I have not used social media to comment on the recent Called General Conference of the United Methodist Church that addressed LGBTQ+ issues. I will not directly do so here or in any social media post. Many of my online friends are not United Methodists, and this conversation is a family issue. The many Methodists who have talked to me about these decisions have shared views that encompass the full spectrum of our connection. Anyone who is within this family has a right to share their thoughts and feelings freely. But anyone else--it feels to me like they are commenting on my parents' divorce. It's not their business. One reason this is a painful time for us is that we are family with each other and family fights are the most painful.
We all live within our covenants. Our covenantal relationships define our lives. When our covenants are tried, our identity is on the line. Every covenant is tried from time to time. We must sometimes make hard choices to stay in covenant with those with whom we share life or to break covenant. Scripture teaches us that God is a covenantal God, that God keeps covenant with people no matter what. Still, we are fallen people and covenants force our unfaithfulness to bump up against the unfaithfulness of others. Every family, nation, congregation, marriage, friendship faces this challenging dynamic. Sometimes it hurts. From time to time, we are compelled to break covenant. Most of the time, sticking with the covenant forces us to learn the true meaning of love.
I will stay true to my covenant with the United Methodist Church. I will do all I can to seek repentance for myself and grace toward all others.
I have many dear United Methodist friends who are gay, or have children or grandchildren who are gay, or who have ministries with people who are gay. These precious children of God within my denomination are hurting right now. So I hope that my affirmation of my church will not be ill-timed to cause any more hurt.
But I still deeply love the United Methodist Church and all my brothers and sisters, no matter what their views or recent behavior may be. I sincerely hope that our denomination will hold together and that our gifts will continue to be shared with the world-wide body of Christ and for the sake of the healing of the world's suffering.
I share a few of those gifts worth preserving:
First, our denomination provides perhaps the safest environment for the the protection of children and other vulnerable populations of any expression of American Christianity. Our polity, policies, and culture protect the vulnerable and hold predators accountable.
Secondly, the United Methodist Church affirms the ministries of women as consistently as any church. I mostly grew up in more conservative traditions and watched my own mother have her calling to ministry consistently rejected. One reason that I hope our conservative and progressive wings hold together is that our connection provides perhaps the best place in American religious life for a conservative woman who is called of God to fulfill her potential in sharing the Gospel in vocational ministry.
Thirdly, all United Methodists share a deep and practiced conviction of activist mission. When my town was recently devastated by a hurricane, Methodists from around the country came to help us. Some came from WCA churches. Some came from progressive churches. Some held deeply exclusive views, and some actively support full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in all aspects of the life of the church. They all felt compelled by their understanding of the love of God to do something to help our community. We welcomed them all and were grateful to them all.
Fourthly, while United Methodists have theological disagreements, I believe we have the best theology. The world needs Wesleyan theology more now than ever. We have the best understanding of individual and corporate grace and redemption.
We struggle to understand how that theology is applied--we all believe that God loves us as we are and yet God's love transforms us into something else. While we disagree on what transformation looks like, I truly believe that, by and large, we are genuine in our desire to offer welcome to all people. Even the most conservative Methodists I know (with few exceptions) are quick to say that we need to love everyone and welcome everyone. Our ideas of what love and welcome entail are not consistent. But it is worth recognizing that many traditions are not this way--many forms of American Christianity are actively hateful to all kinds of people and seek to drive people out. Again, I say this not to minimize or excuse. But even in the most conservative churches I've served, I've felt comfortable when inviting gay people to church to tell them that no one would be cruel to them or make them feel unwelcome. Before I was a Methodist, I have been in churches where this was not the case.
Fifthly, United Methodists do not have celebrities. If you're thinking that Will Willimon or Adam Hamilton are exceptions, you don't have the first clue what a cult of personality driven religious community is about. Believe me, this is a very good thing. We are not free from our own forms of pride and vainglory, but we have a kind of humility built into our ethos that keeps in check a kind of spiritual cancer that our culture celebrates and many church cultures embrace.
I could go on and on. Methodism almost universally values substance over show. It embraces learning without empty intellectualism, theological clarity without dogmatism. It's community based. It has systems in place to provide financial accountability at all levels. These are good things and they are rare. I was not raised United Methodist. Perhaps I still have covert's enthusiasm. But I believe, warts and all, we are a great option, maybe the best option.
I have become increasingly careful not to expect the United Methodist Church to conform to my ideas of what it should or might be. In "Life Together," Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that we enter the Christian community not as dreamers making demands, but as grateful participants. I am grateful to the people of the United Methodist Church that they welcomed me, a sinner and an outsider, and have given me a treasured place. They have nurtured my children and carried me through untold difficulties.
The United Methodists who have extended grace to me, loved me imperfectly but well, and made me who I am, are people who fit every description--conservative, moderate, progressive, straight, gay, WCA, Reconciling, Southern, Northern, black, white, Asian, Hispanic. Many have joined the Church Triumphant and are, I pray, interceding for us even through this tribulation.
