Membership Ruse
Will Methodist Courts Embrace “Gay” Methodists?
by Mark Tooley
Thanks to the growing number of United Methodists in Africa, the great majority theologically orthodox, the 11-million-member United Methodist Church (with 8.2 million members in the United States) is increasingly steering in an orthodox direction on the ordination of homosexual pastors and same-sex unions. But the Methodist debate over homosexuality has surprisingly shifted from these issues to church membership, and the church’s direction on this matter is yet unclear, though the signs are hopeful.
Inflamed Passions
Last fall, the denomination’s top court ruled for a Virginia pastor whose bishop had punished him for not giving immediate church membership to a sexually active homosexual man. The ruling from the Judicial Council received an ambiguous negative response from the Council of Bishops, widely taken to be critical, inflamed the passions of the church’s liberal wing, and prompted the bishop of Virginia to request reconsideration from the court, which it will do in April.
Almost forgotten amid the controversy over pastor Ed Johnson’s decision was the Judicial Council’s defrocking of openly lesbian minister Beth Stroud. In an open challenge to church law, Stroud had disclosed her sexual involvement with another woman to her Philadelphia congregation several years ago, while being filmed for a PBS documentary.
Early last year, Johnson was counseling an openly homosexual man who was cohabitating with his same-sex companion. The man had applied for membership in South Hill United Methodist Church, but Johnson thought additional counseling was necessary.
His associate pastor, not fully sharing his theology, passed word to Virginia’s Bishop Charlene Kammerer (whose conference covers all but southwest Virginia), who demanded that Johnson accept the man into immediate membership. Johnson refused, citing the United Methodist Church’s stance that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” and that church members must “renounce spiritual forces of wickedness.”
In response, Kammerer placed Johnson on an unpaid leave of absence. Johnson appealed to the Judicial Council, which ruled in November that local pastors do in fact have discretion about who is ready for church membership. The council did not rule directly on homosexuality and church membership. Kammerer, though careful in her public comments as a prelate in the church’s relatively conservative southeast, is considered at least a quiet opponent of the church’s official teaching on homosexuality.
Key Court
Over the last decade, the nine-member Judicial Council has become a key arena for the church’s debate about and enforcement of teachings about homosexuality. As virtually the only major entity whose members are elected directly by the church’s governing General Conference, which meets every four years, the Judicial Council is that rare church agency that is not reflexively liberal. Six of its nine members, including the two from outside the United States, are considered supporters of church teachings on homosexuality.
Mark Tooley directs the United Methodist committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (www.ird-renew.org) in Washington, D.C.
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