Photo Courtesy of Christy Thomas
Trust
Maybe it’s midwinter blues, but my wanderings through social media are finding a majority of those in United Methodist Insight’s reader circle to be deeply depressed about the prospects for the special 2019 General Conference coming in less than three weeks.
I was pondering this “straw in the wind” when the latest issue arrived of Sightings, the newsletter of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School. I’ve read Sightings since it was founded in 1999, and I’ve found it to be an invaluable resource helping me see the forest as well as the trees in my profession as a religion journalist.
True to form, this week’s column, written by former Sightings editor Brett Colasacco, contained the nugget I needed to clarify United Methodists’ dolor. Officially, Brett wrote about the release of the new book of Sightings columns to mark its 20th anniversary, but his column also contained this reference:
“Trust is implicit to varying degrees in many of the columns included in the book. The theme resurfaces, explicitly, in the book’s concluding essay, Paul Mendes-Flohr’s “Jerusalem” (December 14, 2017). Reflecting on the tragically persisting Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mendes-Flohr writes:
“It is only by laying a firm foundation of mutual trust—trust that the other is not out to ‘get one,’ to outmaneuver one on the playing field of politics, not to speak of the battlefield—that a mutual political accommodation can be achieved. Such trust cannot be attained by negotiations, or even polite debate and convivial conversation. It requires the jettisoning of adversarial attitudes and posturing, and marshaling a determined will to honor the existential reality of the other, to listen attentively and empathetically to the spiritual and emotional voice of the other, the voice that is often muffled by words.”
There in a nutshell is the fundamental problem of United Methodism: We don’t trust each other, and none of us seems willing to set aside those “adversarial attitudes and posturing” to “marshal a determined will to honor the existential reality of the other.” Ultimately, we don’t trust God enough to surrender to trusting our adversaries.
This atmosphere of mistrust has been fostered over four decades of divisive debates and votes, creating winners and losers, seeming victims and alleged abusers. It applies equally to those who wield General Conference’s political power and those who disrupt those proceedings with demonstrations because they think they’re not being heard. Fear that the “other” is out to “get one” lies at the heart of the behaviors and rhetoric that have created this prison of mistrust.
What most distresses many of us is the realization that this General Conference won’t address the existential reality of our mistrust, preferring to fall back on the failed idea that legislating structure will heal the UMC’s spiritual sickness. In 31 years of reporting on United Methodist from local churches to top constitutional bodies, I have yet to see any structure change a person’s heart or mind.
There is one hopeful sign: This week, the Council of Bishops announced that the first day of the gathering will be devoted to the “Praying Our Way Forward” focus. This effort has been going on since the Commission on A Way Forward was created, with annual conferences taking turns praying for the proceedings. According to the press release, the event begins at 9 a.m. with a plenary service with the theme “Surrender to God’s Purpose.” Then it goes through a series of sessions, first with bishops from different regions of the world and then through prayer stations on various topics, concluding with Holy Communion.
Unfortunately there’s a cloud over the hope: the day’s purpose appears programmatic, not spiritual. Its intention clearly is to maintain the denomination. The closest the prayer agenda comes to addressing the underlying mistrust that imprisons us is a single afternoon prayer station on “humility and compassion.” Even the theme of the closing plenary session, “Seeking God’s Will,” seems spurious because we already know God’s will as revealed in Jesus Christ: to reconcile us to God and to one another. Anything the General Conference enacts that fails to foster trust between us betrays the reconciliation ministry bequeathed to us by Jesus.
Recently the Rev. Geoffrey Moore, pastor of St. Stephen UMC that sponsors United Methodist Insight, preached on Paul’s famous “body of Christ” passage from 1 Corinthians 12. At one point, he chose to use me as an illustration, saying, “I need Cynthia, even though sometimes she’s a thorn in my side.” Our whole congregation laughed heartily at his depiction.
Some people would be angry or embarrassed at this episode. In contrast, I was so tickled by his description and our congregation’s response that I’m having a T-shirt made with an inscription: “Professional Thorn in Your Side.” That’s trust, my friends. I trust my relationship with my pastor and our congregation to such an extent that I can embrace the humor of my prickly character. Because of our trust, I’m willing to be, if not a good role model to follow, at least a bad example to avoid.
There’s no telling if any General Conference delegates can surrender to similar vulnerability, because they’ve likely been bombarded on all sides by various factions. The lure of wielding power to shield one’s self from the “other” is devilishly strong. If we can foster any hope for the coming General Conference, perhaps we should be praying that delegates will find the courage to surrender themselves to trust, and seek first to address the UMC’s soul sickness. Once that’s on the mend, the structure will follow.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.