United Methodist Church Breaks Our Heart Again
We condemn the United Methodist Church
(America’s second largest Protestant denomination)
for its February 29, 2019 vote
to maintain prohibitions on homosexuality
and to expel LGBT pastors and pro-LGBT churches.
To the 438 Methodists who voted to support the exclusion of LGBTQ persons we must ask: “How can you ignore the overwhelming scientific, psychological, historical, personal and even biblical evidence that homosexuality is just another of our Creator’s mysterious gifts? How can you ignore the fact that thousands of LGBTQ United Methodists serve your denomination faithfully as clergy and lay leaders? How can you ignore the connection between anti-LGBTQ religious doctrine and violence against LGBTQ people? How can you ignore the fact that this decision leads to suffering and even death in the lives of those you are called to serve?”
UMC delegates, from both the United States and abroad, have been deeply influenced by American fundamentalists whose anti-LGBTQ beliefs are based on biblical misuse and scientific ignorance. Worse. The real reason that the church excludes LGBTQ people is because it considers them morally and spiritually inferior to heterosexuals who are “morally and spiritually righteous.”
It’s not a new problem. Less than 200 years ago biblical misuse and scientific ignorance led Methodists and other Christian denominations to support slavery. Worse. To support slavery, Africans (like LGBTQ people) were considered morally and spiritually inferior to white people. Thus, the blasphemy of white supremacy and black inferiority.
We thank the 384 delegates who voted to end the UMC campaign against LGBTQ people. These voters refused to see LGBTQ people as morally and spiritually inferior to heterosexuals. And though they lost this vote, be encouraged that 38% of your delegates opposed this latest attempt to enthrone the blasphemy of heterosexual supremacy and homosexual inferiority into the UMC Book of Discipline.
We don’t presume to give advice on what should happen next but until “next” arrives there are tens of thousands of UMC members who have heard the call to resist the fundamentalist takeover of the UMC. Members withholding support; clergy risking their vocation; seminarians risking their ordination; professors risking their tenure; congregations risking their affiliation; districts risking their association.
Many of our own denominations are facing this attempt by militant fundamentalists to enlist us as allies in their battle to disrupt and destabilize our churches and our nation. They may be sincere in their beliefs about homosexuality and abortion, but they are also using these and other issues to divide and conquer us, to gain ecclesial and political power, to reshape the church and government in their image. We must not be willing to sacrifice LGBTQ Christians for what fundamentalists call “the greater good.” There is no “greater good” than to do justice and love mercy. United Methodist policies against LGBTQ people are neither just nor merciful. To resist those policies is to resist the fundamentalist Christian takeover of church and state alike.
Written by the Rev. Dr. Mel White www.melwhite.org
With helpful insights from Jimmy Creech, the Rev. Phil Lawson, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow
