.
Delegates to the 2008 United Methodist General Conference meet in Fort Worth, Texas. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
The Book of Discipline,
the United Methodist law book, states that “the practice of
homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore
self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as
candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United
Methodist Church.”
The retired bishops’ Statement of Counsel to the Church asks that this passage be removed. About 42 percent of the denomination’s 85 retired bishops have signed the statement.
Only General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking body, can change the Book of Discipline.
The subject of homosexuality has sparked discussion at each quadrennial
General Conference since 1972, and delegates consistently have voted to
keep the restriction. Neither active nor retired bishops are allowed to
vote at the gathering.
But both supporters and opponents of the church’s current stand expect
the topic to surface again when General Conference next meets April
24-May 4, 2012, in Tampa, Fla.
Not an abstract issue
For many United Methodists, homosexuality is not an abstract issue that
comes up at each General Conference but something that affects their
daily life and the way they serve out their ministry.
Chett Pritchett said he first recognized his calling as a disciple of
Jesus Christ while a student at United Methodist-affiliated West
Virginia Wesleyan College. Around that time, he also realized he was
gay.
The Rev. Troy Plummer is the executive director of the Reconciling
Ministries Network, one of the groups that signed the Common Witness
Coalition statement. A UMNS photo by Maile Bradfield.
View in Photo Gallery
“For me, my faith in Jesus Christ and my acknowledgement of my sexual
orientation have always happened in tandem,” Pritchett said.
He studied at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington initially with
the goal of simply learning more about religion. His congregation,
Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Washington, helped him discern that
he had the gifts and graces for ordained ministry. So he started the
ordination process in the Baltimore-Washington Annual (regional)
Conference.
Pritchett said he was never asked about his sexual orientation, and his
candidacy process was largely positive. Still, he ultimately decided to
withdraw from the process partly to be in solidarity with his gay and
lesbian friends. He said he “didn’t want to be part of the problem” that
was causing so many to leave the church.
He remains an active, engaged layperson at Dumbarton. The United
Methodist Church is his home, Pritchett said, and he wants to help the
church be an open and hospitable place for all people.
He called the retired bishops’ statement a “huge step forward.”
“I realize it brings difficulty within the Council of Bishops for the
active bishops,” he said. “But as a gay man, to read that statement, it
made me realize that there are leaders in this church who understand
this issue and who understand how it has affected so many people over
the years.”
Not everyone who experiences same-sex attraction sees it as part of
God’s plan, as a man in the southern United States can attest.
The United Methodist, who asked that his name not be used, said he has
“struggled with same-sex attraction” for much of his life.
“I have never lived a gay lifestyle,” he said. “I don’t identify myself
as a gay person, but I have wrestled with those feelings in my life.
While my church and my family never bashed homosexual people, I just
sensed that this is not what God was asking of me or what he wanted for
me.”
He grappled with his desires in secret and shame until he was in
seminary and discovered a Christian ministry that offered a support
group for people dealing with different kinds of “sexual brokenness.” He
said he realized for the first time that he wasn’t the only Christian
dealing with unwanted attractions. That gave him hope.
He has since discovered Transforming Congregations, which helps United
Methodist churches minister to “the sexually confused, broken and
sinful.” Transforming Congregations was among the unofficial caucuses
that denounced the retired bishops’ statement.
The man now is married and has two children, but he says he still deals
with same-sex attraction and thinks it will likely be a life-long
struggle.
“I feel like I have gained power over it when I choose to trust in the
power of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “It’s just like any other temptation
that faces any other Christian. I still have a choice on whether to
fall to temptation or whether to walk with Christ and overcome it.”
He ultimately decided not to continue on the ordination track, in part
because of his struggle. He thinks the retired bishops who advocate
changing the Book of Discipline mean well but are wrongheaded.
“I think all Christians, clergy or non-clergy, are called to holiness —
to be set apart in life — and we are all called to pursue and go on to
perfection as (John) Wesley said,” the man said. “As I read Scripture
and as I pray to God … I’ve always felt that God had made it very clear
that (homosexuality) was not a life God that wanted for me personally or
really for any of his followers.”
Still, he — like Pritchett — said the church should not turn anyone away, gay, lesbian or otherwise.
Issue of Scripture
The Renewal and Reform Coalition includes The Confessing Movement within
The United Methodist Church, Good News, Lifewatch, RENEW, Transforming
Congregations and United Methodist Action.
The Rev. Rob Renfroe is the president and publisher of Good News
magazine, one of the groups that signed on to the Renewal and Reform
Coalition statement.
View in Photo Gallery
The Common Witness Coalition includes Affirmation, Methodist Federation for Social Action and Reconciling Ministries Network.
The disagreement between the two coalitions often boils down to a different understanding of Scripture.
The Rev. Rob Renfroe, the president and publisher of Good News magazine,
said the retired bishops in their statement fail to treat Scripture as
authoritative in determining sexual ethics.
“We see the Bible very differently, and the saddest thing is that we see Jesus very differently,” Renfroe said.
He worries whether some of the retired bishops agree with John 14:6 that
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the
father except through him. Homosexuality, he said, is just the
presenting issue in this division.
The Common Witness Coalition’s statement offered another take, citing
Jesus’ reminder that the two greatest commandments are for people to
love God with all their heart, soul and might, and their neighbors as
themselves.
The standard for interpretation, this coalition insisted, “is always
found, first and foremost, in the consequences it has for our complete
giving of ourselves to God, and … how it expresses that complete love of
God in our love for others and self.”
The retired bishops “breathe Gospel life into putting in policy what we
know to be true,” said the Rev. Troy Plummer, the executive director of
Reconciling Ministries Network.
Both coalitions don’t expect the discussion to end anytime soon.
*Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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