Showing posts with label UMC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UMC. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Thursday, August 9, 2018
A Modest Methodist Proposal Regarding Union and Disunion
If, like me, you are a United Methodist, you are likely aware that our denomination is having its turn going through troubles. Like us, many mainline denominations have cultural divides that have erupted over the issue of human sexuality. Next year, we have a special world-wide meeting to discuss how we will deal with this issue (for non-Methodists--the name of the meeting is "called General Conference").
Our bishops have made three recommendations regarding how the General Conference might approach the issue. None of these are acceptable to everyone. All of them have serious problems.
So we United Methodists are very likely to split. In preparation for schism, some conservatives among us have put together a group called the "Wesleyan Covenant Association," which provides the connections and infrastructure for a new denomination if they do not get their way at General Conference 2019 (and perhaps even if they do get their way). At first, they said the WCA was not a preparation for schism, but they have given up even pretending that they only wanted to express their views and lobby for enforcement of our church's rules on these matters. They now have their own conferences, apportionments ("membership fees"), and curriculum. We have churches that are still United Methodist Churches and yet are members of the WCA--simultaneously part of an existing denominational covenant and also members of a secondary covenant with a new denomination that might or might not come into existence. It's as if these churches and pastors have moved in with the girlfriend while they are waiting for the divorce from the wife to be finalized.
I strongly believe in covenants. I believe schism is a sin. I believe that faith communities hold together as an expression of our belief in God's steadfast love and faithfulness. Splitting from each other on the basis of our perception of others' unfaithfulness is a lived heresy. We stay together because of God's faithfulness, not because of our own faithfulness or the faithfulness of others with whom we are in covenant. So my hope and prayer is that the UMC will hold together and that we will not split up. I will not participate in any other covenant group as long as there is a United Methodist Church, for the same reason that I will not have a Tinder account as long as I am married.
The WCA (as well as progressive covenantal communities like the "Reconciling Movement," which also has member churches and pastors) make me pessimistic that people who see the situation like I see it will prevail in these conversations. As much as it pains and sickens me, it feels to me that a split is almost inevitable.
To be clear, I'm for unity. But if unity is impossible, I have another idea besides a split. My idea is crazy and I share it almost tongue-in-cheek. But everyone with whom I've shared this idea likes it. So here it goes.
First, the last thing the world needs is more denominations. To split up the second largest Protestant denomination into two or three denominations is crazy. We don't need more denominations. We have too many of them already. If anything, we should be consolidating rather than fracturing.
Second, the splits within the UMC are mirrored in all the mainline denominations. A progressive PCUSA Presbyterian Church has lots more in common with a progressive United Methodist than either has with their conservative counterparts in the same denomination.
So, rather than a split, how about a realignment?
If they just can't stand to pray and serve and live in the same tent with New York liberal United Methodists, what if the WCA people, instead of creating a new denomination, just united with the Church of the Nazarene? Or the Wesleyan Church? Or any of the existing conservative denominations in the greater Methodist family? Or all of them?
Of course, this proposal assumes that the WCA's concerns are what they say they are and that they are not just seeking to free themselves from the accountability and shared concerns of a greater covenant community while using complaints about liberalism as a mask for personal ambitions and personal power. But I'm quite sure the WCA folks are uniformly concerned about ethical purity, so a merger with the Nazarenes should be no problem. Assuming that the Nazarenes would take them.
And the Northeastern United Methodists--they could just hook up with the Episcopalians. They seem to want to be Episcopalians anyway. John Wesley was an Anglican. Why not go back to our roots? Maybe the West Coast UMCs could do the same thing, or maybe they could join the PCUSA or the Unitarian Universalists. This might be a great opportunity for all the progressives mainlines (including whatever Lutheran group Nadia Bolz-Weber is in, the American Baptists, the Congregationalists, anyone who just can't get enough of Barbara Brown Taylor) to lash their rafts together and make a go of it. They did it in Canada. Progressives love Canada.
What about the rest of us? The good, old fashioned, John Wesley quoting, casserole eating, hymnal using, acronym-addicted, agenda-less, centrist, institution-trusting, non-axe-grinding, easy going Methodists? Many of us have no interest in being in a WCA style of denomination, but we are concerned about the kind of UMC we would have left if we lost the orthodox pull of our conservatives. Many of us see ourselves as moderates--theological orthodox, creedal, biblical Christians, but not quite so wrapped around the axle about the evangelical political social agenda as our Good News/WCA/Confessing Movement culture warrior friends. Where do we fit? What kind of UMC would be left for people like us?
How about if we hooked up with the CME, AME and AMEZ? They, too have a commitment to orthodoxy and true Methodist covenantal connectionalism, only without the right wing political agenda. I believe I could find a home there. Whenever I find myself in an AME church, it feels very much like home.
