Photo by Harry Leake, United Methodist Communications
Bishops Sexuality Panel
Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, second from right, speaks during a webcast on human sexuality. At his left are the Rev. Amy Valdez Barker and Neil Alexander. At his right is Bishop Hope Morgan Ward.
A UM Insight Editorial Analysis
Pity our United Methodist bishops. Even when they do something totally appropriate in Christian tradition – calling for prayer, discernment and filial love – they get slammed.
Oh, I admit that at first I was ready to do some slamming of my own. After all, it does seem a big letdown to read the Council of Bishops' official statement less than a week after a cablecast panel in which four bishops actually engaged humbly and publicly with the conflict over human sexuality. That panel discussion held out some signs of hope, small though they seem, for movement on The United Methodist Church's anti-LGBT stances. Yet rather than build on even that fragile foundation, the full bishops' council issued what seems like a typical "let's all be nice and pray for one another" platitude.
At least, that's what the bishops' statement seems like on its face – another weak avoidance tactic. It's only when one looks deeper into the statement and its context that one can see God's subversive strategy at work.
Charged by the United Methodist Book of Discipline with "spiritual and temporal" leadership of the denomination, bishops serve as the executive branch of the church. Along with boards and agencies, it's their responsibility to see that the actions of General Conference, codified in the Discipline, are properly carried out in their jurisdictions. Supervision of the clergy marks their paramount task.
At the same time, the bishops bear the weight of "apostolic succession," meaning that they stand in line with teachers and defenders of the Christian faith extending all the way back to the Apostles. They must carefully weigh any new revelation of God against 2,000 years of Christian tradition. In this context, if anyone has "a charge to keep," as the old hymn says, it is our bishops. Their duty is to hand on faith in Jesus Christ to new generations. Thus, even when a new revelation seems as apparent as many believe the full inclusion of LGBT to be, bishops are still bound to test the new understanding against tradition that runs contrary to it.
The biggest obstacle to receiving and approving new understanding comes when it produces the kind of spiritual rancor that the UMC's anti-LGBT stances have produced. This is where the situation becomes truly complicated and potentially harmful to the body of Christ. The clearest examples of this conflict came during the sexuality panel, when retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert asserted that LGBT acceptance is consistent with biblical obedience, and Bishop Michael Lowry (Fort Worth Area) alluded to the need for ecclesiastical order as well. While Americans believe in the "winner-take-all" democratic approach to organizational politics, the bishops as a group recognize their responsibility to keep the body of Christ intact while awaiting full discernment.
The bishops' statement represents a clear assertion that Christian conflict resolution doesn't resemble anything in the secular realm of winners and losers. The call to prayer also calls United Methodists to recognize that our conflict over LGBT inclusion isn't a two-party fight, but a struggle that involves a third Person – the Triune God in Whom we say we believe. Absent a collective epiphany, there is but one way to invite God into the conversation, and to listen for what God has to say about our conflict, and that is through prayer. Furthermore, this isn't the kind of intercessory prayer that we're used to praying during Sunday worship. This type of contemplative prayer, to be effective, requires letting go of rancor, setting aside ego and humbly seeking to see all sides of the conflict from God's perspective. As any spiritual director can tell you, this calls for the strongest possible spiritual engagement that transcends human frailties.
Perhaps what offends so many people about the bishops' statement is the fact that it doesn't call for continued debate, but for stepping back from debate to contemplation. The call to prayer pleads with us to love our opponents, as we are demanding that we ourselves be loved. The bishops are calling upon United Methodists to place the overall good of the body above individual wants, and that hurts. We want to hold on to what has wounded us, because we think it gives us an identity. Sadly, it's a false identity, that of victim. In God's community, all are precious, even when we wound one another. That is what the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was about – showing us how dire is the evil of wounding one another, even unto death. In this case, the death would not be that of ourselves, nor even of The United Methodist Church, but of the Christian faith itself, because the world would see that our proclamation of God's love was ineffective in keeping us from tearing one another apart. Jesus himself prayed for our unity for this purpose, that we might be one that the world might believe.
None of this means that the UMC's anti-LGBT stances should be preserved; they must go, for the sake of love. None of this means that violence hasn't been done to our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered kindred; it has, and we are culpable for it. None of this means that those who oppose LGBT inclusion on the grounds of scriptural authority are inherently evil; they hold a more complex moral matrix than those of us whose guidelines are solely love and justice, but they are still sisters and brothers in the bonds of baptism.
What it means instead is that we must hold ourselves to a higher spiritual standard than simply legislative victory at General Conference. We must think, act and pray as Jesus taught his first disciples. This is the goal our spiritual leaders, the Council of Bishops, has called us to seek as we struggle to maintain Christian community amid our disagreement over God's continuing revelations.
United Methodist Insight coordinator Cynthia B. Astle is a certified spiritual director and a professional journalist with four decades' experience, more than half of which has been observing The United Methodist Church.