Photo Courtesy of Geoffrey Kruse-Safford
Martin Luther - Diet of Worms
"Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me," said reformer Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms called to try him for heresy.
All the talk of schism in the United Methodist Church over the issue of the status of LGBTQ persons has certainly stirred up heat. And some light. All the same, I do not believe there will be a split in the denomination. At least not in the way advocates seem to believe it will happen. Oh, there will be pastors who will leave the denomination. There might even be whole congregations. All the same, I do not believe it will either be very widespread, and certainly not large enough to constitute a “schism”, i.e., enough to create a second Wesleyan denomination wholly dedicated to the principle that certain people exist outside God’s grace.
In the first place, the numbers just aren’t there. Oh, the folks who are bringing up schism talk are certainly loud and persistent. Yet, it’s the same few people doing all the talking. We are an enormous, diverse, international group of Christians and all the schism talk is centered on a few folks in the southeastern and south central United States. As same-sex marriage spreads across the land, and public acceptance of full inclusion of sexual minorities in our common life becomes the norm, the audience for schism talk over discrimination against LGBTQ shrinks. Some pastors, confident they can lead their whole congregations out of the denomination over this issue, might just find themselves surprised at the negative reaction to such a move.
Then there is the economics of a congregation leaving. A few years back, the United States Supreme Court upheld an important part of the Discipline: the trust clause. Even when congregations have paid off the mortgage on church property, the local congregation does not hold title deed to that property. They hold it “in trust”, with the legal owner being the Annual Conference. Thus the overseers of church property are known as the Board of Trustees. A congregation can leave the denomination. They cannot, however, take the church, parsonage, or any other associated physical plant with them. No matter how much they’ve invested in it. Once that little reality hits, no matter how upset some local congregations may be, I see the numbers of those leaving dwindling even further.
Finally, I do no believe a schism will occur for a far simpler reason: My hope for my denomination and the people who are the United Methodist Church does not lie in General Conference or the Book of Discipline or changing demographics and public opinion. My hope for the church I’ve called home most of my life, and with which I’ve been closely associated all my adult life lies in the Spirit of the Living God. I’ve written before that the road we’ve been down on this issue has been long. It’s been hard. There have been casualties, people leaving the pastoral ministry and the denomination either because they are gay or because they can no longer stand the discrimination we practice. I’ve been implored by several friends in the UCC to make the switch myself. I cannot, not only because I’m married to a UMC clergy, but because this is my home. This is the vision of faith – of practical divinity; of disciplined spirituality; of holiness of heart and life; of perfection in love and theosis – that is as much a part of me as my left arm. We are not perfect, but no church is. I will stick with what I know, pray the Spirit of Love will prevail, and place my hope and trust in my firm belief that the world needs the UMC, its particular vision of mission and ministry, and that the wounds from our decades-long struggle will heal.
Change is coming. Some few folks will probably leave. Some fewer congregations might well go. All in all, however, there will be no schism. There will be, however, a whole lot of pain, and anger, and frustration, and the need for love and reconciliation to overcome the bitterness. I have hope because God raised Jesus from the dead; surely God can see us through our struggles over how inclusive the Body of Christ can and should be.