Scholar Publicly Chastises Magazine for Misrepresentation

In the Church

UPDATE May 25, 2017: Interpreter Editor Kathy Noble announced that a revised version of "One Faith, Different Understandings," has been posted at  http://www.interpretermagazine.org/topics/one-faith-different-understandings. 

A well-known scholar publicly chastised the official United Methodist program journal May 17 for misrepresenting his views – purely by error, according to the magazine’s editor – in an article on the denomination’s longtime “big tent” theological identity.

The Rev. Dr. Kevin M. Watson, assistant professor of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., published a stinging rebuke on his blog, Vital Piety, contending that an article in the May/June 2017 issue of The Interpreter magazine misrepresented his views. The Interpreter is the official program journal of The United Methodist Church published by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn. His blog post was widely distributed via email and received by United Methodist Insight, which subscribes to his writings.

Dr. Watson wrote:

“I was discouraged to read “One faith, different understandings” published in the May-June 2017 issue of Interpreter. I was interviewed for this article about two months ago. At the end of the interview, I asked to read a complete draft of the article before it was published. I said that I recognized the author was on a tight deadline and promised to respond within a few business days, or she was free to send it on for publication. I did not see or hear anything more about this article until I started receiving emails and messages from people asking me about my quotes in it this week.

“This is particularly frustrating to me because I tried to be clear about my perspective when I received the interview request, which started with this question: 'To begin, perhaps we can agree that the Methodist quadrilateral unites United Methodists. Describe the quadrilateral’s role in denominational life.' I responded to this email as follows:

          '"Reading your questions, however, I may not be helpful to the direction you are going with your article. I see the quadrilateral as probably more of the problem to the disunity of The UMC than a way of providing unity. I think it became, in some ways despite Albert Outler’s wishes, a way of legitimizing coming to different – and at times mutually incompatible – understandings of theology and practice in one denomination. I would also be fairly adamant that the quadrilateral is not theology proper. Rather, it is a method for doing theology – and one that, again, virtually guarantees different conclusions (and that is almost always misused).

          ' "I have done some writing about the quadrilateral on my personal blog. These pieces may help you discern whether I would be of help to you in the story you are working on." ' ”

In his blog post, Dr. Watson listed links to several of his writings on the topic:

Dr. Watson added that two quotes in the article were taken out of context, leading readers to believe that he supports the concept of “big tent” United Methodism – that is, allowing differing perspectives to inform and shape United Methodist theology. Instead Dr. Watson has been a consistent critic of the “big tent” approach to United Methodist theology.

“In my description, I was saying that the tendency to keep moving the tent poles was a liability of United Methodism, neither a source of strength nor faithful to our Wesleyan heritage,” the scholar wrote in his blog. Dr. Watson’s full blog post can be read here.

The Rev. Kathy Noble, Interpreter editor, issued the following statement after being made aware of Dr. Watson’s public criticism:

“Interpreter magazine deeply regrets that the article ‘One faith, different understandings’ was edited in such a way as to misrepresent Dr. Watson's thinking. We acknowledge that he has a valid concern and we sincerely apologize for the error.

“The error occurred during the editing process and not through any fault of the author. It was entirely unintentional and not meant to misrepresent Dr. Watson's perspective. We accept full responsibility and are taking steps to rectify the error to the extent possible through an online revision and a published correction. Fair and accurate reporting is critically important to us, and we will redouble our efforts to make sure that our articles accurately convey the intended meaning.”

Rev. Noble said that she is working with Dr. Watson to produce a corrected version of the article, “One Faith, Different Understandings,” that will be published online as soon as possible. United Methodist Insight will post a link to the corrected article as soon as it becomes available.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor & Founder of United Methodist Insight.