UM Homosexual Marriages in California

In the wake of the legalization of homosexual marriages in California, 2 United Methodist Annual Conferenes and the Western Jurisdiction have given varying degrees of support to those who want to wed and pastors who choose to perform or bless the weddings. Additionally, more than 80 United Methodist pastors and retired pastors have agreed to perform such ceremonies. Good News, a conservative group within the United Methodist Church, has published a statement expressing grave concern about this development. The UMC has consistently taken stands against same-gender marriage and a pastor who violates this stand risks forfeiture of ministerial credentials.

I'm not a huge Good News fan. Their "good news" doesn't always seem to be consistent with THE Good News. But I think in many ways they got this one right.

• The action of the conferences and individual pastors is, as Good News asserts, schismatic. It is in clear violation of well established UMC doctrine. This is not a judgement on whether church policy is correct, just a statement of fact. Deliberately acting in a way contrary to stated church policy is schismatic.
• Part of the job of Bishops is to represent the Church. As much as a bishop allows others to not follow church doctrine, that bishop fails to perform his or her responsiblity.

But I think a couple further points need to be made. First, Good News says actions like this will cause continued decline in the denomination. I'll blog about this specifically some other time, but for now let me just say that the decline in the UMC has much more to do with doing stuck in our traditional way of doing things than with decisions around homosexuality. Decline is occuring all over the country, not just in liberal areas, and growth in individual places is happening all over the country, not just in conservative areas.

Second, schism isn't always a bad thing. I don't think the supporters of change see schism as an objective. I think they see faithfulness to the heart of the Gospel as their objective. They are taking what they believe is a prophetic stance against institutional bias and injustice. The Church has taken positions on homosexuality based on theory, not based on people. A mass uprising against Church policy by real live people makes the impact of Church policy clear and real. That's a good thing.

So here's what I think should happen: Pastors, including retired pastors participating in a same-gender marriage should be brought up on charges and lose their credentials. Every pastor participating understands that current UMC policy calls for that action. Prophetic stands never come without sacrifice. This is true of every great movement in culture and faith. Perhaps taken such a stand and being willing to live with the consequences will move the conversation about sexuality in a different direction. Perhaps we'll find better ways of living with each other in community, or perhaps we'll realize that we can't live together in community any longer.