So there's my crazy idea. Plan B if unity fails should be realignment, not division. The idea is terrible, I know, and absurdly impractical. But a split is also an impractical absurd idea. My idea does much less violence to the Body of Christ and our Lord's prayer that we would all be one.
Our bishops have made three recommendations regarding how the General Conference might approach the issue. None of these are acceptable to everyone. All of them have serious problems.
So we United Methodists are very likely to split. In preparation for schism, some conservatives among us have put together a group called the "Wesleyan Covenant Association," which provides the connections and infrastructure for a new denomination if they do not get their way at General Conference 2019 (and perhaps even if they do get their way). At first, they said the WCA was not a preparation for schism, but they have given up even pretending that they only wanted to express their views and lobby for enforcement of our church's rules on these matters. They now have their own conferences, apportionments ("membership fees"), and curriculum. We have churches that are still United Methodist Churches and yet are members of the WCA--simultaneously part of an existing denominational covenant and also members of a secondary covenant with a new denomination that might or might not come into existence. It's as if these churches and pastors have moved in with the girlfriend while they are waiting for the divorce from the wife to be finalized.
I strongly believe in covenants. I believe schism is a sin. I believe that faith communities hold together as an expression of our belief in God's steadfast love and faithfulness. Splitting from each other on the basis of our perception of others' unfaithfulness is a lived heresy. We stay together because of God's faithfulness, not because of our own faithfulness or the faithfulness of others with whom we are in covenant. So my hope and prayer is that the UMC will hold together and that we will not split up. I will not participate in any other covenant group as long as there is a United Methodist Church, for the same reason that I will not have a Tinder account as long as I am married.
The WCA (as well as progressive covenantal communities like the "Reconciling Movement," which also has member churches and pastors) make me pessimistic that people who see the situation like I see it will prevail in these conversations. As much as it pains and sickens me, it feels to me that a split is almost inevitable.
To be clear, I'm for unity. But if unity is impossible, I have another idea besides a split. My idea is crazy and I share it almost tongue-in-cheek. But everyone with whom I've shared this idea likes it. So here it goes.
First, the last thing the world needs is more denominations. To split up the second largest Protestant denomination into two or three denominations is crazy. We don't need more denominations. We have too many of them already. If anything, we should be consolidating rather than fracturing.
Second, the splits within the UMC are mirrored in all the mainline denominations. A progressive PCUSA Presbyterian Church has lots more in common with a progressive United Methodist than either has with their conservative counterparts in the same denomination.
So, rather than a split, how about a realignment?
If they just can't stand to pray and serve and live in the same tent with New York liberal United Methodists, what if the WCA people, instead of creating a new denomination, just united with the Church of the Nazarene? Or the Wesleyan Church? Or any of the existing conservative denominations in the greater Methodist family? Or all of them?
Of course, this proposal assumes that the WCA's concerns are what they say they are and that they are not just seeking to free themselves from the accountability and shared concerns of a greater covenant community while using complaints about liberalism as a mask for personal ambitions and personal power. But I'm quite sure the WCA folks are uniformly concerned about ethical purity, so a merger with the Nazarenes should be no problem. Assuming that the Nazarenes would take them.
And the Northeastern United Methodists--they could just hook up with the Episcopalians. They seem to want to be Episcopalians anyway. John Wesley was an Anglican. Why not go back to our roots? Maybe the West Coast UMCs could do the same thing, or maybe they could join the PCUSA or the Unitarian Universalists. This might be a great opportunity for all the progressives mainlines (including whatever Lutheran group Nadia Bolz-Weber is in, the American Baptists, the Congregationalists, anyone who just can't get enough of Barbara Brown Taylor) to lash their rafts together and make a go of it. They did it in Canada. Progressives love Canada.
What about the rest of us? The good, old fashioned, John Wesley quoting, casserole eating, hymnal using, acronym-addicted, agenda-less, centrist, institution-trusting, non-axe-grinding, easy going Methodists? Many of us have no interest in being in a WCA style of denomination, but we are concerned about the kind of UMC we would have left if we lost the orthodox pull of our conservatives. Many of us see ourselves as moderates--theological orthodox, creedal, biblical Christians, but not quite so wrapped around the axle about the evangelical political social agenda as our Good News/WCA/Confessing Movement culture warrior friends. Where do we fit? What kind of UMC would be left for people like us?
How about if we hooked up with the CME, AME and AMEZ? They, too have a commitment to orthodoxy and true Methodist covenantal connectionalism, only without the right wing political agenda. I believe I could find a home there. Whenever I find myself in an AME church, it feels very much like home.
So there's my crazy idea. Plan B if unity fails should be realignment, not division. The idea is terrible, I know, and absurdly impractical. But a split is also an impractical absurd idea. My idea does much less violence to the Body of Christ and our Lord's prayer that we would all be one.
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