Philip Martin Illustration
Community
I often wonder why the issue of homosexuality is so divisive for the United Methodist Church. What fears underscore the current resistance to change? Should our pastoral duties and theology be thus constrained by a majority vote at General Conference? John Wesley didn’t limit his vision for ministry to the majority opinion among leaders in his day… and he remained a lifelong Anglican.
It is tragic. A narrow focus on homosexuality allows us to ignore the larger theological landscape of scripture and our tradition. There are hundreds of scripture passages that deal with our treatment of the poor, the hungry and the alien. And what of the Biblical call for creation care as we face serious climate change? Why are these matters not given more attention than the handful of passages cited as relevant to homosexual behaviors? Something is misaligned in our theologies and ministry practices when we are hemmed in by the latest battle over church polity. Why this attention on persons seeking to establish loving relationships and so little attention on ministry with the poor?
Amidst all of the current talk of “covenant,” I am reminded that any covenant begins with God and is made real by community. Covenant life rests on the call of God to an inclusive future and not on a reliance on the fallible structures and regulations we establish as denominations. The Biblical narrative makes clear the human temptation is to build our idols and settle down with them as our substitutes for God’s call to the future. Each new occasion requires a new experience of God in our lives.
To be in covenant begins in knowing God, and then in knowing our neighbor. Talk of covenant apart from Christian experience in lived communities of faith is vacuous. Those who now suggest an amicable separation seem to want to substitute a contract for a covenant. They suggest that the United Methodist church has always held to one view. However, this is simply not true. In 1992 at the time when I participated with other clergy in a covenant service for two gay men, there was no provision against my leading in this way. My bishop at the time was aware of the service and while he wasn’t thrilled, he privately said he knew we would need to be more open on these matters soon. He suggested I wait for a short time, say ten years… then the church would be more accepting.
He was wrong. Instead it has become a wedge issue used for fundraising and political advantage. A theology resting on what 65% or 55% or 51% of the delegates at General Conference agree upon is dangerous indeed? Today we speak of “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors” and then close them. The temptation for us all is to live in star chambered worlds of our own making. Perhaps contract thinking is easier. It limits us to what others decided in the past. It restricts the present without much regard to new places where God is leading.
On several occasions over the last two decades I have been asked to lead in a union service or same sex marriage. Deep in my heart-of-hearts I sensed that I was failing my friends and fellow believers. Sometimes I would substitute a house blessing or a special prayer away from the church – away from the community that cared for these men and women, away from our covenant to God and one another.
As a pastor and theological educator, I have sought to be “obedient.” I have sought to be loyal and accept the guidelines, order, liturgy, doctrine and discipline set down. However, these things don’t always align with the theology and practice of ministry in real life settings. At that covenant service in 1992, I was following, to the best of my knowledge, my vocational call – and the duties and authority I had been given as a pastor. I believe I acted with integrity in 1992. In the intervening years I have had to withhold the best I knew to give for the sake of church order and obedience.
Now in the final third of my life I will no longer choose to live a divided life. The constraints imposed by the political tactics used at General Conference limit more than empower ministry. In the event I am asked to perform a same-sex wedding in the future, I will treat it with the same respect I would give a heterosexual couple asking for my care. I will seek to know if these are faithful persons who love Christ and one another. It they are, my answer will be, it must be, “yes, thank you for honoring my ministry by asking.” And, it is my prayer that soon hundreds of other pastors who up to this point have been torn between their ordination vows and the mandates of the General Church will join in honoring our call to be thoughtful, faithful and loving servants.
Dr. Philip Amerson has served as president of two distinguished United Methodist seminaries, Claremont. Now retired, he lives on a "farmette" in northwest Indiana.
philip.amerson@gmail.com