From: NewNowNext
This week, 15 United Methodist ministers and clergy candidates came out en masse in an open letter just a few days before the denomination’s General Conference in Portland, Oregon.
“It is with fear and trembling that I step forward and step out,” said the Rev. Siobhan Sargent, one of the signatories.
It’s a bold step—one that runs counter to the church law against “self-avowed practicing homosexuals to be certified as candidates ordained as ministers or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.”
The signees are all members of Methodist In New Directions (MIND), an unofficial group that advocates for greater inclusion of LGBT people in the faith. They’re also part of the larger New York Conference, which has taken a more progressive stance on inclusiveness. In March, the NY Conference announced it would not consider sexual orientation in evaluating candidates, even if the candidate is in a same-sex marriage.
At the General Conference on May 10, church leaders will decide whether to follow New York’s lead or hold fast to the belief that “homosexuality “is incompatible with Christian teaching.”
“I signed this letter because it’s spiritually suffocating to stay in the closet,” said Bruce Lamb, who will soon be installed as a provisional elder. “Charges could be brought against me, but I will no longer lie about who I am in order to be in ministry.”
Bishop Jane Allen Middleton, who is the interim leader of the New York Conference, is well aware that the issue is causing a major schism in the church. “We are not of one mind on this issue,” she told United Methodist News.
“I hope and pray that there will be a new day in The United Methodist Church where all persons are welcomed and fully accepted.”
But while Middleton and the New York Conference see the letter as the start of a conversation, traditionalists view it as a shot across the bow.
“It is the height of hypocrisy for persons to call for integrity when they have knowingly entered into United Methodist ministry under false pretenses,” declared The Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, general manager of the Methodist magazine Good News.
“This letter is yet another political strategy to try to convince the church to abandon clear scriptural teaching and override 2,000 years of consistent Christian understanding about sexuality and marriage.”
But the chair of MIND, Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, says the church is asking her and the others “not to be fully human.”
“We’re nervous, scared, excited—and holding together because we believe we have to tell our truth.”
Tweedy faced an official complaint in 2013 for being a “self-avowed practicing” homosexual, but the charges were dropped after a 14-month investigation.
It’s not only queer ministers facing the church’s wrath, though: Rev. Frank Schaefer was removed from the Methodist church in 2013 for officiating the wedding of his son and another man.
“Tim asked me to perform his wedding,” Schaefer, who stars in the documentary An Act of Love, told Out. “I knew that I could get in trouble, but I had to ‘walk the walk.’ When the church finally found out, they put me on trial and promised I’d get off easy if I said I’d never do another gay wedding. I just couldn’t do it.”
Three of Schaefer’s four children identify as gay—Tim tried to “pray the gay away” and even contemplated suicide because of his religious upbringing. Schaefer, who has since been reinstated, says the Conference in Portland “is the only opportunity we have as a denomination to change church law and doctrine.”
He’s sent copies of An Act of Love to every delegate attending the meeting. “There are a lot of Tim Schaefers out there,” he says. “Teenagers, young adults, who are discovering their identity and being harmed by the message the church is sending.”
But will any message—whether in a letter or a DVD—get through to the TK-year-old faith’s leadership?
God only knows.
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