Special to United Methodist Insight
In August of 1693, George Keith, Philadelphia prophet of the burgeoning antislavery movement, grounded his witness in the all-inclusive redemption offered by God in Christ: “Seeing our Lord Jesus Christ hath tasted Death for every Person, and given himself a Ransom for all, . . .” The poetic power of his words lived and breathed Hebrews 2:9. Slavery was wrong because it failed to respect the unconditional love of God offered for each and all! This is the same Hebrews 2:9 which John Wesley understood to emphasize the all-inclusive embrace of Christ. The Atonement is a gift for every person “that ever was or will be born into the world.”
How sad that United Methodism has abandoned this theological bedrock for conflict that stereotypes the people of God.
The uninspiring and damaging vitriol surrounding our battle over understandings of sexuality and gender – and the inclusion or exclusion of people – has sunk to an all-time low. We no longer have a Connection. We now have a loosely clumped variety of self-righteous cliques.
Those claiming to be “evangelical” have reified doctrine and made it some legalistic bundle of rules that resembles a stick for beating others into submission. Those claiming to be “inclusive” have retreated into the echo chambers of smug advocacy. Claims to love others in spite of “sin” ring hollow when people are objectified, stripped of their humanity, and held up for derision. Claims to speak for justice ring hollow when they become self-satisfied pronouncements that typecast opponents and reduce people to cartoonish portrayals. Why, one might be pardoned for concluding that we hold the labels “traditional” and “progressive” to be more important than the gospel itself.
Which is my point. God in Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose for PEOPLE – not for labels. As a venerable professor of mine often said: “Labels are libels.” They strip human beings of their subjectivity, uniqueness, agency, dignity. They are, in themselves, acts of violence.
And many of us are left out in the cold.
We will not allow ourselves to be reduced to inanimate labels.
We want something more – something deeper.
Many of us are “traditional” (if we can even use that term anymore) regarding core theological convictions and “progressive” (if we do not abandon that term to self-satisfied voices) when it comes to the breadth of our embrace. Taking our theological traditions seriously has been forsaken by the left, and taking the all-inclusive power of those traditions seriously has been forsaken by the right. Many who tout an open and affirming church do not care for the historic Wesleyan teachings regarding creation, fall, and redemption. Instead, we run after “leadership” gimmicks and superficial personal “growth” seminars and workshops. Many who tout a church of evangelical gravitas and grace have turned our witness into a penal code. The life-giving truths of incarnation and redemption have been eclipsed by strategy sessions for creating a new, world-wide club of exclusion.
We can do better.
I met Jesus Christ in a personal – absolutely evangelical – way when I was a confused, fifteen-year-old knucklehead. I responded to an invitation at a large, outdoor worship gathering – on the primitive holy ground of a Holiness camp. Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose for me. For me! But this same Lord lived, died, and rose for each and all (not just some nondescript “all”). This is our theological heritage. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ as received and taught by the people called Methodists and those lights who have leavened the Wesleyan tradition.
Do we believe it anymore?
When we come to presume that this gospel needs our defense, it is no longer the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we come to distance ourselves from this theological tradition, we are no longer descendants of John Wesley. Period. Full stop.
I have no home in the world of those jockeying for position from “traditionalist” or “progressive” perspectives. That is of little moment. I will cling to the saving knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and live out loud in love and open embrace of each and all.
Here I stand (to borrow from a somewhat different tradition).
It’s cold out here, but in a more profound sense, I cannot help feeling that it is the place I need to be. After all, I can find a party of like-minded people any day of the week.
I will never find another gospel.
The Rev. Dr. Christopher P. Momany serves as the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Dowagiac, Mich. For more than twenty years he was a professor and chaplain at United Methodist-related Adrian College.