I Wouldn't Go Easily

by

Special to United Methodist Insight

I know I was greatly honored to have been elected a Bishop in the United Methodist Church and for that I should be grateful, and I am - but . . The happiest and most fulfilling part of my life were the thirty two years I spent as a pastor.

I was elected to six General Conferences, twice as the head of the delegation. If I include the ones I have attended since being a bishop, I have been to every one since 1968. I think that makes fourteen. That's enough to "gag a maggot." (I actually skipped a couple after retirement – on purpose, of course.)

I haven't done anything to violate the Book of Discipline (BOD) since they took the smoking pledge out. That was in 1972. The pledge requiring all ordained ministers to "certify" that they would not use tobacco (smoke, chew, or dip), was removed after almost interminable debate in the legislative committee on ministry and "on the floor" of the General Conference.       

The primary argument for removing it in the committee and on the floor was that the anti-smoking pledge singled out a specific moral issue in a way that failed to take other "sinful" behaviors into account in a fair and balanced manner, i.e., it was just one among many forms of misbehavior and should not be set apart for special censure  (I think that is what the Judicial Council means by violating "the principle of legality.")

The debate went on and on and on. . . . it issued ultimately in what one of my friends referred to as the "longest foot note in history."

The irony of it all was that the very same General Conference of 1972 singled out a specific sin, homosexuality, as "incompatible with Christian teaching."  (Smoking has caused way more deaths and human suffering than AIDS or the HIV virus).  

This singular censure has resulted in an interminable debate that has gone on now for 47 years (including an entire General Conference and several million dollars).   

The General Conference does some stupid things. They always screw up when the morality police think they can foist their pet issues on the rest of us with legislative action.  One of the stupidest things they have done is to fix the Book of Discipline so that active and retired Bishops have no vote on anything or anywhere in the church. 

A lot of folks are asking me what I think about what the General Conference has just done and what I would do about it if I weren't retired. So my answer is: I would defy it.  It was rigged by the WCA (read "funky fundies") who exploited the African and Asian vote to lay their heavy baggage on the rest of us.

If I were a pastor I would put it in my newsletter, in the church bulletin, and on the big board outside, that we are still a church of the Open Doors, Open Minds, and Open Hearts. Some of our wise and progressive pastors like Adam Hamilton, Mike Miofski, and Phil Amerson are already out there, God bless them.

I would ignore this stupid action of the General Conference until the morality police come to take me away and I wouldn't go easily.

Retired Bishop William B. Lewis attended the 2019 General Conference in St. Louis, Mo.