All that Dr. Dale McConkey wants is to help The United Methodist Church relieve some of its pain from church-wide disputes about what its policy terms “homosexual practice.” That’s why the part-time local pastor, who “daylights” as a sociology professor, has written a book that he hopes will bring an impartial look at the denomination’s rift that threatens to break into schism.
United Methodists Divided
Front cover of "United Methodists Divided."
His new book, “United Methodists Divided: Understanding Our Differences over Homosexuality,” aims to inform congregations, pastors and church members about the four-decades-long dispute without advocating for any stance on the topic. His book combines his skills as a social scientist with the Wesleyan methodology he has learned as a pastor.
“I was thinking of the debates going on and the concern and the worry,” said Dr. McConkey, who serves as pastor for Mount Tabor United Methodist Church in Armuchee, Ga., a community near Rome in the North Georgia Annual Conference. “I wondered if was there something I could do to be helpful.”
In addition to serving as a licensed local pastor, Dr. McConkey holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and has studied the cultural conflict between traditionalists and progressives in American religion for more than 25 years. According to his book, he served as the Berry College chaplain for nearly a decade, and later directed the college’s Wesley Foundation.
After the raucous 2016 General Conference threatened the UMC’s unity, Dr. McConkey said he realized he didn’t know the facts behind the heated, polarizing rhetoric common around the issue. That’s when the discipline of his “day job” as an associate professor of sociology at Berry College in Rome kicked in.
“I realized that I didn’t know the full history of the issue,” Dr. McConkey told United Methodist Insight during a telephone interview. “I was thinking, ‘What have I found helpful?’
“I’m an undergraduate professor and one of the things I really enjoy about teaching is taking a big topic and breaking it down into understandable segments for students. I wasn’t conscious of it when I started to write, but that approach was helpful.”
With so many resources on the United Methodist division over homosexuality available, why did Dr. McConkey choose to write a book on the topic at this time?
Dr. Dale McConkey
Dr. Dale McConkey, author of "United Methodists Divided: Understanding Our Differences over Homosexuality."
“Just for me personally, I decided a few years ago to dedicate my time as a sociologist to what’s going on in The United Methodist Church,” he said. “As I began to gather information I realized others might benefit from what I was finding.
“There are many good books out there [on United Methodist homosexuality disputes]. Some are trying to persuade about a particular view or have persuasive chapters. Other books want to emphasize unity and so don’t look at information about homosexuality.
“I thought long and hard about whether I should state a position, but I really wanted people to take information at face value. I tried very hard to use my sociological background to write about how each different group understands it from their perspective, using their own words.”
“United Methodists Divided” organizes around the theological method known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: scripture, tradition, experience and reason. The contents feature a glossary of human sexuality terms, a bibliography and an explanation of how The United Methodist Church is organized. The 180-page book includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter and recommendations for how to conduct group conversations without falling into rancorous arguments.
Unlike some of the other current United Methodist resources that were written for academic or professional clergy audiences, “United Methodists Divided” uses everyday language to describe the dispute. Dr. McConkey said that his colleagues who read the book in process termed it readable and accessible for most congregations. He has emailed complimentary digital copies to many pastors for their review.
Self-publishing his book has made some readers a little suspicious of its motives, but the process also gave him the ability to wait for the report of the Commission on A Way Forward so that he could include its three models, the author said. The book’s recognition is growing, Dr. McConkey added in an email. Discipleship Ministries recently notified him that his book will be added to the agency’s “Courageous Conversations” resource list. The book also is tracking at number-one among new releases on Amazon’s list of Methodist books.
Those recognitions probably would have pleased his late wife, Ingrid, to whom Dr. McConkey dedicates his book.
“She died from aggressive breast cancer at age 48 after a decade of chronic illness,” he explained. “She wasn’t an influence on the topic, but she was a great influence on my life. Optimistic and rational, she was a mechanical engineer by training, and she always thought people could come to an understanding, if not an agreement.
“She hurt like I did about the pain over homosexuality,” he said. “Ingrid was off the charts in terms of empathy; she tried to understand everyone’s point of view. She brought joy to a lot of people while she was alive.”
With the special called General Conference on unity barely four months away, Insight asked Dr. McConkey if he thought United Methodists really could come to understand their divergent views on homosexuality.
“My best answer is, I sure hope so,” he said. “There are folks on both sides who are completely convinced they’re on the right side of history and God and they’re not interested in pursuing a conversation. Meanwhile, looking at my congregation and others, they’re open to trying to understand and have conversation with people with another perspective. This book is for them.”
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.