Editor's Note: This letter has been revised by the author from the original version posted on the author's Facebook page.
April 9, 2019
Rev. Adam Hamilton, Pastor
United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
Leawood, Kansas
Dear Adam,
You and I shared a frightening moment many years ago, albeit unaware of each other’s presence at the time. At General Conference 2000 in Cleveland, I was among the group of people that came onto the General Conference floor and refused to leave, several eventually getting arrested. It was during that “stand-off” that a woman stood on the railing of the balcony, wailing in anguish at the actions of the General Conference delegates. Initially it seemed to many that she was part of the protest that was unfolding on the floor, but it soon became evident she was simply a person in immense pain.
Adam Saves
A visitor to the United Methodist Church's 2000 General Conference identified as Jeanne Smile is pulled to safety from a balcony ledge overlooking the plenary floor at the Cleveland Convention Center. Her rescuers included the Rev. Adam Hamilton, shown directly behind her. The woman jumped onto the ledge during a debate over the church's anti-homosexual policies, causing many in the hall to fear she would fall or jump. (UMNS file photo by Paul Jeffrey)
I was the Executive Director of the Methodist Federation for Social Action at the time. You were a reserve delegate sitting in the balcony and one of the people, I recently learned, who pulled the distraught woman to safety. Your actions that day probably prevented further grave injury to a woman already deeply injured by the actions of The United Methodist Church. Thank you.
Perhaps you recall the action that prompted our move onto the conference floor. A proposal had been made to simply “pause” the punitive action for a year, to stop bringing pastors to trial for conducting same-sex union ceremonies and to stop expelling LGBT pastors from the ministry. In essence, advocates for LGBT inclusion were saying that we were willing to compromise. If we can’t come to agreement at this point, at least take a pause and stop punishing people for who they are, we proposed. For following our conscience and for acting on what we believe we are called to do as pastors and as followers of Jesus. The response of the General Conference was to call the police.
I hope you can understand why “The One Church Plan” is so anathema to many of us. Many of us would have accepted that position 40 years ago. Some of us would have accepted that position 20 years ago in Cleveland. But we find ourselves standing in a new place in 2019.
Over the past 20 years you yourself have moved from a position of believing that “homosexual practice is not God’s highest and best will for our lives” to a position of understanding the scriptures that reference same sex interactions as culturally bound in the same way that scripture passages condoning slavery are culturally bound.
In 2005 you egregiously referred to homosexuality as something akin to a “birth defect,” something that is rare but that happens. You said that even those with these “defects” are “enfolded into God’s plan for the world.” I am guessing (hoping) that today you find those words, speaking of one’s God-given sexuality as a “defect,” as horrifying as I do and that you would erase them from your earlier books if you could.
We are standing in a Kairos moment. What we do and say over these days, weeks and months will have an immense impact on huge numbers of people and on the effectiveness of our Christian witness long into the future. Lives are literally at stake. We must act with utmost integrity and authenticity, open to the Spirit’s leading, full of God’s grace. We must step forward in love, boldly and prophetically.
I honor the fact that you respect people who hold different positions. I agree with you that the vast number of people who believe that homosexuality is contrary to God’s will for humanity do so out of their understanding of Christian tradition and their reading of Scripture (albeit deeply flawed in my view). They do not do so out of meanness of spirit or with a cruel intent. That doesn’t mean that it is not time to challenge those beliefs.
I recently read that “back in the 1960s, when (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) was actually leading protests, just 36 percent of white Americans thought he was helping ‘the Negro cause of civil rights,’ according to historical polling data compiled by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.” (April 6, 2019 Huffington Post).
Can you imagine Dr. King standing up in any one of our churches at the time and saying, in effect, that it was ok to allow those who would deny African Americans their full dignity and civil rights to hold that opinion while others hold the opinion that the time has come to recognize the full dignity and rights of all people, no matter the color of their skin, ethnic heritage or economic status? Of course you can’t. He never would have said it and neither should we when it comes to sexual orientation and gender expression.
At some point, I pray you will recognize heterosexism as sinful, in the same way that racism and its many manifestations are sinful, and not simply differences of opinion. Taking a stand for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the UMC will not change attitudes overnight. Just as we must be vigilant about fighting racism, in ourselves and others, we will need to do the same with heterosexism. And this will take time. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take a stand now.
Just as many of us, myself certainly included, must constantly seek deeper insights into our own racism and to take action for justice as we work to grow in grace and understanding, we must challenge our brothers and sisters in Christ in the UMC to examine the sin of heterosexism. We have done so with racism and sexism. Why should we do less when it comes to heterosexism? Why should LGBTQ+ people be asked to bear the pain of a church family that says that it’s ok for some of its members to continue to discriminate against them?
We stand on new ground post-GC 2019. Clearly everyone now recognizes that there will be a separation of some sort. Traditionalists have made it clear that they will not continue in one denomination with those of us who do not hold their views. This split has been long in the making and is perhaps overdue.
The question now before us is what will happen with those of us who are moderate and progressive. I share your sentiment, spoken in your conversation with seminarians prior to GC 2019, that it would be exciting to start anew in envisioning and creating a new Methodist movement. And perhaps it may come to that. None of us knows what the year ahead will hold. But for now we deal with the realities before us.
Kathryn Johnson
The Rev. Kathryn Johnson
I know you are participating in and convening meetings with others wanting to help shape the future of Methodism. I applaud your commitment and the energy you are expending in this effort. My fear, and the reason for my letter, is that you may be continuing to support and envision a future where those not supporting full inclusion for LGBTQ+ people are affirmed in this discrimination, without challenge.
Perhaps you are in a new place and no longer support such a model. If so, I give thanks. Whatever the case may be, I pray that you will bring your understanding of justice, your pastor’s heart, and your keen intellect and join with others of us who have been in this struggle for decades. Listen especially to those most injured and marginalized by our denomination, in this instance LGBTQ+ people.
Now is not the time for equivocation. Wherever you choose to add the weight of your substantial influence, I pray it will be in support of full inclusion and affirmation of the rights of LGBTQ+ people. May we not squander the gift we have been given of an opportunity to forge a new direction. Our children are watching.
Grace and peace,
Rev. Kathryn Johnson, Pastor
Parkway United Methodist Church
Milton, Massachusetts