INDIANAPOLIS – As the United Methodist Commission on A Way Forward reaches its halfway point in proposing a solution to the denomination's stalemate about human sexuality and homosexuality in particular within the life of the church, a retired seminary administrator and professor asks the question in his new book: Is it time?
Is It TIme book cover
The Rev. Dr. Adolf Hansen’s book, Is It Time? Helping Laity and Clergy Discuss Homosexuality One Question at a Time (Abingdon Press) is an informative guide for discussions of several aspects surrounding the current impasse in the global United Methodist Church (UMC), including biblical, theological, biological, psychological and sociological viewpoints. Each chapter ends with a list of discussion questions for laity and clergy to explore as they engage in open dialogue in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Dr. Hansen, who lives in Indianapolis, is a United Methodist ordained elder and Senior Scholar/Vice President Emeritus of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.
In this terse 132-page book, Dr. Hansen reflects on his more than 50-year ministry (that included personal encounters between heterosexual and homosexual individuals), his passion for study of Scripture and theology, and his academic expertise in asking questions as much as providing answers to many of the dilemmas that face the church on this divisive topic.
He divided his book into three parts: Physical and psychological, biblical and theological, relational and practical. He prefaces each part with the question: “Is it time to stop… Maybe yes, maybe no. What do you think?” His plea is to laity and clergy of the UMC at every point on the theological spectrum to listen to each other, learn from each other and to “follow the leading of the Holy Spirit on matters pertaining to homosexuality.”
For mature audiences
Warning. This is a book for adult discussion, and is not intended for youths and children. The section on physical and psychological aspects of homosexuality and heterosexuality are graphic and straightforward such as comparing lovemaking between heterosexual couples and homosexual couples in committed monogamous relationships. This section may be an eye opener to heterosexual individuals who know nothing or little about homosexual relationships. Dr. Hansen doesn’t try to be persuasive here, just inform, so when readers are discussing homosexual relationships, both physical and psychological, they have adequate information.
Adolf Hanse
The Rev. Dr. Adolf Hansen
In the second part of the book about biblical and theological aspects of homosexuality, Dr. Hansen shares with readers his conservative Christian upbringing and his point of departure from a literal or inerrant view of Scripture. He writes that while a student at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., he learned to look “at the Bible as a developing understanding of God’s revelation, rather than a static comprehension that writers of biblical books had…. I learned that a developing understanding of God’s revelation emerged within the life of a community of people, not solely within an individual… First, it was the Israelite community and later the Christian community.” He also gives evidence of God’s revelation beyond the Bible and gives examples of his developing understanding concerning the church’s changing perspective around the issues of slavery, women speaking in church, and divorce. Then he raises the question if the church can come to a new understanding about homosexuality as well.
Dr. Hansen says he came to this conclusion “slowly, but deliberately – that the Bible does not say a same-sex orientation is wrong or evil and does not in any way denounce it. It simply does not address it... It is an understanding of our generation – one that was not part of the culture at the time in which the Bible was written.”
An enlightening segment of the second part is historical information of how the UMC as a new denomination developed statements in its Social Principles and Discipline about homosexuality. He outlines how the phrase that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching” became an addition to a proposal on sexuality during the 1972 General Conference of the UMC that was not included in the original statement but added on the floor of the conference. During the past 45 years, that passage has been debated and questioned repeatedly. Dr. Hansen then asks: “Is it time to stop saying the practice of homosexuality is ‘incompatible with Christian teaching’?”
Each person’s fear of the unknown
Dr. Hansen wraps up his questioning book with a third part concerning each person’s fear of the unknown. He names personal fears of change, different sexual orientation or identity than one’s own, sense of loss, and feelings which sometimes exaggerate fears. He believes we can overcome fears one might have of homosexuality through passages of Scripture which speak to overcoming our fears and replacing our fears with love. He also sees getting to know those who have a different sexual orientation than our own will help overcome fears of unknowns about homosexuality. He finishes this part by asking whether United Methodists are spending too much time on the issue of homosexuality when all need to be focusing more on the mission of the church to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
Is it time? is an inquiry in an academic and theological sense regarding a fuller inclusion of LGBTQ United Methodists in the life of the church. It recognizes that all United Methodists come to this issue through various biblical and theological understandings, with the question: Is it time?
Dr. Hansen ends with a postscript listing, challenging and asking both LGBTQ supportive organizations related to the church and those organizations related to the church who oppose homosexuality: “Is it time … to repent of making an important matter the most important one and treating one another in unloving ways? And then to seek forgiveness and offer forgiveness to others within and beyond the UMC?”
Is It Time? Helping Laity and Clergy Discuss Homosexuality One Question at a Time by Adolf Hansen (Abingdon Press, Nashville 2017) ISBN-13: 978-1-5018-5973-1 is available at www.cokesbury.com and at kindle.com.
The Rev. Dr. Daniel R. Gangler of Indianapolis is a retired United Methodist communicator.