A Response to the UM Special General Conference 2019

     Recently the United Methodist Church (UMC) at its conference in St. Louis continued its 47 year debate (1972-2019) about just what to do with LGBTQ members who call the UMC their spiritual home.  To this life long Methodist, who happens to be gay, this seemed like a no brainer.  During my youth the UMC was a positive, nurturing influence on me, with many loving individuals lifting me up and investing in my life.  Other than being a “boy” I never really thought or worried about sexual expression.  After all Jesus my savior hung out with 12 men!

     My heart goes out to all the individuals from my congregation in NYC,  Church of the Village, and our New York Annual Conference whose members took the time to travel to St. Louis and be witness to the joy of our progressive and inclusive congregations of which I am a part.   Sadly, after more prayerful and sincere debate, the vote was taken and once more the Body of Christ in the UMC is divided and broken.  The fate of Christ’s Church was determined by the bare majority to be exclusive, instead of inclusive.  Such energy in Jesus’s name have we expended over these 47 years in our effort to see “The Light,” in terms of who Christ calls into HIS Church and still miss the mark!

Yet, while many are shouting Glory Hallelujah, the rest of us are licking our wounds.  If we are truly to be Christ’s Easter People, we must not let our mission and ministry in Christ’s name be deterred.  We can and MUST rise again (it might take more than three days, however) to live and speak the truth:  ALL persons are of sacred worth in the eyes of our creator God.

     So does Jesus call us to be inclusive or exclusive in defining our community with one another as children of God?  I answer this question with John Wesley’s writings and our Methodist sources of theology and mission:  Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and REASON.  The Christian Church has spent many centuries discerning who is “IN” and who is “OUT”:  circumcision, slavery, color, race, gender, and now on to sexual orientation.  Just in my short life-time, who was in and who was out in my own family was a jarring experience, much less that of the church!  Why on earth would any one in their right mind “choose” to be anything other than “straight,” only to experience such damning treatment.  However, the facts lead us to understand that variations in sexual orientation are natural in humans as well as other animals.

     I once though we could just wait for all the “old timers” to die off, and those who were younger and more enlightened could bring reason to this age old conflict.  I no longer think this is true.  Why?  Because bias and discrimination are taught and passed on from generation to generation, by those who feel they are the privileged and righteous arbitrators of God’s will.  I do not believe this is who Jesus calls us to be as his disciples.  We live in a time when more information is flooding our minds than our brains, our wills, and our souls can decipher.  This is why we have the blessing of God’s Holy Spirit to bring us to clarity.  Furthermore we have a fellowship among believers to sort out just ways to treat one another.  Yes, our actions and behaviors are derived from the “tribe” to which we belong.  I thank God that the congregation I currently call my home, Church of the Village in NYC, is a tribe and fellowship of Christians I pray can work to overcome this grave error and setback by our UMC.

     The Church is THE PEOPLE who make it sacred.  Perhaps the majority in this denomination should keep their old buildings.  What will they do with them when they are empty?  For many congregations, the upkeep of buildings no longer fits the purpose or mission to which they believe God has called them.  The early disciples were sent out with little; sandals and THE MESSAGE from Jesus.  When the Methodist Circuit Riders began their ministry in America, they had no church buildings, they met in homes or in common community places.  Many of our early hymns were written by John and Charles Wesley, but sung to common popular or folk tunes of the day.

      In contemporary times my apartment in NYC became a sanctuary for many young gay men who had no church.  In fact their churches had made it clear they were doomed to Hell for choosing to be gay.  Some were homeless and in many cases their own families had thrown them out.  I am so thankful that God allowed me to be there for them in spite of my own faults.  I am still here for them now.  My side trip to prison, has not deterred me.  I still communicate with those who need to know I love them, both straight and queer.  We are all loved by God even those who are misguided and behave in hurtful ways.  My prayer list in prison is so long I have had to write it down, and update it often.  Some on my list have passed, and I was not there to say goodbye or hold their hands in passing.  This above all is the most wicked part of being in prison.  Nonetheless I can make ANY PLACE A SACRED PLACE when God’s Spirit calls me/us to be his loving witness in any place we are anchored.   I pray we each can be God’s loving presence to all.   If you are in a leadership position of any institution, I ask you to evaluate your own policies toward LGBTQ individuals and take action to remedy these injustices.