Many were watching the recent General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which is the quadrennial meeting of that denomination where decisions are made regarding structure, mission, and official positions. The most significant matter up for discussion and decision was a statement within the Book of Discipline, which consists of the law and doctrines of the UMC, that reads, “The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” This language has been debated at every General Conference since the inception of the UMC, but the calls and demonstrations for a change to this statement have been more vociferous in the last few Conferences. This year’s meeting was no exception. There were protests that interrupted proceedings; more than 100 currently serving Methodist pastors announced they were openly homosexual; and attempts were made to amend the procedures for how the matter would be considered in order to give the backers of change a better chance (they, for the most part, failed). Ultimately, no decision was made one way or the other, with the Council of Bishops asking the delegates of the General Conference to postpone the debate on the issue and presenting them with a plan to appoint a special commission that would investigate all references to homosexuality in the Book of Discipline and report its suggestions for “a way forward” to the denomination at either the next General Conference or a specially called meeting. The can has been kicked.
The UMC is the second largest Protestant denomination behind the SBC in the United States with nearly 13 million members worldwide (just over half are in the US). A significant portion of the UMC’s membership resides in Africa, where Scriptural fidelity remains strong, and it was largely the delegates from that region who were able to block any move to change the language in the Book of Discipline regarding the denomination’s position on homosexuality (the same dynamic holds true for the Anglican communion as well, albeit with different governance structures). In addition, the UMC is one of the last of the mainline denominations to still officially hold to a Biblical understanding of human sexuality.
The battle that is raging in the UMC right now is, fundamentally, a battle over the authority of Scripture and the church’s relationship to it. In some ways, the UMC has compromised its position on the authority of Scripture (more on that next week), which has placed it in a weaker position to argue for its authority in the area of homosexuality. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist mega-church pastor in Kansas, has written openly about his support of homosexuality and has suggested that the Biblical passages condemning it as sin are merely the by-products of the writers’ cultures. He believes the Bible contains the Word of God in its writings, but is not itself the Word of God. The Word, then, must be liberated from the words. How can this be accomplished? Hamilton says that we must evaluate the words of the Bible according to Jesus’ statement on the two great commandments: love God and love our neighbors. What this effectively does, however, is puts the individual believer or the church in the position of judging Scripture rather than being judged by it. Of course, doing so places human reason and wisdom in a superior seat to the wisdom of God expressed in Scripture, and will always result in just the kinds of debates we are witnessing in the UMC. Just something to think about…
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