Bible app smartphone
As an example of how "right behavior" changes: the first book widely distributed after the invention of the printing press, the Holy Bible now can be read on various digital devices.
The Rev. William Alberts begins his article with these words, "For many Christians, religion is about correct belief, not right behavior." I write this response because my fear is that The United Methodist Church is on the edge of coming apart, thus cancelling its significant mission and ministry history, because some claim to believe – and the General Conference has voted since 1972 – that "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." This belief makes it impossible for some to believe that same-gender intimacy could be "right belief and behavior."
Eighty-three years ago, I was born and became a member of a wonderful, loving Methodist, preacher-led Christian family. My father and mother "believed" that abstinence from cursing, dancing, card playing, sex before marriage, the consumption of alcoholic beverages, smoking, going to the movies on Sunday, divorce, ordaining women as preachers, etc., was "correct belief." Because of their teachings, I believed as they believed, and I abstained from all the above. I came to believe that my abstinence belief and practice would make of me a "superior" Christian. I was wrong!
I began to realize my "wrongness" when some of the clergy who were most important and impactful in my life, and informed my "call to ministry" were people whom it was rumored were not practitioners of the abstinence practices listed above as were my parents. Yet my preacher father and my mother were their friends, entertained them in our home, and encouraged them to guide my journey into the ordained ministry.
I realize now that many Christian evangelicals have set aside their rigid Bible-based abstinence "family values" to elect and support Donald Trump, and that winning and access to power "trumps" their Christian teachings and abstinence values. In a more positive way, my parents set aside their abstinence values as they chose their friends in their desire to be inclusive.
Charging, judging, and suspending clergy because they are same-gender loving, and/or because they performed same sex unions or marriages, or for other reasons, without assessing the quality of their behavior, has been responsible for expelling persons from ministry whose gifts, graces, intellect, sensitivity, pastoral and prophetic effectiveness surpasses that of many of us still in United Methodism.
I believe love and respect are the essentials of the "right behavior" that William Alberts describes. "Correct belief" has an abstract aspect that may or may not encourage right behavior. The song says, "If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right." Provocative of course in the context of the song. But our United Methodist language and legislation re: "The practice of homosexuality..." dismisses the possibility of love and respect being present in these relationships.
Aretha Franklin sings about “R E S P E C T” and The Bible describes a God of L O V E. Both are missing as The United Methodist Church flirts with schism because its teachings about homosexuality, heterosexuality, and sexual activity, seem to be devoid of an affirmation/appreciation of love and respect.
David Billings in his book, "DEEP DENIAL: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life" (a "must" read) raises this question in his Introduction, page 11, "How does white supremacy manifest itself as part of our psyche?" Likewise, there is a kind of heterosexual/"straight" supremacy that has been in the language and legislation (psyche?) of The United Methodist Church since 1972.
Many of us pray and hope that our denomination will rid itself of its anti-LGBTQI same sex marriage "correct belief" in 2020 in order to engage in mission and ministry in response to white supremacy, American imperialism, and terrible economic inequality that are on the verge of tearing the USA and the world apart. If we had been dealing with these major issues since 1972, and during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the world would be in a better place.
In the film documentary, “From Selma to Stonewall - Are We There Yet?" *, one of the people whom we interviewed, Brad Braxton, former senior pastor of Riverside Church says, “The ‘Good Book’ is not always the good news." Bill Alberts reminds us of that as he and I and millions of persons within and beyond The United Methodist Church want us to proclaim and practice the "good news" of Scripture, rather than promote and exploit the less-than-good news of judgment we find in Scripture.
Doing that is "The Way Forward" for the UMC in the 21st century.
* "From Selma to Stonewall" was produced by Marilyn Bennett and Gil Caldwell.
UMNS File Photo by John C. Goodwin
The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell, a retired clergy member of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference is a national civil rights leader and founding member and past president of Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR). He organized the Reconciling Ministries' Network's extension ministry United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church (UMOC), an organization committed to the full inclusion of LGBT people in every aspect of church and society. His book, Something Within: Works by Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell, is available from Church Within a Church.