grassroots

I got an e-mail that made me think of a conversation I once had with Verb about religion.

I belong to the united methodist church (UMC). Since the 1970s, the UMC has had a stand on homosexuality that's, in my opinion, very split or outright hypocritical. They're trying to appease everyone but really alienating most (again my opinion). The UMC policy on homosexuals is as follows: homosexuals can be members of the church without discrimination (the UMC "open door" policy has been widly publicized) but homosexuals cannot hold leadership positions, become ministers of the church, or be married in the church. Any ministers found officiating a gay marriage are subject to disciplinary action from the national UMC.

A church in our conference (the Baltimore-Washington conference) has recently held a vote and stated that they're going to allow gay marriage in their church in response to the federal marriage equity act from march 2010. Bishop Schol (the bishop in charge of the B-W conference of UMC) released a statement to all members about this action. He was there for the vote and is ripped up over it. He out-right said in his letter that these are troubled times and hinted at a major confrontation coming in the future. It won't be the first, or the last, but when there's a big conflict in the UMC, the UMC usually splits and divides creating a new church (the UMC has a very long and interesting history of this).

I personally do not understand how the church's standpoint of "open doors" is considered "open" and "tolerant" because at the same time the doors are open, the Book of Discipline (the rule book of the UMC church) allows for discrimination based on sexual orientation. Telling someone "you can come to the church, but you can't really participate" is like telling an athlete that they made the team, but they don't get to play, EVER. People who are against homosexuality lose out because the church bars discrimination against homosexuals who wish to attend, but then the homosexuals lose out because they can't really do anything in the church beyond attending. I know that's part of compromise, but shouldn't a compromise at least attempt to serve the population? No one is really being served by the current standard. It's a cop-out, really a way of saying "we'll let other people deal with it in the future." Well, it's the future.

I understand that there's a lot of gray, and they're trying to make everyone happy. But guess what? I was in first grade when I REALLY figured out that you can't make everyone happy. We were having inside recess because of rain and that meant games in the room. We could play a class-wide game, like seven-up, or play board games. There was a vote and we ended up playing a class-wide game. Some will win and some will lose, that's life.

I think the UMC has done a disservice by ignoring this fact. I have a friend who was about to complete his master's of divinity at wesley in DC and wanted to go through the ordination process. he had a good job as a seondary minister at a church we attended. Many of us knew about his homosexuality, and we didn't care. He was a good man and was good at his job. The fact that he'd had a male partner for almost 15 years didn't hamper his understanding or ability to do the job. At some point (i'm not sure of the whole story, as I wasn't attending that church at the time it all went down) his homosexuality became known and he was stripped of his job at the church and black-listed form further employment. He has since completed the master's of divinity and is now working on his PhD, but has left the UMC to go to another protestant church. His new church has been given a gift in the form of his talents and calling and the UMC made a big error when they alienated him. (again, all my opinion).

Individual churches are now making a stand against the regional and national UMC and after enough of it builds up, things will change. I hope it all remains peaceful, but I think that the book of discipline will have to be addressed soon and if the church has to split, so-be-it. Our church should serve us while serving the Lord. There are few rules attached to christianity, but the ones that are there are firm. We're not to judge others, we're to love them more than we love ourselves and we're supposed to love the Lord more than we love ourselves. I don't think that the UMC rules allow us to follow the Lord's rules. Jesus didn't tell us to love the people we think that the Lord wants us to love, he said we need to love everyone, especially the people that are marginalized by society. So, while I was sad during Bishop Schol's letter, I was happy too, because change is blowing in the wind, and that means there's an opportunity for us all to do what we should have been doing.