United Methodists React to US Election

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Nov. 13, 2024 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UM News)

Key points:

  • With Donald Trump’s election, United Methodists wonder what it means for them and the issues that divide the denomination.
  • Immigration, LGBTQ rights, the environment and other issues are likely to be impacted by Trump’s return to power.
  • Some church leaders are hoping middle ground can be found for people to connect despite differences.

After a divisive election cleared the way for Donald Trump to return to the presidency, there were both tears and cheers from United Methodists.

On his Facebook page Nov. 6, David L. Bone, a United Methodist who serves as chaplain at TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville, didn’t complain about Trump supporters. Instead, he asked them to show compassion to heartbroken Kamala Harris voters like himself.

“Be gentle with me and the other half of our country who voted differently,” Bone said. “We are scared about our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Let us know that you care about preserving these truths, not just for those who agree with you but for all of us.”

Bone added that he will do his best “to put one foot in front of the other in the next few days. I’ll be honest; it’s going to be hard. … I will pray for you and our country that, in time, we will not be made great again, but made whole.”

Alba Jaramillo, co-executive director at the Immigration Law and Justice Network, an immigration ministry of The United Methodist Church, said she was worried about the immigrants she helps in her job and also for members of her family.

“I have family members that are undocumented that are going to be at risk for deportation under (Trump’s) massive deportation plan,” she said. “In my dreams, I was crying about the results, only to wake up and learn that (Trump) won, which is what I expected, but it’s still not what I was hoping for. Just heartbreaking.”

At Phelps Chapel United Methodist Church and Jersey Shore United Methodist Church in rural Pennsylvania, the congregations were pleased with the results of the election, said Pastor Calvin Phillips, who leads both.

“This is an extremely conservative area,” Phillips said. “My children go to school in a small town named Canton, and I drove through that town and there were nearly 60 Trump signs and zero Harris signs in the entire town.”

Phillips said he is directing parishioners to be sensitive that others are hurting because of Trump’s election, and that their first responsibility “is to love one another.”

“We may not approve of political views or specific actions, but we accept our brother,” he said. “I’m going to really try to stress that now is the time for unity.”

Many other United Methodists are celebrating Trump’s return to the White House, said the Rev. Adam Hamilton in his “Making Sense of Faith” podcast.

“I received a text from somebody this morning who said, ‘I feel like it’s a new day. I feel hope for our country. I feel like President Trump’s re-election is hope for all of us,’” said Hamilton, senior pastor of Resurrection, a United Methodist Church, in Kansas.

Issues that concern many United Methodists in Trump’s second term are racial justice, climate change, gender issues, women’s health and immigrants’ rights, said United Women in Faith in a statement. “We must never relent in the struggle to secure policies that advance justice and equity.”   

Sexuality is a dividing line where compromise is hard to find, said the Rev. Anna Layman Knox, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“My congregation has a deep heart for being a place of sanctuary and safety for the LGBTQ community,” Knox said. “The LGBTQ community has a legitimate concern for the continuation of the rights that they currently have, and the possibility that more policies will be enacted to influence the kind of care, for example, that transgender people can receive, and other relational and medical concerns.”

Phillips concurs that there seems to be little leeway in negotiating sexuality issues.

“The LGBTQ issue is by far the most divisive issue that our congregations face with the changes within the denomination’s Social Principles,” he said.

Earlier this year, The United Methodist Church’s top legislative assembly, the General Conference, removed its strictures against “self-avowed practicing” LGBTQ people serving as clergy and against same-gender unions being performed in the denomination’s sanctuaries. But pastors are free to refuse to participate in gay weddings if they object.

“Even though our denomination stresses the fact, and I try to stress the fact that our position is there’s room for everyone, I’m sorry, we’re just not seeing that,” Phillips said.

“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of middle ground, at least in central Pennsylvania.”

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There also are fears about Trump’s approach to climate change, Knox said.

“I think there is a deep concern about creation … and some of the policies that Trump has stated that he will enact in terms of the environment and emissions,” Knox said.

But the mass deportations Trump has promised seem to be top of mind and dreaded by many United Methodists.

“My first reaction was … around the things that he’s already told us he’s going to do, starting with mass deportation, completing the wall and undermining the refugee resettlement work in this country,” said retired Bishop Minerva Carcaño, a member of the Council of Bishops and chair of its immigration task force.

“To have a president-elect calling immigrants rapists, bloodthirsty criminals, the most violent people on Earth — that they’ll slash your throat at any given moment and that they eat your neighbor’s pets — and that he’s going to get rid of them, that is the most inhumane way to respond,” Carcaño said.

Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank, who leads the California-Pacific Conference, preached at the Council of Bishops meeting the morning after the U.S. election. She said that she rewrote her sermon overnight as she watched the election results.

She preached on Genesis 4:1-16, which tells of how Cain murdered his brother Abel. She noted that in the Genesis account, God never responds directly to Cain’s question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” However, she noted, the rest of Scripture offers a resounding “yes” to Cain’s question.

“In this particular painful moment, we must fully become our siblings’ keeper in order to be one with each other,” Escobedo-Frank said. “We need each other more today than we did yesterday. We need people to draw near as leaders, so that we can draw near to the people God has sent us to. We need to use our place, our assignment, our voice, our presence, to usher in a new way to a world that is full of fear, discouragement and pain.”

Hamilton warned against the temptation to believe that people who voted for Trump are dumb, evil or wicked.

“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “They are your friends, your family members, your parents,” he said. “They are not just white evangelical Christians; they are Latinos and Blacks and a whole lot of other people.”

He suggested “building bridges in the middle.”

“Try to understand without demonizing,” Hamilton said. “Try to help make sense of what’s going on.”

Hamilton suggested a good prayer for everyone: “Help us not to be part of the problem, but part of the solution, and help us to love our neighbors.”

Jim Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee.