Dueling Gnosticisms

The Dangerous and Ancient Distraction of Divided Methodism

by

Special to United Methodist Insight

Since 1972, United Methodists have been engaged in conversation about human sexuality. It should be no surprise that after 50 years of having the same debate at every General Conference we are on the verge of hemorrhaging. Human institutions such as our denomination can only bear the stress created by a hyper-focus on one topic before their foundations begin to crack.

However, there’s something far more dangerous glaring at the center of our current division. At the heart of our debate, albeit in the depths of its shadows, lies an ancient and menacing beast playing human souls on both sides of the divide like stringed puppets — Gnosticism. An ancient heresy that places "secret" knowledge at faith's core, today's Gnosticism uses human pride systematized into a broken and toxic theology where salvation becomes not an act of God, but of human will.

On the left you have “woke” white progressives committed to the notion that by reading the correct authors, attending the right seminars, and fulfilling the right racial quotas we whites might be saved from our intergenerational sin of racism.  While this Gnosticism is well intentioned, it simultaneously dehumanizes our Black and Brown brothers and sisters in Christ by reducing inclusion to numbers and refusing their agency. Secondly, it ignores the most important and central tenet of Christianity: there is only one person who can save us from the sin of our racism, sexism, and homophobia, and it’s not us. It’s faith in Jesus the Christ — who dined with racial minorities, prostitutes, and social outcasts as those equal with the people of Israel.

On the right, it seems we have something far more organized and menacing — a new Gnostic denomination, the Global Methodist Church. Such a criticism may seem harsh, but the GMC's systematic theology differs little from that of its progressive counterparts. The GMC's organizers have committed themselves to the notion that only by reading Scripture through their lens can one be saved. Not only that, but they also accuse those who read the Holy Bible differently from them of being heretics who are depriving their congregants of salvation. While the progressives' hidden and secret Gnosticism bases itself on correct literature and ideology, the secret “salvific” knowledge of the Wesleyan Covenant Association/Global Methodist Church ties belief concerning human sexuality to the salvation of one’s soul while ignoring the fruits of the Spirit.

These Gnosticisms planted by the Enemy distract egregiously from the work of the church. The same quality that made them dangerous in AD 360 makes them equally dangerous today — they’re easy. They reduce Christianity to a set of easily applied principles where if you read things the “correct” way, if you assent to the “correct” principles, and if you say the “correct” things, you are saved from sin — not by the will of God, but by your own. Most sinister, these Gnostic beliefs call you to forsake and separate yourself from your brothers and sisters in Christ who do not assent to your Gnosticism. Gnosticism breeds the same dysfunction that it did in the 4th century – division.

There are many on right and left who claim that to remain united as a denomination reflects at best a lukewarm Christianity. However, it doesn’t surprise me that Gnostics would launch such claims because in reality the decision to remain united despite our differences makes a bold and brave proclamation of Christian orthodoxy. Fundamentally, a unified Methodism rejects the power Gnosticism tries to exert over our church from the shadowy depths of our own pride. Remaining united despite our differences spits in the face of the Enemy who is so old that it has refused to learn new tricks.

In lieu of Biblical support for my argument, instead of doing what the Gnostics on both sides of the great divide do by quoting texts out of context, I encourage you to read St. John’s epistle, I John, dedicated to discerning the spirits and fighting against the Gnosticism of his own day. I won't provide any further exegesis of that text other than to ask that you seriously pray and reflect with an open mind where you think the Holy Spirit seeks to send the church in the future – whether it is a divided church rooted in vitriol or a united church rooted in love. 

Here is the good news: our foe may be powerful, ancient, and menacing, but it’s a beast we’ve known for millennia. We have the tools to fight it. We must stay committed to Christ’s bride, the church, despite our pride and our long-held sinful desire to save ourselves through a simplified and heretical theology that seeks to dilute a faith created by the God of paradoxes.

The Rev. Chase Crickenberger, a provisional elder in the Holston Annual Conference, serves as associate pastor of discipleship for Fountain City (Tenn.) United Methodist Church. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please contact the author via email.