United Methodist News Service asked two church scholars about what impact the Supreme Court ruling might have on church discussions regarding marriage.
The Rev. David F. Watson is academic dean, vice president and associate professor of New Testament at United Methodist United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
“In the U.S., such a ruling may help us to clarify our thinking about the relationship between the civil institution of marriage and the Christian rite of marriage,” he said. “In order to do this, we will have to think more explicitly and theologically about issues such as marriage, sex and procreation. Such deeper engagement can only be a good thing.”
He is helping draft General Conference legislation aimed at supporting current church teaching on homosexuality. Specifically, the legislation seeks to ease the way for United Methodist clergy and congregations who disagree with that stance to leave the denomination.
The Rev. Ted A. Campbell, associate professor of church history at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, offered a slightly different take.
“Christians came late to the business of blessing marriages,” he noted. “Even in the Middle Ages, marriages were often celebrated outside of the walls of the church.”
Even now, he said, clergy mainly act as witnesses to a marriage covenant. It is the political state that actually grants license, or permission, to marry.
He suggests a couple of ways General Conference, the denomination’s global lawmaking body, can respond: a) agree broadly on a specific response to the issue of same-sex unions and marriages that will work across national boundaries; b) leave such decisions to local bodies (e.g., conferences or congregations).
“Polarization on this issue makes option 'b’ less practical,” Campbell said, “but that still leaves the issue of finding widespread consensus.”
– Heather Hahn, United Methodist News Service