WB 415 Split Wesleys
Friendly reminder that Wesley Bros Comics is an editorial and satirical website! This week’s post is pretty cynical and bleak so if you’re okay with a little biased lamentation, go on reading!
“Their argument became so intense that they went their separate ways.” Acts 15:39
If you haven’t been paying attention to denominational news, some big announcements were made last week. I’d recommend reading this UMC News article for more details, but the General Conference organizers announced on Thursday, March 3, that the 2020 General Conference will be postponed, yet again, until 2024. The 2020 GC was intended to make decisions around a denominational split over issues surrounding LGBTQ+ ordination and marriage. COVID protocols have made it very difficult to assemble an international gathering of United Methodists. Our denomination includes delegates from around the world who have limited access to vaccines and limited access to the internet, complicating the matter even further. So the decision to delay may be frustrating, but it is also responsible.
Baber ident 300
Several key groups responded very quickly to this announcement. Most notably, the Wesley Covenant Association had their trigger finger ready to announce that the new “traditionalist” denomination, The Global Methodist Church, would launch on May 1, 2022. You really should read their announcement here. On the one hand, this move makes a lot of sense given the present conditions. Church properties belong to the denomination, and there’s a sort of “tax” for leaving (namely, paying apportionments for the next two years after you leave). Churches wishing to join the GMC would be paying “taxes” in their apportionments the next two years anyway by remaining in the UMC. So “with humility, hope and joy,” “faithful and patient United Methodists” can now “be free of divisive and destructive debates.” Oh, but don’t worry, the GMC will still make sure they send delegates to General Conference 2024 to “vociferously advocate” for the suggested protocol for separation to pass so the GMC can get a nice nest egg of $25 million from The United Methodist Church.
Throughout history, denominations and churches have split over three major causes: beliefs about God, beliefs about people, and/or beliefs about church organization. For a little over 50 years, The United Methodist Church has functioned as a sort of big tent mainline denomination, creating a wide enough space for theologically and politically liberals, moderates and conservatives to sit on the same pew. We didn’t always get it right, but we did have space for our differences and our diversity to foster real engagement with the Bible as it relates to the real issues our society faces. Methodism has faced quite a few splits in the past, but this moment really reminds me of the creation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. If you recall, the South broke off from the North because they wanted to enslave Africans, and then after the Civil War, wanted to maintain a separate-but-equal posture between whites and non-whites. In fact, the MEC South would only merge back to form the Methodist Church in 1939 under the condition that black Methodists belonged to a racially (not geographically) bound conference known as the Central Jurisdiction.
The Global Methodist Church can now rid themselves of debates on LGBTQ+ inclusion by simply creating a straights-only denomination. Rather than dealing with the theological complications of accepting gay and trans people as beloved children of God, they can continue to spread the gospel of bad news that Jesus died for everyone except gay people. Or, perhaps just as demeaning, you can be gay in our church but there is no pathway for holiness for you, there is no opportunity for you to bear fruit in ministry, please just be silent and on the side. Or, perhaps worst of all, you can be ex-gay, and advocate the lie that homosexuality is an agenda of Satan that enough prayer and reparative therapy can rid you of.
The kingdom of God moves slowly, like a woman working yeast into the dough. Perhaps this separation is necessary. I wouldn’t ask an abused spouse to stay in marriage with her abuser for the sake of unity. But hear me, this separation is no victory for anybody. By removing themselves from the “debate” of LGBT inclusion, these traditionalists are like the eye saying to the ear, “I don’t need you.” They have fooled themselves into believing that while they actively oppress real children of God, they are somehow convinced that they are the real victims. And now they are free to continue their oppression unchecked, and globally, and in the name of Jesus Christ, oh, and with “humility, hope, and joy.”
It’s no victory for the moderate or progressive-leaning United Methodists either, though many have wished for this day to come. We’re publicly demonstrating to the world that the gospel we’ve been preaching isn’t powerful enough to bring siblings together in the unity of Jesus Christ. I absolutely believe we must continue to advocate for the full belonging of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church AND in society. I envision a church that creates pathways for holiness and fruitfulness that finally include the reality of the image of God in all people. Maybe that work will be easier after a church split, but I doubt it. Like we’ve always done, the church just keeps on replicating the divisions we already see in society. We’re not renewing the earth with the reconciling love of Christ. We’re all just playing right into our context and echo chambers.
For this week’s comic, as in the past when I’ve covered these ongoing debates, I chose to portray multiple John Wesleys rather than introduce a different character. There are many, many denominations that look to John Wesley as their founder, not just United Methodism. My portrayal of John and Charles Wesley in this particular comic strip would probably fall very flat with a lot of the more conservative-leaning Wesleyan denominations. But I did think it would be very funny to create a Wesley Bros spin-off featuring a “traditionalist” John and Charles who love Trump, hate vaccines, feminists, and gays, and have a good old boy time making fun of those hellhound liberals who don’t take the Bible seriously. I entertain the idea, but it’s not a fair one. The truth is, we share a LOT of the same values. We share the same Jesus Christ. We just have incredibly different ideas about how those values should play out in society.